By: Mike Crooks
Loved ones are grieving after the shooting deaths of three missionaries in Haiti, including a young couple.
Key Points:
- Natalie and Davy Lloyd were murdered by a gang in Lizon on May 23, along with Jude Montis, the local director of Missions in Haiti.
- Haiti has had many challenges, but the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 plunged it into chaos.
- The investigation into the killings is ongoing, according to local police.
American married couple Natalie and Davy Lloyd were murdered by a gang in Lizon in northern Port-au-Prince on May 23, along with Jude Montis, the local director of Missions in Haiti.
The Lloyds were in the Hispaniola Island country with Missions in Haiti, a non-profit organisation founded by Davy’s parents David and Alicia Lloyd.
Davy, 23, had a “love for Haiti,” Mr Lloyd told CNN. “He used to tell us when he was little that someday he was going to be a missionary in Haiti.”
Natalie’s father, Ben Baker, who is a Missouri state representative, revealed his grief over his 21-year-old daughter’s death in a Facebook post.
“My heart is broken in a thousand pieces,” he said. “They went to Heaven together. Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well.”
Natalie and Davy Lloyd were murdered by a gang in Lizon on May 23, along with Jude Montis, the local director of Missions in Haiti.
The attack
According to Missions in Haiti, the Lloyds were ambushed as they left a church in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince on Thursday evening.
“Davy was taken to the house tied up and beat,” read a Missions in Haiti Facebook post.
Three hours later, the group confirmed that Davy, Natalie and Jude “were shot and killed by the gang about 9 o’clock this evening”.
“We all are devastated. Very scared”
In the intervening hours between the ambush and the killings, Davy desperately called his father. Davy explained to Mr Lloyd that armed men dragged him to the house where they tied him up and started “looting” the home, which belonged to the Mission.
“He was injured, and he was hurt,” Mr Lloyd told CNN. “He was nervous, and very, very scared. He was begging me to find someone to get in there and help him, and I did all I could but I couldn’t locate anybody.”
It is understood that at that time another gang arrived and began shooting at the house.
“Davy went in and barricaded himself in my personal home with his wife and Jude Montis,” said Mr Lloyd.
“The gang shot that place up until they got the door busted down and shot them, and set Davy and Jude on fire.”
The bodies have been reportedly taken to the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the two US citizens killed by gangs in Haiti,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, this serves as a reminder that the security situation in Haiti cannot wait – too many innocent lives are being lost.”
Haiti’s troubles
Though Haiti has had its many challenges since the devastating earthquake of 2010, it was the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 that plunged the country into chaos. Since then, the country has been plagued by gang violence.
According to UNICEF Australia, Port-au-Prince descended into complete chaos on March 3, “after armed groups pried open prisons, releasing thousands of inmates and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.”
In the midst of this, two out of three children are in need of humanitarian aid, according to UNICEF.
The Mission
It was the plight of Haiti’s children that inspired the founding of Missions in Haiti. Based in Oklahoma, the non-profit organisation has been working in the troubled country since 2000.
“We started Missions in Haiti in 2000 with the purpose of setting Haiti on a different course,” a Missions in Haiti statement read. “We aim to accomplish this by targeting the country’s biggest need—its children. Although the entire nation is steeped in poverty, the children suffer the worst.
“Thousands are malnourished, uneducated, and headed for hopeless lives apart from Christ.”
Hunting killers
The investigation into the killings is ongoing, according to local police.
“This is an open investigation, but we are sure we will arrest those involved,” police spokesperson Gary Desrosiers told CNN.
“For now, we’re working on protecting the public and the community while actively searching for the perpetrators.”
Article supplied with thanks to Hope Media.
Feature image: Natalie and Davy Lloyd, Photo from Facebook (Ben R Baker)