Nantucket Man Released From Haitian Prison
EXETER, N.H. (CBS) -- An aid worker from Nantucket has been freed after being held for 17 days in Haiti on kidnapping charges.
"He's out, he sounds good. I got the shakes," said Esther Olson-Murphy, seconds after she got the news about her cousin.
WBZ-TV's Jim Smith reports.
"It's been three weeks since he's been a free man. He's free. I don't know what to do. I don't know who to call. I don't know what the reaction's supposed to be. Now I sit and wait and hope he calls home."
In February, Waggoner was volunteering at a Haitian hospital treating earthquake victims when a 15-month-old baby died at the hospital. The child's father took photos of the body.
"He had the pictures and took them to a voodoo doctor, or a witch doctor, who said, 'Well, his eyes are open, he's still alive.' And the father believed him," explained Olson-Murphy.
The witch doctor said Waggoner had put the baby in a trace and was scheming to sell it later. Waggoner was eventually arrested, even though a doctor and a nurse witnessed the death, even making a coffin for the baby.
"The father placed Kiki's body in the box. We wrapped it in a little sheet of plastic, and I created a flyer on the front that had his name," said Anna Oakley, the nurse who was there.
Waggoner was held in an over-crowded Haitian prison raging with cholera. Despite all that he's been through he released a statement saying the Haitian people should not be blamed.
"He wants to stay in Haiti, despite everything that's happened," said Olson-Murphy. "That's what he wants to do."
