Mourning came Tuesday at a packed memorial service for the daughter and her husband of Missouri Rep. Ben Baker, who was shot and killed while serving as a missionary in Haiti last month, with the congressman lamenting that he “never” thought this would happen to him.
Family members of Natalie Baker Lloyd, 21, and her husband, Davey Lloyd, 23, gathered for the 10 a.m. service at Bible Holiness Assembly of God Church in Neosho, Missouri.
“Thank you to everyone who came out here to honor Davey and Natalie. This all means a lot to us and to our family,” Natalie’s father, Missouri Congressman Ben Baker, said at the end of the service.
“When you dedicate your children to the Lord, you never think it’ll happen like this,” he added.
The crowded space was packed with flowers and photos of the couple, including several from their wedding ceremony at Bible Holiness less than two years ago.
Davey Lloyd grew up in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince, where his parents founded Mission in Haiti Inc. in 2000, his father, David Lloyd, told the Miami Herald days after the murder.
Lloyd was in the United States when gang members in a truck entered the compound, robbed it, then surrounded and shot Davie, Natalie and the mission’s Haitian director, Jude Monteith.
“I was on the phone with my son when it happened and he said, ‘Dad, there’s another commotion. I’ve got to go and see what’s going on,'” David Lloyd recalled the moment of chaos over the phone.
Video from the scene reviewed by The Wall Street Journal showed the bodies of Davey and Jude being burned.
Davey and Natalie’s bodies were finally returned to the United States a week after they were killed.
“A true hero’s welcome. God bless you all. There are not enough words to express how grateful I am,” Rep. Baker said. I wrote to X Crowds lined the streets of Neosho as the hearse passed by.
The couple married in June 2022 and moved to Haiti in January 2023 to serve as full-time missionaries, according to the obituary.
They last visited the US in January to celebrate Natalie’s sister’s wedding.
