Four Haitian women, recently deported from Puerto Rico, were discovered decapitated near the southern border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the Elías Piña area. According to authorities, the women were killed in Haiti and their bodies thrown into a river, which carried them across the border, where they were recovered.
According to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día, the victims, Haitian nationals aged between 27 and 31, had arrived in Puerto Rico by boat in December 2024 and lived in San Juan neighborhoods like Barrio Obrero and Puerto Nuevo. They were deported several months ago (one approximately two months prior, the others around three months and 15 days before their deaths), following immigration enforcement actions.
Leonard Prophil, a Haitian community leader and Creole interpreter in Puerto Rico who knew some of the women and was contacted by their families, confirmed they had been missing for about two weeks before the bodies were found. He linked the killings to gang activity in Haiti, where deportees, especially women, are often kidnapped and targeted for ransom demands from relatives presumed to have resources abroad (often in the U.S. or Puerto Rico).
"Deporting these people means condemning them to death," Prophil stated, calling for alternatives to deportation amid Haiti's severe gang violence and humanitarian crisis.
Dominican authorities arrested a Haitian man named Chin Laduse in connection with the case. This incident fits a reported pattern: Prophil has indicated that at least 18 Haitian deportees from the U.S. have been murdered upon return, with nine linked to Puerto Rico deportations.
The victims' families have withheld names and photographs out of fear of further gang retaliation. Many Haitians undertake perilous sea journeys ("yolas") to reach Puerto Rico, only to face detention, raids, and removal, heightening dangers in an unstable homeland.