CNN
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A Florida couple has been kidnapped in Haiti and stay captive underneath ransom calls for, members of the family say, who’re asking for assist and pressuring US officers to search out them.
Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, each 33, had been kidnapped on March 18 round Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, in line with a press release from their households supplied to CNN.
“Please share this and get the phrase out as a lot as you possibly can,” the assertion says, hoping the 2 return secure “to their little one and household.”
A US State Division spokesperson instructed CNN they’re “conscious of stories of two U.S. residents lacking in Haiti.”
“When a U.S. citizen is lacking, we work carefully with native authorities as they perform their search efforts, and we share info with households nevertheless we are able to,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Now we have nothing additional to share presently.”
The couple went to Haiti to go to household and to attend a pageant however had been kidnapped on their bus trip from Port-au-Prince, in line with a lady named Christie, claiming to be the victims’ niece.
“They stopped the bus at a cease after which requested for Individuals to get off the bus and their escorts off the bus, after which they took them,” she instructed CNN affiliate WPLG.
The abductors requested for $6,000 for the couple’s launch, however after the household paid, the abductors raised the ransom, 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 instructed WPLG.
CNN has reached out to authorities in Haiti for extra info however has not obtained a response.