Two years after she was kidnapped by Taliban insurgents while working on a documentary in Pakistan, there are unconfirmed reports B.C. freelance journalist Beverly Giesbrecht has died.

The former West Vancouver resident converted to Islam and adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The 57-year-old was gathering video material in a border region of northwest Pakistan when she, her local translator and a guide were abducted at gunpoint in November 2008.

Her kidnappers, originally asking for $2 million, quickly dropped their price to $250,000 after repeated attempts to collect failed.

Unconfirmed media reports issued this week by the Indian Express newspaper say she died after losing a battle with a prolonged illness while in the confinement of her captors.

Longtime friend Glen Cooper told ctvbc.ca that his gut feeling is that the reports are true.

"Her health was bad going in and it got worse during the initial stages, so I feel that the story is quite plausible," Cooper said.

The last time Cooper spoke with Giesbrecht was in August 2009. He said she sounded stronger than previous conversations, but very tired and anxious.

"She was supposed to get back to us but she never did and the very last thing I said to her on that call was that I loved her. I don't know why, but I'm glad that I did," Cooper said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs repeatedly told news outlets they were working with Pakistani authorities to secure her release after her abduction.

In an emailed statement Thursday, spokeswoman Lisa Monette said the department is aware of the media reports about her death.

"We will not comment or release any information which may compromise ongoing efforts and endanger the safety of the individual involved," she said.

Giesbrecht's captors released a video in March 2009 that showed an emotional and scared-looking hostage, then a reported 95 pounds, pleading for her life. She told the camera she believed she would be murdered unless her ransom was paid.

"I'm going to be killed. I'm going to be beheaded by the end of the month," she said in the video.

In the late 1980s, Giesbrecht worked in sales for future Vancouver mayoral candidate Peter Ladner's Business in Vancouver, before buying the publication.

She later developed a magazine called Venture Quest. After converting to Islam after 2001, she moved on to focus her efforts on the website jihadunspun.com, what a friend described as "an alternative source of news on the Islamic world."

She travelled to Pakistan several times to tell stories that some have criticized as being pro-Taliban.

"She had become very interested in Muslim and Islamic issues and was publishing in that whole arena," Peter Ladner told CTV News in 2009. "This is distressing."

She has a daughter, Melanie, but they have been estranged since the early 1990s.

Giesbrecht is one of three Canadian journalists kidnapped in the recent years. Freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout was held captive in Somalia for almost 15 months before being released in 2009, and CBC journalist Mellissa Fung was released after being held for 28 days in Afghanistan in 2008.