The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A 38-year-old Colorado resident and evangelical minister has been identified by loved ones as the final passenger on the Lear 36 jet that crashed in Grand Bahama on Sunday, killing all nine on board, including religious leader Dr Myles Munroe.

Previous reports suggested the victim may have been an African, however The Tribune can confirm that American Diego DeSantiago, a translator who frequently travelled the world with Dr Munroe, was aboard the ill-fated jet.

DeSantiago also spent a lot of time in the Bahamas and enjoyed viewing the waterscape at Atlantis in his spare time and eating conch fritters.

Several mourners have left messages on his Facebook page since learning of the tragic crash.

The Post-Standard, a newspaper based in Syracuse, New York, also reported yesterday that his sister, a resident of Oswego, Illinois, confirmed that authorities have notified her family of Mr DeSantiago’s presence on the jet.

A brother of the deceased, the newspaper reported, is on his way here to identify his body.

In his final post on Facebook, made this past Saturday, Mr De Santiago highlighted a quote of Dr Munroe’s and added this message: “We must fly! Spread our little wings and use the winds (crisis) to elevate ourselves! Yay! Fly away.”

Bahamian Timothy Blair, a friend of Mr DeSantiago and a member of Bahamas Faith Ministries (BFM), expressed sadness over his death.

Mr DeSantiago, he said, travelled to Africa with Dr Munroe during a recent trip and helped “to change the lives” of those he ministered to.

Mr DeSantiago had visited the Bahamas over the past five years, having travelled to “every conference and every seminar experience” hosted by BFM and its beloved founder, Dr Munroe.

“He had a passion for life and for the word of God and also loved the Bahamas,” Mr Blair told The Tribune. “He was eager to learn more of the message of the Kingdom and that’s when I first met him – at a Kingdom training experience in August, 2009.”

The Post-Standard reported yesterday that Mr DeSantiago was graduated from Oswego High School in 1994 and subsequently joined the US Army, where he served in the military for a couple of years before settling in Colorado.

He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science and had started working towards a master’s degree.

He arrived in Nassau at 8:20am on Sunday, having just returned from a trip to Nigeria, the newspaper reported.