Wife Of Slain MN Missionary Arrested In Africa

ANGOLA, AFRICA — A Detroit Lakes, Minnesota woman has been arrested in Angola on suspicion of killing her husband during their missionary work there.

With the support of their Detroit Lakes church — Lakes Area Vineyard — Jackie and Beau Shroyer and their five children moved to Angola in 2021.

On Friday, Oct. 25, Beau was killed in an "act of violence" in Angola, according to the church's lead pastor, Troy Easton.

In an update to his congregation last week, Easton wrote that "our grief and sadness has deepened immeasurably as we’ve learned that his wife, Jackie Shroyer, has been arrested in connection with his death."

Few details about the incident are known, but Easton described Beau's death as a "violent, criminal attack."

"I’m so sorry and simply do not have words to express my disbelief and sorrow about this news."

Easton said the Shroyer children "are well cared for" through SIM USA, the Christian missionary organization the family is a part of.

Before the family left for Africa, Beau Shroyer was a Detroit Lakes police officer and real estate agent, the Star Tribune reported.

The Shroyers were one of the first SIM USA families to move to Angola after COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began to ease in 2021.

Founded in 1893 and based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SIM USA "has been a catalyst for cross-cultural mission work for 130 years" and "have maintained our identity as a diverse group of people joined together by the shared belief that no one should live and die without hearing the good news of the gospel," states its website.

Easton concluded his most recent letter by asking church members to "cry out to the Lord for his grace, mercy and comforting presence for the Shroyer children and family. We must honor God and love each other by how we communicate about this, and we must continue to stand together, asking God to do in and through all of this what only He can."