Lawrence resident Don Schaake is resting a little easier now that he knows his son was not among the four American civilian contractors whose bodies were desecrated Wednesday in Fallujah, Iraq.

A family member forwarded Schaake an e-mail Thursday from his son, Kurt Schaake. The e-mail said Kurt Schaake, also a civilian contractor, is now in Baghdad, about 35 miles east of Fallujah in the Sunni Triangle. When photos and footage of Iraqi insurgents dragging bodies through the streets reached Schaake’s television Wednesday, Don Schaake hadn’t heard whether his son was safe. Schaake had assumed so, because he last heard his son was in the friendlier Kurdish territory of northern Iraq.

Kurt Schaake, 48, is scheduled to return in May from Iraq to celebrate one daughter’s birthday and another’s high school graduation.