(NewsNation) — A Florida couple held for ransom in Haiti have been released, though they have not yet returned to the U.S.
Jean-Dickens Toussaint, an accountant, and Abigail Michael Toussaint, a social worker, had traveled to Haiti to visit family members. On March 18, they were kidnapped by a gang while traveling to the town of Leogane on a public bus.
Ongoing violence in Haiti has included at least 101 kidnappings in the first two weeks of March, mostly targeting Haitian citizens.
Family members paid someone they trusted $6,000 to ransom the missing relatives, but the money disappeared, and the couple continued to be held.
The kidnappers then raised the ransom to $200,000.
The Toussaints were able to call family members a couple of times, but the calls were brief and revealed little except that the couple were being kept tied up.
No details have been released about how the Toussaints were freed, and it’s not clear if the family paid the ransom. The couple are staying with relatives in Haiti to get cleaned up before returning to the U.S. to reunite with their 2-year-old son.