Dominican agent details orphanage plans of leader of US missionaries detained in Haiti

DR agent shares orphanage plans of US missionary

SOSUA, Dominican Republic — Six months before Haiti’s earthquake, the leader of a group of U.S. missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 children flew to the Dominican Republic to open an orphanage, a real estate agent said Friday.

During that visit, Laura Silsby inquired about property in the northwestern village of Gaspar Hernandez, near the popular sailboarding beach town of Cabarete, the agent, Jose Hidalgo, said.

He shared documents with The Associated Press showing Silsby planned to open an orphanage, a clinic and two schools in that town. Hidalgo said he agreed to meet Saturday with Haitian officials who called asking to review the documents.

Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil this week released eight of the 10 Americans originally detained but kept Silsby and fellow missionary Charisa Coulter in jail as the investigation continues. He told reporters Friday that he is looking into what the two women did when they visited Haiti in December.

It is unclear how many orphanages Silsby envisioned opening in Haiti or the Dominican Republic.

On Jan. 8 — four days before the catastrophic quake — she registered the name for the orphanage she planned to build in the Dominican Republic: New Dominican Life Children’s Refuge. It was registered to two U.S. citizens who live in the Dominican Republic, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

The orphanage was supposed to be built on property in Gaspar Hernandez that Silsby has not yet purchased, Hidalgo said.

Shortly after the earthquake struck, Silsby called and asked if Hidalgo could find another building, this time to house orphans from Haiti, the real estate agent said.

He said he consulted with Roman Catholic Church officials in nearby Puerto Plata, who agreed to rent 45 rooms for $7,400 a month for up to six months.

Bishop Julio Cesar Cornielle told the AP on Friday that the church agreed to rent a building they owned to show solidarity with Haiti. The missionaries invested about $3,000 to make the building safer for children, but the deal fell through after they were detained, the bishop said.

On Jan. 29, the missionaries were arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without adoption certificates. The arrests came as aid officials urged a stop to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake.

Silsby originally said the children were orphans or had been abandoned, but the AP determined that at least 20 were handed over willingly by their parents.

Hidaglo said that three days after the group was detained, he got a call from a man who identified himself as attorney Jorge Puello.

He said Puello requested documents detailing Silsby’s plans to open the orphanage in the Dominican Republic so he could prove her innocence. Hidalgo said he turned over copies of the documents after Puello showed him a video in which he interviewed Coulter, one of the missionaries.

Puello initially served as the group’s legal adviser and spokesman, but then authorities revealed he is wanted on human trafficking charges in the U.S. and in El Salvador. U.S. marshals are still hunting for him.