The body of an aid worker gunned down in front of his pregnant wife was due to be flown back to Bermuda last night.

Relatives of tragic Colin Lee confirmed he was due to be brought home from Africa yesterday evening.

Mr. Lee was ambushed by about 20 suspected rebels and then murdered while carrying out missionary work with his wife in Sudan.

Paraguayan widow Hedwig Lee is already in Bermuda for Sunday?s funeral. She was said to be bearing up well, given the tragic circumstances.

Mr. Lee?s family, from Devonshire, were yesterday meeting to organise funeral arrangements for the popular aid worker.

Speaking afterwards, his stepmother, Sarah Lee, 84, said it would be a relief to have his body back in Bermuda.

She said Mr. Lee?s funeral had been arranged for 3 p.m. on Sunday at the First Church of God, North Shore.

?It?s going to be a funeral to remember because he was so well known and liked,? she said.

His stepmother said costs had been high and there had been a lot of red tape to negotiate with officials in Africa and Britain before Mr. Lee?s body could be flown home to Bermuda.

She added that Hedwig had already jetted into the Island ahead of the funeral. ?She?s doing the best that she can at the moment. She?s bearing up.?

Mr. Lee, 57, who told relatives he had a $25,000 bounty on his head weeks before he was targeted, had been helping war victims in the troubled region.

In what relatives have described as a ?like something out of a horror story?, he was shot in the heart and throat but not instantly killed. He died six agonising hours later but Hedwig, who was four months pregnant, survived the terrifying ordeal on November 5.

It is understood she cheated death by lying on the floor of the car they were travelling in, before staying by her wounded husband?s side and bravely begging rebels not to set their vehicle ablaze.

When ambushed, they were en route to Uganda for a month of counselling seminars. It is believed they were pinpointed by mercenaries deliberately targeting Christian missionaries ? the very people Mr. Lee had travelled thousands of miles to help.

The couple had been working as trauma counsellors for the International Aid Services (IAS) relief organisation in a bid to bring peace to conflict-stricken Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda.

On a recent visit home, Mr. Lee had helped provide trauma help for troubled youths and gang members on the Island. He became a Christian more than ten years ago and had been working in Africa for the last two years.

Despite her husband?s senseless murder, Mr. Lee?s wife ? a long-serving member of IAS ? has vowed to carry on living and working in Africa.

Premier Alex Scott has said he was shocked by Mr. Lee?s murder ? which received worldwide condemnation ? and extended the Government?s deepest sympathies to his grieving family.