WASHINGTON (CN) - The first time Otto Warmbier's family saw him after he returned to the United States following 18 months as a North Korean hostage, he was strapped to a gurney on a plane, thrashing and making a "guttural howling" sound.
Otto's mother and sister ran from the plane, while his father and younger brother stayed behind. The man on the gurney was not the high school prom king and salutatorian they had raised and grown up with.
Cynthia Warmbier, his mother, said Wednesday his eyes reminded her of pictures she had seen of Holocaust victims.
"We were all, I think, scared of Otto," she said in Washington, D.C., federal court on Wednesday. "He was a monster. Our beautiful boy, turned into this monster."
During a hearing that lasted more than four hours on Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell heard testimony from members of Warmbier’s family about his life and their experience since his death in June 2017 from severe brain damage he suffered in North Korean custody. Two North Korea experts also testified about the country's typical treatment of people it holds in custody.
Cynthia and Fred Warmbier, the former hostage’s parents, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea in April, seeking to recover damages for his death.
North Korea has not entered an appearance in the case and the Warmbiers have filed for default judgment, setting up Wednesday's evidentiary hearing. North Korea has publicly said Warmbier contracted botulism, but doctors have disputed that diagnosis.
Benjamin Hatch, an attorney with the firm McGuire Woods who represents the family, said doctors believe that in order to suffer the type of brain damage Warmbier did, something would have needed to stop blood flow to his brain for between five and 20 minutes.
Warmbier's parents, as well as his brother Austin and sister Greta, described him as a warm, caring person who was part of a loving family and had many friends.
"I had a superhero for a big brother," Austin Warmbier said from the witness stand at Wednesday's hearing.
About 20 family members were in the gallery of the second-floor courtroom, joined by roughly 10 of Warmbier’s friends from the University of Virginia and a handful of high school and family friends. They cried throughout the hearing.
North Korean authorities took the then-21-year-old Warmbier captive on Jan. 2, 2016, when he was preparing to leave the country with his tour group. He embarked on the tour while traveling in Asia ahead of a study-abroad program in Hong Kong.
Fred Warmbier told Judge Howell on Wednesday he first knew something was wrong when his son did not call home the day his tour group was to arrive back in China. The Warmbiers eventually got word from the tour company that their son had been detained. The group insisted there was nothing to worry about and that the company's president was in North Korea with their son.
That changed just days later, when the tour company told the family its president was back in China and that Warmbier’s situation was out of their control. His father testified Wednesday he was "terrified" when he heard the news.
The State Department got in touch with the Warmbiers shortly after, and on Jan. 22, North Korea announced Otto had been arrested for crimes against the state.
Even after the country publicly acknowledged it had taken a U.S. citizen, the State Department cautioned the Warmbiers against saying anything publicly, especially anything that could be seen as a slight against the reclusive regime.