Three people, including a young married missionary couple, were terrorized, shot, and killed at about 9 p.m. on May 23, at the Haiti mission where they served, Missions in Haiti Inc.
David “Davy” Lloyd, Natalie Baker Lloyd, and Jude Montis, the mission’s school director, have been reported dead.
Ms. Lloyd is the daughter of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker. Mr. Lloyd is the son of David and Alicia Lloyd, who started the mission in 2000. Both the Lloyd and Baker families confirmed their deaths on social media.
Mr. Baker reported on social media later in the day that the families had received confirmation that the young couple’s bodies had been safely transported to the U.S. Embassy, which he described as “a huge answer to prayer” for the family.
Ambushed
David and Alicia Lloyd, who operate the mission, had recently flown to the United States, which is where they were when they received frantic news out of Haiti, described on the mission’s social media.
According to the post, Mr. Davy Lloyd was taken to the house, tied up, and beaten. The gang then took the mission’s trucks and loaded them with everything they wanted and left.
Another gang arrived, allegedly it seemed to offer help.
“No one understood what they were doing, not sure what took place but one was shot and killed and now this gang went into full attack mode. Davy, Natalie and Jude was in my house at the end of the property using the star link internet to call me,” the post said. “So they are holed up in there, the gangs has shot all the windows out of the house and continue to shoot. Their lives are in danger.”
It is unclear who wrote this post for Missions in Haiti. The Epoch Times has asked for clarification.
The post goes on, “I have been trying all my contacts to get a police armored car there to evacuate them out to safety but can’t get anyone to do. I also am trying to negotiate with the gang so how much money to stand down and let them leave and get to safety. Please pray.”
Then, the post said, the phones died and they could not reach anyone at the mission for hours.
Four hours later, a short post appeared.
“Davy and Natalie and Jude were shot and killed by the gang about 9 o'clock this evening. We all are devastated.”
The Epoch Times asked the State Department for any information it may have.
“On behalf of the President, our Ambassador in Haiti is in touch with the families who we know are experiencing unimaginable grief. Our Embassy is ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” the State Department said in an email. “Unfortunately, this serves as a reminder that the security situation in Haiti cannot wait – too many innocent lives are being lost.”
Humanitarian Crisis
Missions in Haiti serves impoverished children. It supports a school with more than 240 students, operates the House of Compassion where children can live full time, and opened and operated the Good Hope Boys home for boys who have lost everything.They offer a children’s church program for the community and opened a bakery to employ young adults who have aged out of their children’s program. The bakery sells bread to the public and feeds the children who live there.
Missions in Haiti is located in Bon Repos, a densely populated area near Port-au-Prince, where gang activity has been disruptive in recent weeks and months.
The Epoch Times asked for comment from the Baker and Lloyd families.
Newsletters from the mission’s website offer a glimpse of the conditions where they serve.
“Things here in Haiti today aren’t good. Wicked gangs control an estimated 60 percent of Haiti and there is not a functioning government. The nation of Haiti is in total anarchy. These gangs murder, rape, steal and destroy at will. The distribution of food and fuel are controlled by gangs and there are very serious shortages of both food and fuel,” the elder Mr. David Lloyd wrote in December 2022.
He said Haiti was one of five nations in the world in a famine. People are starving as sources for food and medical aid disappeared.
In May 2023, the newsletter said the humanitarian crisis in Haiti had worsened.
“Gangs have taken control of even more area in, and around Port au Prince. Thousands more people have been killed, kidnapped and/or displaced. The stories we hear daily really tear at our hearts and we are overwhelmed by the unimaginable needs and problems that the Haitian people are forced to live with every day,” the newsletter said. “Please help us pray that outside help for Haiti will come very soon, I don’t know how much longer the Haitian people can live with this terrible lawlessness, famine and stress.”
In a 2024 newsletter, Mr. Lloyd said the mission was forced to close its school in February for two weeks due to a gun battle between two rival gangs that were fighting for control of an area near the mission compound.
“We heard that one of the gangs killed every male they encountered during that battle and there are reports that hundreds of men were killed,” the newsletter said.
