Florida family visiting Haiti gets kidnapped, held for ransom
The couple was reportedly victim to a bus raid while leaving the nation’s capital city on March 18.
A husband and wife from South Florida have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom in Haiti, according to their family members.
As reported by CNN, 33-year-olds Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint remain captive after being abducted during a bus ride from Port-au-Prince on Saturday, March 18.
“Please share this and get the word out as much as you can,” reads a statement provided to the outlet from the couple’s family members. The statement said the family is wishing for the couple’s safe return “to their child and family.”
A woman who identified herself as the couple’s niece told CNN affiliate WPLG that Abigail and Jean-Dickens had traveled to Haiti for a festival and to see family members, but were victim to the bus raid while leaving the nation’s capital city.
“They stopped the bus at a stop and then asked for Americans to get off the bus and their escorts off the bus, and then they took them,” the woman, named Christie, told WPLG.
The outlet reports that the kidnappers initially demanded $6,000 to free the couple, but increased the price after the family paid.
“Once we sent that money, they tried to up the price to $200,000 per person and we don’t have that type of money,” Christie told WPLG.
In recent months, Port-au-Prince has increasingly been overtaken by violent gangs who now control approximately 60% of the city, per The Associated Press.
The violence, which so far has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands of local citizens, was sparked by the assasination of late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse at his home in July 2021, per the outlet.
CNN reports that Haitian authorities have not yet responded to the outlet’s request for comment regarding the kidnapping.
According to a spokesperson for the US State Department, officials are “aware of reports of two U.S. citizens missing in Haiti.”
The spokesperson told the outlet their procedure for locating domestic citizens missing in foreign countries, but did not provide specifics about the ongoing case.
“When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts, and we share information with families however we can,” the spokesperson said. “We have nothing further to share at this time.”
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