Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker’s daughter and her husband, who were gunned down while serving as missionaries in Haiti last month, were mourned at a packed memorial service on Tuesday — where the lawmaker lamented that he “never” thought he would come “to something like this.”
The loved ones of Natalie Baker Lloyd, 21, and her husband, Davy Lloyd, 23, gathered at Bible Holiness Assembly of God in Neosho, Missouri, for the 10 a.m. service.
“I want to say thank you to everyone, for being here to honor Davy and Natalie. It means everything to us and our families,” Natalie’s father, Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker, said toward the end of the service.
“When you dedicate your children to the Lord, you never think that it will come to something like this,” he added.
The crowded space was packed with flowers and photographs of the couple – including several from their wedding, which they celebrated at Bible Holiness less than two years ago.
Davy Lloyd grew up outside of Port-au-Prince, where his parents started Missions in Haiti Inc. in 2000, his father, David Lloyd, told the Miami Herald a few days after the killings.
The elder Lloyd was in the US when truckloads of gang members entered the compound and looted it before surrounding and shooting Davy, Natalie, and Jude Montis, the mission’s Haitian director.
“I was on the phone with my son when that was going down. He said, ‘Dad we’ve got a commotion again. I’ve got to see what’s going on,’” David Lloyd recalled of the moment he heard the chaos erupting over the phone.
A video of the scene that was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal showed that Davy and Jude’s bodies were burned.
Davy and Natalie’s bodies were finally returned to the US one week after they were killed.
“A true hero’s reception. God Bless you all…words really aren’t sufficient to express our appreciation,” Rep. Baker wrote on X of the crowds that lined the streets of Neosho as their hearses drove by.
The couple married in June 2022, and moved to Haiti to work as full-time missionaries in January 2023, according to their obituaries.
The last time they visited the United States was in January, to celebrate Natalie’s younger sister’s wedding.
