Florida couple has been kidnapped in Haiti and stay held at ransom, household says | CNN

CNN
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A Florida couple has been kidnapped in Haiti and stays captive beneath ransom calls for, relations say, who’re asking for assist and pressuring US officers to search out them.

Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, each 33, have been kidnapped on March 18 round Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, in accordance with a press release from their households offered to CNN.

“Please share this and get the phrase out as a lot as you may,” the assertion says, hoping the 2 return protected “to their baby and household.”

A US State Division spokesperson informed CNN they’re “conscious of stories of two U.S. residents lacking in Haiti.”

“When a U.S. citizen is lacking, we work intently with native authorities as they perform their search efforts, and we share info with households nonetheless we will,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We’ve got nothing additional to share right now.”

The couple went to Haiti to go to household and to attend a pageant however have been kidnapped on their bus experience from Port-au-Prince, in accordance with a lady named Christie, claiming to be the victims’ niece.

“They stopped the bus at a cease after which requested for People to get off the bus and their escorts off the bus, after which they took them,” she informed CNN affiliate WPLG.

The abductors requested for $6,000 for the couple’s launch, however after their household paid, they requested for more cash, WPLG stories.

“As soon as we despatched that cash, they tried to up the value to $200,000 per individual and we don’t have that sort of cash,” Christie informed WPLG.

CNN has reached out to authorities in Haiti for extra info however has not acquired a response.