Missouri lawmaker missionary daughter, son-in-law shot, bodies burned by Haiti gang

A US lawmaker revealed that his daughter and son-in-law, who both worked as missionaries, were killed by a gang in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince earlier this week.

Ben Baker, the Missouri House of Representatives member, confirmed that his daughter Natalie Lloyd, 21, and her 23-year-old husband Davy Lloyd, who died on Thursday, were full-time missionaries in Haiti. He said the bodies of his daughter and son-in-law had been safely brought to the US embassy.

According to Baker, Davy and Natalie were “attacked by gangs” in a shooting that took place in the Lizon area of Port-au-Prince.

He said that his heart was “broken in a thousand pieces”.

“I have never felt this kind of pain… Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. I have no other words for now,” he wrote on his Facebook post on Friday.

Davy Lloyd’s sister Hannah Cornett told The Associated Press she and her brother were raised in Haiti. She also said that Davy attended college in the US and married Natalie in 2022. The couple moved to Haiti to do humanitarian work, Cornett added.

The couple and a Haitian man, Jude Montis, who worked with them, were attacked by gang members while they were leaving a youth group activity held at a local church. They were kidnapped and taken to their house where they were shot dead.

Meanwhile, Davy’s father David Lloyd, was on the call with his son when he heard sounds of attackers creating chaos in the Lloyds’ house in Haiti.

“I was on the phone with my son when that was going down. He said, ‘Dad, we’ve got a commotion again. I’ve got to see what’s going on,'” said 48-year-old David, when a second gang barged into their house.

He said Davy was ambushed by “three pickup loads of guys that were waiting”, and that the gang “drugged him in the house, beat him, and tied him up, and began to loot the house”.

While the first gang members left, Montis, a father of two and the local director of a missionary group founded by Davy and his wife, tried to help. However, a second gang descended on the compound and showed up, resulting in gunfire, according to David.

“Davy, Natalie and Jude barricaded themselves in our home down there, but then the gangs just started shooting up the place, eventually busted the door down, and went in and shot them and killed them,” he was quoted by The New York Post as saying.

A video shared by the Wall Street Journal showed the burnt bodies of Davy and Jude. “I’m just at a total loss. I’m just in total shock. I haven’t grieved. I haven’t done anything else. I haven’t eaten. I can’t think,” David said.

Davy and Natalie were confident that they would be safe in Haiti, despite the country witnessing deadly gang violence since late February, he added.

In a statement to CBS News, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the two US citizens killed by gangs in Haiti.” Miller also said that the US ambassador to Haiti had been in touch with the families of the victims.

(with inputs from The Associated Press)