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Ninth missionary freed in Haiti, heads home
TEMPERED GOOD NEWS:
Charisa Coulter was released because there was no evidence to support charges of kidnapping and criminal association against her, her lawyer said
AP
, PORT-AU-PRINCE
Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010, Page 7
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US missionary Charisa Coulter, flanked by a US embassy official, left, and her lawyer, is released from a Port-au-Prince police station on Monday.
PHOTO: AFP
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A US missionary held for more than a month in Haiti on kidnapping charges flew back to the US after being released from prison, while the leader of her Baptist group remained in custody.
Charisa Coulter and Laura Silsby were the last two missionaries still in custody of 10 that were arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the earthquake. The other eight were released on Feb. 17.
Coulter, 24, was freed on Monday and whisked from her jail cell to the airport by US embassy staff.
Wearing a red tank top and sunglasses, she declined comment as she quickly got into a sports utility vehicle that took her to the Haitian airport, where she caught a flight back to the US.
Coulter’s father said his daughter arrived in Miami late on Monday and went straight to a hotel.
Mel Coulter said her release brought a mix of joy and sorrow, because the leader of the Idaho-based missionary group, Silsby, was left spending the night alone in a Haitian jail.
“It is good news, but it’s tempered,” Coulter said. “We’re really happy to have our daughter back on American soil. But Laura is still there. So this is really only completing part of the journey for the two of them. My daughter has left her best friend behind.”
He did not say when his daughter would head to her home in Boise, Idaho.
Silsby, 40, said she was glad about Coulter’s release.
“I’m very happy that she left today, and for her freedom, and expect mine to come soon,” Silsby said as she left the courthouse on Monday.
She was returned to her cell in a police station near Port-au-Prince airport.
Defense lawyer Louis Ricardo Chachoute said Coulter was released because there was no evidence to support the charges of kidnapping and criminal association. He said Silsby would be likely be released soon as well.
“There are no prosecution witnesses to substantiate anything,” Chachoute said.
Coulter is a diabetic and had medical difficulties during her confinement. She was treated at least once, on Feb. 1, by US doctors after collapsing from what she said was either severe dehydration or the flu.
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