Friend: Jill Carroll in Good Health

March 30, 2006 — -- A close friend of Jill Carroll said the American reporter seemed to be healthy and happy after being released from three months of captivity in Iraq.

"A couple of members of our bureau have seen her, and she seems to be happy and in good health," Jackie Spinner, a reporter for The Washington Post, told "Good Morning America." "Jill has spoken with her family. She's called her twin sister, Katie, and she's been in contact with several of her close friends in Iraq."

Carroll, who was working as a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped Jan. 7 and survived several deadlines calling for her execution.

Rajv Chandrasekaran, the assistant managing editor of the Post, said that Carroll had been able to contact the Post bureau after being dropped off at the office of a government party early this morning.

"She said that she was treated OK. She was never hit, never harmed," Chandrasekaran said. "She seemed to be in good condition."

Chandrasekaran said the timing of her release was still a mystery.

"There's been a whole slew of appeals for her release from political leaders in Iraq and religious," he said. "Literally from people from all walks of life, from all over the world."

Carroll's sister called for her release on television Wednesday, just hours before she was let go.

"They [family members] have clung to a sense of hope that Jill was going to make it out," Spinner said. "They knew she really connected with the Iraqi people, even with her kidnappers they felt she would be able to make a case with them to let her go. But you can't imagine what it must be like to see your daughter in that situation and know that kidnapping and beheading is the most pervasive fear that journalists have in Iraq."

As for Spinner, she was elated to hear the news.

"I didn't know whether to cry or skip down my street," Spinner said.

Spinner survived a kidnapping attempt while reporting in Iraq. She told "GMA" she expected Carroll to get right back to reporting.

"Jill is a very strong woman, gutsy enough to go to Iraq in the first place as a freelancer," Spinner said. "I think she's going to want to dig back in to her reporting."