Haiti police say US missionary detained following sex abuse allegations at orphanage

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A U.S. missionary accused of running an illegal orphanage in Haiti has been detained over allegations of child abuse, Haitian police told The Associated Press on Friday.

Arold Jean, a spokesperson for the Cap-Haitien police department, said U.S. authorities arrested Thomas Osbeck there on Sept. 30. He did not identify the U.S. agency involved.

He said authorities reviewed the suspect’s cell phone and found explicit messages sent to children. Jean added that at least a dozen children underwent medical examinations.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Osbeck had an attorney. An Associated Press journalist was barred from visiting him in jail on Friday.

Jean said Osbeck did not have the required paperwork to operate an orphanage in Cap-Haitien, where Haitian authorities found at least 12 minors. He said he expects Osbeck to be extradited to the United States.

Osbeck was detained shortly after U.S. authorities charged Maylon Foshee, 23, of Mansfield, Louisiana, with sexually abusing minors during mission trips to Haiti.

Authorities said Foshee traveled to Haiti numerous times between 2023 and 2026 while working with a ministry in the coastal city of Gonaives and allegedly sexually abused several minors under his care, including those who lived with him or received financial support from him.

Last year, a jury in Miami convicted Michael Geilenfeld of sexually abusing boys at an orphanage he founded in Port-au-Prince.

Geilenfeld had pleaded not guilty. The orphanage, founded in 1985, was one of several that he operated in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It was closed in 2015.