Family of US missionary murdered in Angola struggling through grief as they prepare for funeral

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, November 22, 2024

The family of murdered American missionary Beau Shroyer, whose wife has been accused of plotting his Oct. 25 murder with three men in Angola, say they have been struggling through grief as they prepare for his funeral at the end of this month.

A memorial service for the late 44-year-old missionary, who was stationed in the African country with his wife and their five children, is scheduled to take place at the United Methodist Church in Grey Eagle, Minnesota, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30, according to an announcement on Legacy. The family says coping with his death has been difficult.

“We are just flipping through all of the stages of grief on repeat,” Beau Shroyer’s sister, Marina Roering, told Forum News Service. “My mom and dad, I think, are probably having the hardest time, understandably, but mostly we’re all OK.”

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Manuel Halaiwa, a spokesperson for Angola’s Criminal Investigation Service, said 44-year-old Jackie Shroyer was the mastermind behind a murder-for-hire plot involving the three men charged with his murder in Lubango.

Investigators allege that Jackie Shroyer was involved in a romantic relationship with one of the men, Bernardino Elias, 24, who worked as a security guard for her family. The two other men have been identified as Isalino Kayoo, 23, and Gelson Ramos, 22.

Roering said her family has been in touch with officials from the U.S. Embassy in Angola, Angolan officials and the missionary agency SIM USA to get updates about what’s happening with the case, but they have not been very successful.

“We don’t even know what’s real and reliable out of those stories because, for one, how much gets lost in translation (from Portuguese to English), and for two, I don’t know how trustworthy the press is over there. We’ve been told there is a lot of government corruption. That ties into it as well,” Roering said. “We just want accurate information.”

Roering confirmed that they also spoke with Jackie Shroyer before she was taken into custody, as well as her family members.

She said some U.S. media outlets erroneously listed that her brother previously served as a pastor, but he did not. He previously worked as a Detroit Lakes police officer and a realtor before moving to Angola to become a missionary in 2021.

“The first reports that came out mentioned that Beau was a pastor; he was never a pastor,” she was quoted as saying. “Even on the U.S. side, we know there are inaccuracies. It seems like there’s a story here and people want to know, but there’s just such little information, so there’s a lot of speculation being printed, and that’s been frustrating.”

Roering said the family is working with U.S. officials to repatriate her brother’s remains, but beyond that, they continue to struggle with the lack of reliable information.

“We don’t know who to turn to. There’s so many factors — a language barrier, a time difference, and just not knowing how their legal system works,” Roering said. “No one has been able to connect us to any resource to help get some clarity of answers.”