Remains of US missionaries killed by criminal gang members in Haiti returned to family

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (AP) — The bodies of a young U.S. missionary couple killed by gang members in Haiti’s capital were released to their family in Missouri on Friday.

The parents of 21-year-old Natalie Lloyd announced on Facebook the arrival of the remains of their daughter and son-in-law, 23-year-old Davy Lloyd, at Kansas City airport.

“Praise be to God!” Ben and Naomi Baker wrote in the post.

The couple and a Haitian man they were working with were shot dead by gang members in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, last week after they were attacked as they left a youth group event at a local church.

The third victim was Judes Montis, a director of the mission station where the Lloyds worked. The 47-year-old left behind a wife, two children aged 2 and 6, and a brother who was present on the night of the murders.

Hundreds of people crowded into a sweltering church in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to mourn Montis.

The killings came as the capital crumbles under relentless attacks from violent gangs who control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. Authorities are awaiting the arrival of a police force from Kenya as part of a United Nations-backed operation to quell gang violence in the troubled Caribbean country.

Davy Lloyd spent most of his life in Haiti, where his parents founded the nonprofit organization Missions in Haiti. According to his obituary, he was kidnapped at the age of five along with two of his sisters. They were released the next day.

“Davy grew up in Haiti and witnessed the daily struggle for survival of Haitians,” his family wrote in his obituary. “He was able to empathize with them, which made him a great missionary in Haiti.”

After graduating from college in Missouri and getting married in 2022, the Lloyds moved to Haiti in 2023 to work in the mission.

Natalie Lloyd had a “caring spirit,” her obituary said. She cared for children at the mission’s orphanage and formed a bond with a boy who called her “Mama.”

“Natalie had a mother’s heart and loved the children at the orphanage in Haiti from the moment she first traveled there before her marriage to Davy,” her obituary said.

A memorial service for the Lloyds is planned for Monday, and their funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.

For those unable to attend, the funeral will be livestreamed. A family friend said reporters will not be allowed into the church during the funeral or memorial service, but will be allowed to take photos from outside.