Paul Waggoner is the co-founder of MMRC Global. (Courtesy of MMRC)

A Montreal woman is tirelessly working to help free an American colleague imprisoned in a notoriously overcrowded jail in Haiti on charges of kidnapping an infant who doctors say is dead.

Haitian police arrested Paul Waggoner, co-founder of non-profit MMRC Global, on accusations he kidnapped a boy brought into a hospital where Waggoner was volunteering.

A death certificate states the 15-month-old boy, Kevans, died at the Haitian Community Hospital on Feb. 23. The father, Frantz Philistin, insists the boy is still alive and was taken by Waggoner.

"I believe in [Wagonner's] innocence 100 per cent," says Nanci Murdock of Montreal, who works as the spokeswoman and social media expert for MMRC (Materials Management Relief Corps), a fledgling non-profit started after the earthquake to help transport medical supplies.

The agency says Waggoner, 32, never treated the boy, volunteering at the Petionville hospital only to help organize medical supplies.

Hospital staff say Kevans's parents brought him to the facility the night a 4.7-magnitude aftershock struck the area. He was malnourished, dehydrated and feverish.

Staff forced outside by the aftershock tried to help Kevans, but he died shortly after arrival and the parents were notified of the child's death, doctors say.

Father returns to check

A signed affidavit by Dr. Kenneth Adams, a board-certified U.S. physician, said the father returned the next day, wanting to confirm the baby was indeed dead.

Waggoner went with the father to see the baby, asking Adams to accompany them in case the dad needed medical help, the affidavit says.

"The father looked at the baby for several minutes waiting for the baby to breathe. The baby was greyish blue and was definitely not moving or breathing," says Adams's affidavit.

"The father jokingly said that it looked as if the baby was still alive but I pulled my stethoscope out and listened carefully for any breath sounds or a heartbeat and there was none."

Waggoner asked him if he wanted to take the body for burial. The father said he didn't have land or money for burial and told the hospital to dispose of the body, the affidavit said. The body was later cremated.

The father filed a complaint against Waggoner in March. Waggoner left Haiti at the time, returning several weeks later believing the matter was resolved, his agency says. Waggoner was arrested earlier in the week after the boy's father spotted him.

Consular officials from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti say they have been in regular contact with Waggoner and his family, and are monitoring the situation.

Waggoner is not being held in the general population at the National Penitentiary, but rather is sharing a cell with two other prisoners, one American and one Haitian, MMRC said in a statement released Friday.

Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, says police may have targeted the aid worker in hopes of receiving a bribe. "One of the factors that may be at work … there's a perception as a foreigner that he has the ability to pay," said Concannon.

Concannon described the Haitian justice system as intentionally designed to be "extremely complicated," with bribery often the only way out. About 80 per cent of people held in prisons have not been convicted.

Hope for release

Murdock has been working long days, sending out press releases and raising the case's profile on Facebook and Twitter, in hopes of increasing attention on her colleague's plight and securing his release.

Nanci Murdock of Montreal helps MMRC Global with its media relations and social media communications. (Courtesy of MMRC)

"Every day we hope he'll be released," says Murdock. "Today, we hope again it'll happen today."

The Montrealer became involved in the non-profit agency in late September, inspired to help after reading a Men's Journal article about the two co-founders Paul Waggoner and Paul Sebring, affectionately known as Little Paul and Big Paul.

"I was just so impressed by their sacrifice," said Murdock. "They don't take salaries, they don't get paid, sometimes they don't eat. They just love Haiti."

Since then, the former charter financial analyst has been in constant contact with the self-described "extreme humanitarian" duo as she works from Montreal to raise money and the agency's profile. She's planning her first trip to Haiti in early February.

And even though some expressed concerns about the chilling effect Waggoner's arrest might have on aid worker recruitment, Murdock says their team remains undeterred.

"I know both Pauls do not want to leave Haiti," said Murdock. "They want to stay. Even after this experience, they want to stay. And I want to go to Haiti, too. This hasn't affected my desire to go and help."