John and Lorraine Nicolai were at their Bismarck home watching a college basketball game on television Saturday afternoon when they received a phone call that led to more than 20 hours of worry.

At about 5:30 p.m. the couple's son, David, called from Racine County, Wis., with news that his wife of four months, Teri Sue Jendusa-Nicolai, 38, and her two children, Amanda, 6, and Holly Ann, 4, were missing and likely had been kidnapped.

The ordeal ended Sunday afternoon when Wheeling, Ill., police discovered Jendusa-Nicolai in a storage unit rented by her ex-husband, David Michael Larsen, 39. Jendusa-Nicolai was severely beaten with a baseball bat and jammed into a plastic garbage can, Wheeling Deputy Chief John Stone said.

"We were shocked when we heard about it," said John Nicolai, former pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck. "What do you do at a time like that?"

He and his wife primarily waited by the phone at their Bismarck home after receiving the initial call from their son. The follow-up calls were few and the Bismarck couple didn't dare call back because authorities wanted the phone line open.

One of the first indications of the kidnapping came around noon Saturday when David Nicolai received a call from his wife in which she said she believed she was being abducted by Larsen. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department also received a cell phone call around the same time from Jendusa-Nicolai. She said she was tied up in the back of her ex-husband's truck but didn't know her location.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, John and Lorraine Nicolai received a second call from their son. He said that Larsen had been arrested.

Police staked out Palwaukee Municipal Airport in Wheeling, where Larsen works as an air traffic controller, and arrested him at about 6 p.m. when he showed up for work, Stone said. Larsen told authorities where the children were but offered no information about the whereabouts of Jendusa-Nicolai.

David Nicolai called his parents again at 9 p.m. with news that the children were found safe at a baby sitter's home in Illinois. The children are staying with family members who live in the area.

"We were praying that she would be found alive, but as time went on, like everybody else including the authorities, we thought she may have been killed …," John Nicolai said.

The Nicolais received news of their daughter-in-law's recovery when David Nicolai called again at 1:40 p.m. Sunday, about an hour after his wife was found by Wheeling police.

Stone said the Racine County Sheriff's Department called the Wheeling Police Department after they learned that Larsen was renting space in a storage facility. A facility manager checked out the locked storage space and heard muffled sounds coming from inside.

Wheeling police kicked down the door and discovered Jendusa-Nicolai in a garbage can beneath a pile of boxes. The storage unit was about 20 degrees when police found Jendusa-Nicolai, but Stone said overnight temperatures dipped to about 17 degrees. Stone didn't know how long Jendusa-Nicolai was trapped inside but said it was likely sometime before Larsen was arrested, about 19 hours earlier.

"She was definitely being left for dead," Stone said.

Jendusa-Nicolai was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Illinois where she is in stable condition.

John and Lorraine Nicolai said they're waiting for the opportune time to make the trip to Wisconsin.

"If we can be of any help we'll go down," John Nicolai said.

John Nicolai said they met Jendusa-Nicolai in 2001 when she came to Bismarck for their 50th wedding anniversary. They described her as a "great gal, upbeat and bubbly."

David Nicolai grew up in Bismarck and graduated from Bismarck High School in 1980, Bismarck State College in 1982 and the University of North Dakota in 1984. He moved to Racine County after graduation where he works for General Electric upgrading hospital equipment.

David Nicolai and Jendusa-Nicolai met while singing for the Milwaukee Bel Canto Chorus. They dated for about two years and were married in October.

John Nicolai said he and wife had never met Larsen. Larsen and Jendusa-Nicolai divorced about four years ago.

Larsen faces state and federal charges in connection with the kidnapping and is being held in a Milwaukee federal detention center.

Milwaukee Assistant U.S. Attorney Mario Gonzales said Larsen was charged Monday with kidnapping, which is a federal felony "punishable by life in prison." A bond hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Larsen also was charged in Racine County with attempting to kill Jendusa-Nicolai, kidnapping his ex-wife and intentionally concealing the children, according to court documents. Larsen faces a maximum of 135 years imprisonment on the state charges.

(Reach reporter Mike Albrecht at 250-8261 or cops@ndonline.com.)