"I just really want them to know that I do love them and I forgive them"

In the CNN interview, Anita Smith cast her husband’s purpose in the North African country in religious terms.

“I just want them to know that God loves them and can forgive them for this … I don’t know them. That’s how I honestly feel,” she said.

“What I want people to know about him … he wanted to shine the light and the love of Jesus to the Libyan people … he really did,” she said.

Smith attended Woods-Tower High School in the Detroit area of the U.S. state of Michigan. He earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Texas in 2006 and belonged to a church in Austin, Texas.