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

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

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

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

The couple and a Haitian man they worked with were fatally shot by gang members in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince last week after they were attacked while leaving a youth group activity held at a local church.

The third victim was Judes Montis, a director at the missionary where the Lloyds worked. The 47-year-old left behind a wife, two children, ages 2 and 6, and a brother who was present the night that the killings occurred.

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

The slayings occurred as the capital crumbles under the relentless assault of violent gangs that control 80% of Port-au-Prince. Authorities are awaiting the arrival of a police force from Kenya as part of a U.N.-backed deployment aimed at quelling gang violence in the troubled Caribbean country.

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Davy Lloyd spent most of his life in Haiti, where his parents founded the non-profit organization Missions in Haiti. He was kidnapped, along with two of his sisters, at the age of 5, according to his obituary. They were released the next day.

“Having grown up in Haiti, Davy witnessed the Haitian people’s daily struggle for survival,” family wrote in his obituary. “He was able to relate to them which made him a great missionary to Haiti.”

After graduating college in Missouri and then marrying in 2022, the Lloyds moved to Haiti in 2023 to work at the mission.

Natalie Lloyd had a “nurturing spirit,” her obituary said. She cared for children in the mission’s orphanage and bonded with a boy who called her “momma.”

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

A visitation for the Lloyds is scheduled for Monday, and their funeral is set for Tuesday.

The funeral will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend. A family friend has said reporters are not allowed inside the church during the funeral or at the graveside service but may take photographs from outside.