What we know about the young missionaries and religious leader killed in Haiti
The bodies of a young U.S. missionary couple who were attacked and shot dead by gang members in Haiti are expected to be transported to Missouri this week, a spokesman for the families said Sunday.
The murders of Davy and Natalie Lloyd and Jude Montis, the local director of a mission group, Missions in Haiti Inc., occurred Thursday in the community of Lizon in northern Port-au-Prince. They were leaving a youth group activity at a church, a family member told The Associated Press.
Natalie Lloyd is the daughter of Missouri State Representative Ben Baker.
Cassidy Anderson, speaking on behalf of the Lloyd and Baker families, said in a Facebook post on Baker’s page that transportation had been secured for the bodies’ arrival in Missouri on Thursday. But Anderson added that “security will be very difficult.”
Haiti’s capital is crumbling under the brutal onslaught of violent gangs who control 80% of Port-au-Prince, as authorities await the arrival of a police force from Kenya as part of a UN-backed deployment aimed at suppress gang violence in the restive areas. Caribbean country.
Here are some things to know about the missionary work, which focused on helping the children in Haiti, and the deadly gang attack.
Missions in Haiti’s website says the goal is “to see the Gospel of Christ make a difference in the lives of Haitian youth.”
Davy Lloyd’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd of Oklahoma, started the organization in 2000 to focus on the children of Haiti. David and Alicia Lloyd are full-time missionaries in the country.
“Although the entire country lives in poverty, children suffer the worst,” they wrote on the website. “Thousands are malnourished, uneducated and headed toward a hopeless life without Christ.”
Hannah Cornett, Davy’s sister, told AP that they grew up in Haiti. Davy went to the US to attend a Bible school and married Natalie in June 2022. After the wedding, the couple wasted little time moving to Haiti to do humanitarian work.
Cornett said Montis, a Haitian, has worked in missions in Haiti for 20 years.
The organization’s efforts include House of Compassion, which provides housing for 36 children — 18 boys and 18 girls, according to its website. “Everyone is destined to stay at House of Compassion until they finish school and are ready to live on their own.”
Good Hope Boys’ Home provides shelter for 22 boys, according to its website. The organization also built a church, a bakery and a school with more than 240 students.
A Facebook post on the Missions in Haiti page said Davy Lloyd, 23, and Natalie Lloyd, 21, along with several children, were leaving a church when gang members ambushed them in three trucks.
Davy Lloyd later called his family to tell them that gang members had hit him in the head with the barrel of a gun, forced him upstairs, stole their belongings and left him tied up, Cornett said.
As people helped untie Davy Lloyd, another group of armed men appeared, Cornett said.
“No one understood what they were doing, I wasn’t sure what happened, but one was shot and killed and now this gang was on full attack,” the Missions in Haiti post said.
The couple and Montis fled to a house connected to the mission.
“They tried to take cover there, but the gang shot the house on fire,” Cornett said.
Cornett said Montis left behind two children, ages 2 and 6.
Montis’ family could not be reached for comment Friday and missions in Haiti did not respond to an AP request for comment.
Missions in Haiti said in a Facebook post on Saturday that they were “facing the most difficult time of our lives.”
“The embassy is working to get all the paperwork done so they can be flown to the United States and much more behind the scenes to make that happen faster and more safely,” the post said, adding that the children and staff of the missions in Haiti have been moved to a more secure location.
Baker, Natalie Lloyd’s father and a Republican state representative in Missouri, said on Facebook on Friday that the couple’s bodies had been safely transported to the U.S. Embassy. Throughout the weekend, Baker’s Facebook page provided updates on efforts to arrange transportation to Missouri.
On Sunday, Anderson wrote on behalf of the families that the plans had been confirmed and that transport had been secured.
Baker wrote on Facebook in the early hours of Friday that his heart had been “broken into a thousand pieces.”
“I’ve never felt such pain,” he said. “Most of you know that my daughter and son-in-law, Davy and Natalie Lloyd, are full-time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by mobs tonight and were both killed. They went to heaven together. Please pray for my family, we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. For now I have no other words.”
Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, urged President Joe Biden in a letter on Sunday to ensure adequate security measures are in place to safely return the bodies to the US, citing “anarchic” conditions in the gang-ridden Port-au-Prince.
“Haitian gangs are heavily armed and can delay or even hijack the vehicles carrying the Lloyds’ bodies,” Hawley wrote. “I must emphasize the critical importance of sufficient security personnel to protect the transport during the journey to its final point of departure.”
The White House did not immediately comment on Hawley’s request.
On Saturday, the families received condolences from former President Donald Trump, who spoke at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., calling it a “very, very sad moment.”
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Associated Press writer Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri, contributed.