Washington D.C. – ABC News, April 14, 2025
Four armed suspects abducted Josh Sullivan on Thursday, police said.
The search for an American missionary continued on Sunday in South Africa after his Tennessee church said he was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint during a service last week.
Josh Sullivan of Tennessee was reportedly abducted by armed men who burst into a church in Motherwell, a township near the seaport city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, the Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee said on its Facebook page.
Lt. Gen. Avele Fumba of the South African Police Service confirmed to ABC News on Saturday that the agency’s elite Hawks unit is investigating an alleged kidnapping of “a man believed to be the pastor of a local church” in the Gqeberha area.
The incident unfolded at about 7 p.m. local time on Thursday when the pastor of the church “was allegedly confronted by at least four unknown armed suspects during a church service,” Fumba told ABC News in a statement.
