From Darkness to Light: Marc Fogel’s journey to freedom

Paula Reed Ward TribLive Fri, Feb 6, 2026 • 05:10 PM

Marc Fogel, here spending time just before Christmas at his Slippery Rock cottage, says he now finds pleasure in the simplest of things and sorrow in others. He calls it “boundless joy straitjacketed by the memories of the horror of going through it.” (Kristina Serafini | TribLive)

On Aug. 13, 2021, Marc and Jane Fogel pulled away from their white colonial-style home in Oakmont to drive to New York City.

There, they boarded a plane to Moscow to begin their final year teaching at the Anglo-American School, an elite institution built for the children of western diplomats.

But when the couple landed, Russian authorities detained Marc, seizing from him less than an ounce of marijuana he had been prescribed in Pittsburgh to alleviate severe back pain. A judge convicted Marc of drug smuggling and sentenced him to prison.

So began an excruciating ordeal that kept him in Russian custody for 1,277 days.

On Feb. 11, President Donald Trump’s administration secured Marc’s release and brought him home.

This is Marc’s story.