Friends grew concerned when Craig suddenly stopped responding to messages earlier this year. The North Korea expert and former U.N. official regularly traveled to China for his work as an environmental consultant, and some feared Beijing had detained him. Others suspected a health scare. His wife only told friends and family that he was OK but couldn’t be contacted.

Now it turns out that Craig, whom friends described as a kind and funny person with a deep interest in improving the lives of North Koreans, was in a Swiss prison the whole time.