A Florida couple is being held at ransom in Haiti after they were kidnapped from a bus a week ago, family members said.
The terrifying moment happened when Jean-Dickens Toussaint and his wife, Abigail Toussaint, went to Haiti to visit ailing relatives, ABC News reported.
According to the couple’s family, the pair were kidnapped on Saturday while traveling on a bus from Port-au-Prince.
A relative named Christie said a family friend who met the couple at the airport to escort them was also kidnapped.
“They stopped the bus at a stop and they asked for the Americans on the bus and their escorts to come off the bus and then they took them,” Christie told WPLG.
Nikese Toussaint, the sister of Jean Dickens Toussaint, told ABC News that the kidnappers initially demanded $6,000 for the couple’s release. However, the price went up to $200,000 per person after they sent the money, family members said.
“We don’t have that type of money,” Christie told WPLG.
Nikese Toussaint said the family has reached out to the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Although the U.S. Department of State did not confirm a kidnapping, the agency said it is “aware of reports of two U.S. citizens missing in Haiti.”
The couple have a 1-year-old son, but he is now with them as he is staying with a relative.
