Person of the Week: Christian Pilet

Feb. 25, 2005 — -- After devastating tsunamis struck South Asia, Christian Pilet and his wife, both Baptist missionaries from Washington state, traveled to the region on behalf of their church to offer help.

Pilet's story begins on the beach at Khao Lak in Thailand.

"We were walking along and my friend Cameron kicked something with his foot, and he said, 'Look, it's a smashed digital camera.' It was obliterated. It was in very bad condition. Finding the camera seemed like a nonevent."

But Pilet was curious, so he took the camera's memory card back to his hotel and plugged it into his Palm Pilot. He found photos of a happy couple on vacation in Thailand, a beautiful day on the beach, and then what looked like a big wave forming out at sea and getting closer and closer.

"We were watching these pictures, seeing people living their lives, enjoying themselves, having a wonderful vacation," said Pilet. "And then it was as if we had picked up a tape recorder and heard somebody's last conversation and then it just ended suddenly."

Pilet took the pictures around to several embassies in Thailand; he thought the couple might be Swedish or German. Nobody was able to help.

He took the pictures home to Washington, and on the very first night he was home, his wife, Nicole, looked to see if the people in pictures matched any photos on the Internet. Many families had posted photographs of the missing.

"The very first image she clicked on, she said, 'This is the guy.' And I remember thinking when I was falling asleep from jet lag that there's no way you just turn on the Internet and, in just the first click or two, find the people," Pilet said.

But it was true. Nicole had discovered photos of John and Jackie Knill from Vancouver, British Colombia. Their three sons had been searching desperately and had posted their parents picture on the Internet.

So Pilet went to Vancouver.

"When I found out the camera was found and the memory card was readable my jaw just dropped," said Patrick Knill, one of the couple's sons. "I was like, 'No way. How can a camera in all that be found? It's like a needle in a haystack.' "