Miami police seek missing Haitian man connected to violent extortion case. Friends worried
It was strange enough when Gerson Monfort went missing around New Year’s Eve. He failed to show up for work and for his weekly game of dominoes with friends and wasn’t answering texts or phone calls.
But his disappearance became far more troubling a little over a week later after police released a flier with his picture asking for the public’s help in identifying him. Friends are baffled and worried.
“The picture is him,” said Monfort’s friend Elson Loisius. “A detective called me about a week ago. Gerson has lots of friends, but he’s very scared of police. I don’t know why.”
The flier spelled out that MIami police detectives had arrested a couple, Marie and Occius Dorsainvil, a few days earlier and charged them with armed robbery, attempted murder and kidnapping and that the then-unidentified man pictured on the flier “may have additional information on the case.”
Police didn’t initially say if they believed Monfort, 43, was a potential victim, if he knew the couple that had been charged or had been involved in any possible crimes. On Monday, Assistant Miami Police Chief Armando Aguilar Jr., said Monfort was “not a suspect,” but wouldn’t elaborate.
Police say the couple was involved in a case of torture and extortion. According to an arrest report from Jan. 6, the couple lured a man up to their apartment, tied him up with cords and chains for three days and threatened to murder him if he didn’t fork over $50,000. He eventually got away, but not before being forced to drink a potentially lethal combination of bleach and Haitian rum.
Loisius said he believes Monfort, who lives in North Miami and has family in Haiti, disappeared on New Year’s Eve. The last sign of life he heard from his friend was on WhatsApp on Dec. 31 at 6:01 p.m. Over the next four days Loisius said Monfort failed to show up for dominoes at his home, didn’t show up at his construction job and did not answer texts or phone calls.
Loisius said he called police on Jan. 4. A week later the flier appeared. Loisius said he was only made aware of the flier recently and that he has since spoken to a Miami detective. The detective, he said, told him the couple were not speaking with police, there appear to be other victims and that he believes Monfort knows the couple.
The Dorsainvils remain behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center. Police said both Dorsainvils confessed to the crimes after being read their rights. Attorney Joshua Alexander said he just recently agreed to represent the couple, but that he hasn’t even had enough time to sort out “what the confession consists of.”
Occius Dorsainvil is facing additional charges of tampering and grand theft. According to their arrest reports, Marie Dorsainvil, 52, asked a man for a ride to her home in the 700 block of Northwest 69th Street on Dec. 28 and invited him in. It went south for the man very quickly. Occius Dorsainvil, 56, police said, was waiting inside the home with a gun. For three days the victim was alternately tied up with cord and chains while the couple threatened to shoot him if he didn’t give them the money or the title to his car, police said.
Police said the man, while tied up, said he was forced to crawl to the bathroom and admit that he cheated with Marie Dorsainvil, while they recorded him. Two days later on Dec. 30, police say Occius Dorsainvil took the man to his car, placed him in the passenger seat and forced him to drink the dangerous concoction. The man told police he passed out and when he awoke, he flagged down a pedestrian.
When police found the man, who hasn’t been named, he was throwing up, they said. His health status is unclear.
Though he takes some solace in the arrests, Loisius said he’s still very worried about his friend. He said he has no reason to believe he would have left to visit family in Haiti without telling anyone.
Marie Paul, 47, said she’s been friends with Monfort for three years and they recently lived together. She, too, last heard from him on New Year’s Eve, she said. She said she’s worried and misses him.
“I was crying at my job,” she said. “I had to tell my boss.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
