CNN’s Christiane Amanpour reports on the unconfirmed reports from Haiti that a U.S. missionary couple has been released from captivity and are in good health.
More information to come.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Two American missionaries who were kidnapped in Haiti on Tuesday are now safe, family members tell CNN.
Kaycee Cook and Paul Brantley, from Edmond, Oklahoma, were kidnapped from their home church in Haiti Tuesday evening. Four gunmen entered the men’s home as they slept. Cook’s two daughters, ages 10 and 6, and their mother were in the house at the time but all were unharmed.
Mark Arnold, Brantley’s brother, told CNN he heard that the missionaries were “on the move” and that his brother had called in a text message that morning. He said he had heard the missionaries were with a group of nuns and was not sure where they were being held or what their conditions were.
Wednesday night, Arnold learned that Brantley and Cook had been released. He was able to track the nuns who alerted him.
Brantley’s daughter, Savannah, thanked on social media “all of the people who have prayed for Kaycee and Paul and all of the ones who have come together to do anything they can to help.”
Philippe and Brenda Brantley, the couple’s daughters, confirmed to CNN that their parents were “alive and well” after apparently being freed.
“We deeply appreciate all of your prayers and are happy to share that our parents have been released,” Brenda Brantley wrote in a Facebook post.
Australian missionaries Julianne LeMarre and Claire Anne Woodman noticed a group of armed men inside the home and called police, who arrived after the kidnapping. The local police chief told CNN they had found Cook, Brantley and their children in a home owned by the town’s bishop. The bishop had a gun with him at the time, but no one else was armed.
The United States State Department advised U.S. citizens in Haiti “to remain vigilant in light of ongoing threats from armed criminal groups.” The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is on alert and its telephone number has been flooded with calls.
The story continues below.