A Broward couple who had been kidnapped in Haiti last month have been freed, family members said.
Jean-Dickens Toussaint and wife Abigail Michael Toussaint were released Thursday, family members confirmed. The couple was hoping to return to their home in Tamarac by Saturday, the family members added.
The couple, both 33, and a third person traveling with them had been kidnapped on March 18 in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Nikese Toussaint, the sister of Jean-Dickens, said they had gone to Haiti to visit ailing relatives and prepare for Rara, a music festival that usually takes place during Easter week.
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She said her brother, an accountant; his wife, a social worker; and another person had been snatched off a public bus amid a surge in gang-related kidnappings.
The gangs apparently noticed the suitcases in the bus and zeroed in on the couple and the person accompanying them on the trip, Nikese Toussaint said.
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The gang that kidnapped them had demanded $200,000 each for their release, Nikese Toussaint said.
The family paid someone they trusted $6,000 to give to the gang, but the money vanished. It's not unusual for gangs in Haiti to refuse to release kidnapping victims even after they've been paid, but Toussaint believes it was a scam.
She said the family had also been receiving help from the FBI.
The kidnappings are the latest to target U.S. citizens, although most victims are Haitian, ranging from wealthy business owners to humble street vendors. At least 101 kidnappings were reported in the first two weeks of March alone, with another 208 people killed in gang clashes during that period, according to the U.N.
The ongoing violence in Port-au-Prince and beyond also has displaced at least 160,000 people as warring gangs set fire to neighborhoods in their bid to control more territory.
