Honduras ? A 79-year-old U.S. evangelical missionary was beaten to death in his home in western Honduras by two men he had hired to do construction work, police said Thursday.

The missionary, identified by authorities as Ralph Madison, was found unconscious late Wednesday on the floor of his home in the village of San Juan, said police spokesman Nelson Zambrano.

He was airlifted in a U.S. Air Force helicopter to a hospital in the capital, Tegucigalpa, where he died.

According to the Rev. Donald Soriano, head of the Bethesda Ministry International based in northern Philippines and an acquaintance of the victim, Madison had been in Honduras since 2005, working for a group called Cosecheros Para Cristo.

The suspects, whose names were not released, were arrested and interrogated, Zambrano said. They recently were deported from the U.S. after migrating there illegally.

Madison had reported the two men to police, alleging they stole tools and construction materials from his home, which the pastor was remodeling, Zambrano said.

Based on information from his passport, authorities said he was from San Francisco.