Elliotts return home safely after being trapped in Jerusalem during Middle East conflict
Commissioner Chris Elliott and his daughter, Riley Elliott, a senior at Central Davidson High School and an intern with Davidson Local, landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after Friday night after being stranded in Jerusalem during the rapidly evolving conflict in the Middle East.
Neighbors welcomed the family home with signs and messages of support placed outside their home, honoring their safe return after days of uncertainty.
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Chris and Riley Elliott had traveled to Israel on Feb. 25 as part of a church trip organized through Madison Heights Freewill Baptist Church in Lexington, where Chris serves as assistant youth pastor. The trip had been planned for more than a year as a celebration of Riley’s upcoming graduation.
Riley said she hoped the trip would include a deeply personal moment — being rebaptized in the Jordan River and crossing the Sea of Galilee.
Instead, two days into the journey, the region was thrust into war.
Early Saturday morning, joint U.S. and Israeli strikes targeted Iran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several other officials. Iran retaliated with missile strikes against Israel and several U.S. military bases in the region.
Chris said the sudden shift from pilgrimage to survival was something no parent expects.
“Nobody is prepared to be in a war zone and to hear bombs going off, especially when you have your 17-year-old daughter with you,” Chris said in an interview. “Our plans were to have a holy trip and to take her so I could baptize her in the Jordan River. Then two days into our majestic journey the war started.”
Chris and Riley were traveling with a group of 24 people, including members of their church and friends from Virginia. The group had just begun visiting biblical sites when they received their first warning.
“We were on our second day heading to the Sea of Galilee because we were going to take a boat trip across the sea,” Chris said in an interview. “Then our bus driver’s pager went off and all of our phones started going off saying ‘Missile Strike.’”
Their driver quickly turned the bus around and the group returned to their hotel in Magdala before making the decision to relocate to Jerusalem, where they believed they would have better access to secure shelter.
Once there, the reality of the situation became clear.
Sirens repeatedly sent hotel guests rushing to an underground bomb shelter. Chris said the moment it became most real was when Israeli Defense Forces soldiers stationed in the hotel began running for safety alongside them.
“The first time we did this we had 70 IDF soldiers stationed inside the hotel and they were running down the stairs with us,” Chris said in an interview. “That’s when it hit home — if the soldiers are running we better run.”
After several emergency alerts the group decided it would be safest to remain in the shelter overnight, building makeshift beds with sheets and chairs.
As airports across Israel shut down, the group feared they might be trapped in Jerusalem for weeks.
Back home in Davidson County, Riley’s mother Shannon Elliott turned to the community for help and prayers. In a plea published in Davidson Local, she asked residents to keep the group in their thoughts as they searched for a safe route out of the region.
Days later a plan finally emerged.
The group traveled by bus out of Jerusalem and crossed into Egypt, where they were able to secure flights back to the United States. After the long journey home they arrived Friday night at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
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Chris said the first thing he wanted to do was hug his family.
“When I see my wife and get to hug her… I have a disabled son so when I get to hug Mason when I get home and step my feet on the ground it’s going to mean the world to me,” he said.
Riley had a simpler request waiting for her after the ordeal.
Her one wish when she got back to North Carolina was a cold Cheerwine.
