Ohio missionary indicted on charges of traveling to Haiti for sex with minors

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Dec 2, 2025

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An Ohio missionary who frequently traveled to Haiti where he once oversaw a schools program, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in the Caribbean country.

Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, traveled from the United States to Haiti on multiple occasions between 2002 and 2019 where he allegedly sexually abused minors in the country, according to the Justice Department. A part of the Mennonite community, Mast traveled to the country with Christian Aid Ministries, the Ohio-based group that had made international headlines in 2021 after 17 of its missionaries were kidnapped on the outskirts by the 400 Mawozo gang.

Cases of foreigners targeting vulnerable Haitians are not new. But this is the second time in weeks that a U.S. citizen has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a case involving Haiti.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement obtained flight records showing that Mast had taken over 30 flights from the United States to Haiti between November 2002 and August 2018. Each count of the indictment, which was issued in the Northern District of Ohio, is premised on his sexual abuse of a different minor in Haiti, the Department of Justice said.

“As alleged, this defendant traveled abroad to commit heinous, unspeakable crimes against vulnerable children living in an impoverished nation,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “Despite the fact that the defendant’s alleged crimes occurred abroad, our law enforcement partners and prosecutors will continue to relentlessly seek justice on behalf of the minor victims. Wherever the criminal division has jurisdiction, we are committed to investigating and prosecuting those who engage in the intolerable crime of abusing and exploiting children.”

Mast’s alleged crimes were unknown in Haiti, where he was in charge of a schools program for Christian Aid Ministries. In that role, he was accused of preying on boys between the ages of 8 and 10-years-old and victimizing them when he was supposed to be helping them. It wasn’t immediately clear if Mast has retained an attorney.

After the stories broke in Haiti, he fled the country.

“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible. Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio. “We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”

In the case of the Ohio missionary, Acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Stentz of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigation Detroit said the case “highlights the vital role HSI plays in identifying and investigating individuals — especially those in positions of trust — who exploit children, regardless of where these heinous crimes occur.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to pursuing justice for victims and ensuring that predators face the full weight of the law wherever our investigations lead,” he said.

Last month, two north Texas men were also indicted on federal charges in relation to a bizarre plot that envisioned invading the island of La Gonâve, just west of mainland Haiti, and murdering the men and using the women and children as sex slaves.

Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, of Allen, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of Argyle, were named in a two-count federal indictment charging them with conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography.

Prosecutors allege the men had intended to facilitate mass killings and sexual enslavement on the island as part of their scheme to carry out their rape fantasies. As part of their plot, they allegedly studied Haitian Creole and Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Air Force to gain military training to help them carry out the scheme. The duo also planned to purchase a sailboat firearms and ammunition, then recruit homeless individuals from the District of Columbia-area to serve as a mercenary force as they invaded La Gonâve, and staged a coup d’etat, the justice department said.

If convicted of conspiracy to commit murder abroad, each man faces up to life in federal prison. The child pornography charge carries a sentence of 15 to 30 years.