The wife of a US missionary who was killed in a “violent, criminal attack” in Africa last October has been “formally charged as a co-author in the murder,” his church announced.
Beau Shroyer, 44, from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, was found stabbed to death in a vehicle on Oct. 25 while on a missionary trip to Angola with his wife and their five kids.
His wife, Jackie Shroyer, has been formally charged, the family’s parish, Lakes Area Vineyard Church, announced in an update Monday.
“It saddens me immensely to have to share with you that we were notified that Jackie has been formally charged as a co-author in the murder of her husband,” lead pastor Troy M. Easton wrote.
The widow will remain in custody until her court date, which “will likely occur within the next 6 months,” the pastor told parishioners.
Beau, a former Detroit Lakes police officer, and his family moved to Angola in 2021 to be missionaries for the organization SIM.
The pastor said the couple’s five children “will continue to be cared for by close family with support from both SIM and Lakes Area Vineyard Church.”
Shroyer was previously described as the “mastermind” behind her husband’s murder by Angolan law enforcement when she was arrested in November last year.
Her alleged accomplices — Bernardino Isaac Elias, 24, and 23-year-old Isalino Musselenga Kayoo, who is nicknamed “Vin Diesel” — were arrested shortly afterward.
A third man — 22-year-old Gelson Guerreiro Ramos — was reported as “on the run” and wanted in connection with the murder, Angolan law enforcement said at the time. It isn’t known if he has been brought into custody.
Local law enforcement has alleged that Shroyer was having an affair with Elias, who was a security guard at their home, and that she did not want to return to the United States when her husband’s mission was coming to an end.
There were “strong suspicions of a romantic relationship between the person who ordered the crime and her accomplice, the guard at the couple’s residence,” Manuel Halaiwa, a superintendent with the Criminal Investigation Service, told the Angola Press Agency at the time.
He claimed that on the day of the murder, the suspects rented a car and pretended to have broken down, before Shroyer lured her husband to a spot in the woods.
Elias allegedly asked Kayoo to carry out the murder in exchange for $50,000.
The Shroyer family previously spoke with the Detroit Lakes Tribune about their move to Angola.
They told the outlet they were moving to a “remote bush village” with no electricity.
Jackie said the family would be teaching the region’s residents about Christianity and God’s love.
