Collett was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1985 during the peak of the civil war and was reported to have been killed a year later.

Sixty-four years old at the time, he was on assignment in refugee camps for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) near Beirut airport when taken hostage.

Fatah-Revolutionary Council, a militant Palestinian group better known as the Abu Nidal Organization, claimed responsibility for the abduction and killing.