9th US Baptist Freed and Back Home from Haiti

Yesterday, Charisa Coulter, who was one of the last two missionaries still in Haitian custody, was released from jail and flown back to the United States. Coulter and her former employer, Laura Silsby along with eight others were originally arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti just after the earthquake. The other eight were released Feb. 17. Laura Silsby now sits in Haiti alone.

Coulter's father said his daughter arrived in Miami late 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. Source: 9th US missionary freed in Haiti, returns home, AP

And although Silsby told the AP that she is happy for Coulter, it doesn't look like Silsby's case will be resolved without the Haitian judge gathering even more information.

After the hearing Monday for Silsby, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he heard evidence from a police officer who said he stopped Silsby from loading a bus with children near the Dominican Republic consulate in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. That was three days before her group was arrested while trying to cross in to the Dominican Republic with 33 children.

"I found inconsistencies in some of Laura's statements," Saint-Vil told reporters, saying he planned to visit the Dominican consulate to resolve them.

The Americans' arrest came as Haitian authorities were trying to crack down on unauthorized adoptions to prevent child trafficking in the chaos following the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake.

Silsby initially said the children were orphaned in the quake that the government estimates has killed more than 230,000 people. But the AP found the children had been given away by still-living parents. Source: AP

Given the revelation that Silsby made an earlier attempt to spirit away Haitian children, Laura Silsby has even more explaining to do.