Hundreds of people gathered in a steamy church in Haiti’s capital on Tuesday to mourn Jude Monteith, a mission director killed by gang members who also shot and killed an American couple with whom he was working.
Wailing echoed through the packed church and tears streamed down Monteith’s wife’s face during the early morning service, which also remembered the lives of Davey and Natalie Lloyd, a couple in their early 20s who were with Monteith when a gunman attacked them Thursday night as they were leaving a youth group activity at a local church.
American missionary killed by Haitian gang ‘gave everything’ to people there, family says
Monteith, 47, leaves behind a wife and two children, aged two and six, and a brother who was at the scene the night of the murder.
“We will never forget you and the path you created for others!” one mourner yelled as the crowd, dressed in black and white, made their way from the church to the cemetery.
A funeral procession heads to the cemetery for Jude Monteith, a missionary director killed by gangs, following his funeral in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The funeral also remembered the lives of Davey and Natalie Lloyd, a couple in their early 20s who were with Monteith when they were ambushed by gunmen on the evening of Thursday, May 23, as they returned home from a youth group activity at a local church. (AP Photo/Odeline Joseph)
The ceremony came days after three people were killed in a gang-controlled area north of Port-au-Prince. Monteith worked as field director for Oklahoma-based Haiti Missions, the religious organization founded by Davey Lloyd’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd.
“We are going through the most difficult time of our lives,” Mission in Haiti wrote on Facebook recently. “We thank you for your prayers and support.”
Monteith’s brother, Esuaue Monteith, 43, who teaches Spanish at the mission, told The Associated Press he was nearby when the shooting occurred and saw the gunmen arrive, block the gate with a truck and flee with several orphans and staff members.
The group broke up, and when Esuaue Monteith jumped over a wall he was met by a group of armed men who threw him to the ground and stomped on him. One gunman asked those around him if they knew him, while another said, “He works at an orphanage. Kill him.”
At that moment, his cell phone rang. It was the friend he had called earlier in a panic to tell him the situation.
“This call will either save you or kill you,” one gunman told Monteith as he ordered him to answer the phone, he recalled.
His friend lied and told the men that Esauer Monteith did not work at the orphanage.
“He gave me back my phone and left,” Monteith said of the shooter.
He has not returned to the school where he worked and is now trying to get out of Haiti.
“How can I continue working at the orphanage without Iude by my side,” Esauer Monteith said in tears. “My brother always checked on me. When I went out in the afternoon, he called me and asked: ‘Brother, where are you?'”
Monteith added that the mission had never been threatened and that gang members in the area had only occasionally asked for small amounts of charity.
Jude Monteith was buried in Port-au-Prince, but the Haitian Mission said the U.S. embassy was working to obtain the necessary paperwork to airfreight the Lois and Royce’s bodies to the United States and had moved staff to a safer location.
Family spokeswoman Cassidy Anderson posted on Facebook on Tuesday that the “transport is completely safe,” but said the information would not be released due to safety concerns.
Natalie Lloyd, 21, is the daughter of Missouri Congressman Ben Baker, who posted on Facebook that he had spoken to former US President Donald Trump by phone on Monday and that he had offered his condolences.
“He said he was very sorry that this tragedy had happened to our children and spoke of how amazing their mission and dedication to the Haitian people had been,” Baker wrote.
Davey Lloyd’s sister, Hannah Cornett, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, recalled growing up in Haiti because his parents were full-time missionaries and how her brother learned Creole before he spoke English.
Her parents ran an orphanage, school and church in Haiti, and she said she and her siblings grew up among orphans.
Cornett said that on the night of the murder, three cars carrying gang members pulled over Lloyd and Monteith, beat the 23-year-old brother at gunpoint, tied him up in his home and stole his belongings. As people were helping free Davey Lloyd, another gunman showed up and an unidentified person was shot, she said.
Gunmen then opened fire on the Lloyds and Monteiths as they tried to hide in her parents’ home and set their bodies on fire, she said.
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Haiti’s national police, in an unusual statement, condemned the murder, offered condolences to the victims’ families and vowed to catch the culprits.
But police departments are chronically understaffed and under-resourced, meaning arrests of Haitian gangs involved in high-profile kidnappings and murders are rare. Gangs control at least 80 percent of Haiti’s capital, and violence in the country continues unabated amid yet another delay in the deployment of UN-backed Kenyan police.
