A suspect has been arrested in Haiti for the brutal shooting deaths of a Missouri politician’s daughter and son-in-law alongside the director of a missionary they were working for, police announced this week.
Bénicé Célestin, 52, was arrested this week in connection with the deadly May 23 ambush on the Missions in Haiti Inc. campus in northern Port-au-Prince, the Haitian National Police said Wednesday while releasing a video of him in custody.
Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker also announced the arrest in the murders of his daughter Natalie Baker Lloyd, 21, and her husband, Davy Lloyd, 23.
Both were killed alongside Missions in Haiti Inc.’s director, Jude Montis, in the shooting spree by alleged gang members.
Célestin used Davy Lloyd’s phone SIM card the day after the murders, the local outlet Vant Bèf Info reported, citing local authorities.
Célestin denied having any involvement in the ambush, according to the police video.
Arrests in high-profile cases are rare in Haiti.
The video shared by the police suggested that the investigation remains ongoing.
Missions in Haiti Inc. was run by Davy Lloyd’s parents. His father, David Lloyd, said on Thursday that he had not been informed of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.
Natalie and Davy Lloyd lived in Haiti as full-time missionaries. They were set to celebrate their two-year wedding anniversary in June.
“They loved the Haitian people and were dedicated to that country,” David Lloyd said of his young son and daughter-in-law.
Natalie Lloyd frequently shared updates about the couple’s life in Haiti on her Instagram, which featured several photos of smiling kids from the mission’s children’s home.
David Lloyd previously recalled how his son called him on the night of the attack to say that the gangs that overran most of Port-au-Prince had breached the mission gates and looted the compound.
Davy, Natalie, and Jude Montis took shelter in the Lloyds’ house, but the gang members broke in and shot all three, the elder Lloyd explained.
About 100 gang members were believed to have participated in the ambush, David Lloyd said.
David Lloyd traveled from Haiti to Oklahoma just one day before the attack – leaving his son and daughter-in-law to look after the church, children’s home, and mission bakery.
The couple was confident that they would be safe, despite the eruption of gang violence that has overrun most of the island nation since last winter.
The mission compound has been closed since the killings – marking the first time in 26 years that the operation has not been running, David Lloyd said this week.
The children have been relocated to a safer community, he added.
“There are too many gangs in the area,” he lamented. “The country as a whole seems hopeless.”
Between January and May, there were over 3,200 reported killings across Haiti, with gang violence leaving more than half a million people homeless, according to the United Nations.
The violence kicked up a notch in February, when gangs launched coordinated attacks on major government infrastructure, raided police stations and opened fire at the main international airport.
Gunmen also stormed into Haiti’s two largest prisons and freed thousands of inmates.
A UN-backed police force from Kenya arrived in Haiti in June – nearly two years after the Haitian government requested the urgent deployment of foreign forces.
With Post wires
