Wife of Slain African Missionary Sentenced for Plotting His Murder
Jackie Shroyer gets time in Angolan prison for masterminding late husband’s death
A court in Angola has convicted missionary Jackie Shroyer of masterminding her husband’s murder.
Jackie and Beau Shroyer / Photo via social media
On Wednesday, November 5, the Lubango District Court sentenced Jackie Shroyer, the 44-year-old wife of late Minnesota missionary Beau Shroyer, to 24 years in an Angolan prison.
The court also delivered sentences to Jackie’s local alleged lover, Bernardino Elias, 24—the family’s security guard—as well as two other Angolan men (Isalino Kayoo, 23, and Gelson Ramos, 22) convicted of carrying out Beau’s murder.
Authorities allege the widow was the mastermind behind a murder-for-hire plot that led to her husband’s death in the African country in October 2024. In February 2025, authorities formally charged Jackie Shroyer as a “co-author” in her late husband’s death.
For three years, Beau and Jackie Shroyer and their five children had lived in the “remote bush” of Angola, Africa. On October 25, 2024, police found Beau Shroyer brutally stabbed to death in his vehicle outside Lubango, where the family lived in a walled compound.
Jackie Shroyer’s statements at the scene had sparked police suspicion that her husband’s slaying was an organized plot involving the three men. Detectives began an investigation, alleging that Jackie might have been the mastermind and had paid the men to execute his murder.
During their investigation, detectives gained a “strong suspicion” that Jackie was having an affair with Elias.
Earlier suspicions alleged that Jackie offered the men $50,000 to kill her husband. However, the court ruled that the total she paid to murder her late husband was around $9,500.
Jackie Shroyer carried out her plan with Elias’ help, and allegedly paid the men $400 to lure her husband to a secluded location and then stab him to death. Elias reportedly paid Ramos and Kayoo the remaining amount of the $9,500, which the two split.
According to local media reports, the judge reading the sentence said that, as a person who had lost her partner, Jackie Shroyer showed little to no interest in investigating who killed her husband, and called it “unusual.”
The court sentenced Elias to 21 years in prison for aggravated homicide. The court sentenced the other two men to 21 and 22 years in prison for aggravated homicide and money laundering.
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The court also ordered Jackie Shroyer to pay 10 million kwanzas ($10,905.13) to her late husband’s family as compensation for any moral and material damage caused.
All three men will be required to pay 4.5 million kwanzas ($4,907.31) each in compensation to the victim’s family. The four defendants must also pay 150,000 kwanzas ($163.58) in court fees.
Jackie Shroyer’s defense team plans to appeal. Her attorney, Edivaldo Salvador, said he was dissatisfied with the ruling, citing alleged procedural inconsistencies and evidence he claims was not correctly validated, according to local media.
Following the sentencing, Lakes Area Vineyard Church (where Beau Shroyer had once served as pastor) released a statement saying they would ensure the former couple’s five children are cared for and that the congregation will continue working alongside SIM USA.
SIM USA said in a statement that they are “grateful” for the measure of closure this verdict will bring, and prayed it would support healing for everyone affected.
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