A Florida couple visiting Haiti is kidnapped by a gang demanding $200,000 for their safe return
A Florida couple visiting Haiti was kidnapped nearly an hour after landing when their captors demanded $200,000 for their safe return.
Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, both 33, were captured on March 18 by a local gang, who, according to their family, stopped their bus in Port-au-Prince and demanded all Americans get off.
The couple’s grieving family warned them to stay away from the country overrun by political unrest and gangs.
“We were very concerned when they said they were going, we told them not to go, but they wanted to go,” family member Nikese Toussaint told me. ABC7.
A friend of the family who traveled with them from the airport to the nearby town of Leogan was also taken.
Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, both 33, were taken by a Haitian gang while on a bus in Port-au-Prince on March 18. In the photo: the couple with their one-year-old son
The couple’s grieving family warned them to stay away from the country overrun by political unrest and gangs
On the day the pair went missing, they sent a message to their family at around 8:55 a.m. local time, according to ABC7, saying they had landed safely. They never sent an update again.
The couple’s captors initially asked the family for $6,000 for their return before increasing the amount to $200,000.
“We don’t have that kind of money,” Christie Desormes, their niece, told WPLG.
It is unclear how the kidnappers communicated with the family.
The couple shares a one-year-old son who has stayed with relatives in the US. He currently resides with his family.
The Toussaints may miss their son’s second birthday on March 28.
“It’s a lot of emotions, it’s devastating, you feel angry that it happened and then at the same time you feel numb because it doesn’t feel real,” Desormes shared. NBC.
Desormes started a petition on Change.org to get the attention of politicians who can help bring her aunt and uncle home.
They are American citizens. They are parents. They are siblings. They are my family. They are loved and, above all, they are people who desperately need your help,” Desormes wrote.
By Sunday, nearly 4,500 signatures had been collected.
On the day the couple went missing, they sent word to their family at around 8:55 a.m. local time that they had landed safely. They never sent an update again
The couple’s captors initially asked the family for $6,000 for their return, before increasing the amount to $200,000
It is unclear how the family came into contact with the gang that took the couple. In the photo: civilians in Haiti
The couple shares a one-year-old son who has stayed with relatives in the US. He is currently staying with his family
The couple will likely miss their son’s second birthday on March 28 if they don’t return home in time. In the photo: Abigail Toussaint
The family is working with US authorities to bring the couple home.
“If a U.S. citizen goes missing, we work closely with local authorities on their search, and we share information with families where we can,” the U.S. State Department wrote in a statement.
No additional information was provided.
In 2021, the kidnapping of 17 missionaries in Haiti made national headlines. The group of 12 adults and five minors traveled to the country with Ohio-based organization Christian Aid Ministries (CAM).
They were kidnapped and held hostage in October 2021 until their courageous escape two months later in December.
Their family started a petition on Change.org to get the attention of politicians to help them get home
.