Friends of Jackie Shroyer, who was recently charged in connection with the death of her missionary husband, Beau Shroyer, are reeling in shock at allegations that the mother of five plotted with three men in the southern African country to carry out the violent murder of her late husband on Oct. 25.
“I just don’t have any words,” Carl Gessell, a friend of the couple in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, told The New York Post. “I’m shocked that this even happened. I can’t believe she would do something like that.”
Angolan authorities revealed at a press conference last Thursday that Beau Shroyer, 44, was found fatally stabbed in a thicket on the outskirts of the municipality of Humpata in Huila province, Voice of America reported.
Manuel Halaiwa, a spokesperson for the country’s Criminal Investigation Service, said Jackie Shroyer was the mastermind behind a murder-for-hire plot involving the three men. Investigators also 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.
“There are strong suspicions here of a possibly romantic relationship in relation to the person who ordered the case and her accomplice, the citizen who was initially a guard through a private security company, but who, after ending his contract with this company, was welcomed because he seemed to be a good person very close to the couple and was hired with another salary to serve the couple,” Halaiwa said.
Angola’s CIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post Tuesday, but The New York Post noted that Jackie Shroyer has not yet been formally charged for her role in Neau Shroyer’s death.
The missionary was found fatally stabbed inside his vehicle in the Palanca commune on the outskirts of the municipality of Humpata. Investigators said the accused men pretended they were having car trouble and called Beau Shroyer for help. When he arrived at the scene with his wife, she stepped away in a bush to allegedly relieve herself while her husband was attacked with a U.S.-made knife, which Jackie Shroyer had gifted to her alleged lover.
Investigators say the missionary's wife, 44, first asked her alleged lover to kill her late husband and he hired the two other men with a promise to pay $50,000 for the murder.
Jackie Shroyer allegedly paid $400 to set the stage for Beau Shroyer’s murder in a place where he was known to give her driving lessons. The murder was set up to look like a robbery, and the guard reportedly paid the other two men $9,000.
Some friends of the couple who were members of the Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, before moving to Lubango to do missionary work under the auspices of SIM USA said they, too, are shocked but told The New York Post that they wanted to wait for the investigation to be completed before commenting publicly.
Gessell noted, however, that Beau Shroyer was convinced that God wanted him to go to Angola despite never doing missionary work overseas before.
“Beau told me that God led him in a different path,” said 45-year-old Gessell, who is also a member Lakes Area Vineyard Church.
“He said he was able to help a lot of people when he got to Angola,” Gessell recalled. “He was a caring person, the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back.”
He told The New York Post that he was supposed to meet up with the former police officer when he visited stateside with his family over the summer, but the meeting never happened.
“I can’t see his wife doing that,” Gessell said as he mused over the allegations. “It’s got to be something else. But, you know, I don’t know if something happened between there and here.”
Though Beau Shroyer told friends that God led him to become a missionary in Angola, family friend Cleone Stewart said it was all Jackie Shroyer’s idea.
“Jackie had visions of helping poor children and Beau was right beside her,” Stewart said.
Beau Shroyer had helped her work on the annual Detroit Lakes’ Festival of Birds, and she said, he was a great volunteer.
“He was really good as a field trip leader, really good at describing things,” Stewart said. “He really knew his birds.”
