Kidnapped St. Croix Man Found Dead After Wife Fails To Pay Ransom

It was a violent weekend on St. Croix. The scorched remains of a man was found in a vehicle Sunday at about 1 p.m. after his wife failed to pay $30,000 in ransom money the man’s captors demanded in order to release her husband, sources within the VIPD, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the case, told the VI Consortium.

The man, believed to be of Arab descent, is said to be the nephew of the Lower Love gas station owner who was shot during an attempted robbery at his business on Saturday night, was burned so badly his remains could not be identified at the crime scene, police sources say. The vehicle was also scorched.

It is not clear at what time the man was kidnapped or from where, sources say, but the suspects demanded $30,000 from his wife, who furiously tried to gather the money. The exchange was set to happen on the Bypass in Christiansted; however, VIPD sources tell the VI Consortium that the man’s wife was short on the cash.

Once the man’s wife told her husband’s captors she was unable to gather the full $30,000, the suspects then took the amount of cash she had gathered, which was not made known to the VI Consortium, and offered that the man be swapped for his wife so he could find the remaining money. Police sources say the man did not agree to those terms, and that was when things took a turn for the worse.

The man was found on Sunday afternoon by police un-recognizably burned in a scorched vehicle. His wife only alerted police after her failed attempt to rescue her husband, leaving police with little leads and the suspects still on the loose, police sources tell the VI Consortium.

Sunday’s killing was the latest in a spate of violent crimes plaguing St. Croix over the weekend. Saturday saw two armed robberies–one involved a police shooting of two of four armed suspects in the attempted robbery of Cleopatra’s Gift Shop in Sunny Isle. On Saturday night, a gas station operator was wounded by gunfire after two assailants entered the Lower Love service station in an attempted robbery. One suspect was captured and the other remains at large. The condition of the business owner is unknown.

The VI Consortium will continue to follow this story closely and provide updates as they become available.