- Luciana Curtis, 53, was taken hostage with her family in Sao Paulo last week.
The model daughter of a British businessman who was kidnapped with her family in Brazil was held for 12 hours in a hut infested with snakes and scorpions, a new report claims.
Luciana Curtis, 53, who has worked with artists including Beyoncé and appeared on the cover of magazines including Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan, was taken hostage along with her husband, photographer Henrique Gendre, and their 11-year-old son as they left a restaurant in Sao Paulo last week.
The armed robbers who ambushed them held them for around 12 hours and reportedly stole their car and took money from their bank accounts before releasing them.
The hut only contained a mattress, a sink and a toilet, and also housed scorpions and snakes, according to NewsX.
The thugs transferred money from the family’s bank accounts and stole their GWM Havaal SUV, worth about $33,000, before letting the trio go on Thursday.
Police are still searching for the suspects and reportedly plan to charge them with kidnapping, extortion and robbery.
The family’s terrifying experience began on Wednesday night when they were leaving a restaurant in the exclusive area of Alto do Lapa.
The alarm is said to have been raised on Thursday morning after the kidnapped couple’s eldest daughter discovered that the rest of her family had not returned home and alerted a relative who called the police.
Luciana Curtis, the model daughter of a British businessman, suffered a terrible kidnapping in Brazil in which her husband and 11-year-old son also participated.
Luciana and her family were trapped in a hut that contained a mattress, a sink and a toilet.
Luciana, her husband and youngest son were freed by their captors when the police search began and sought help from locals before being taken to safety.
A spokesman for Luciana confirmed the kidnapping to the local press and added: “The family has been freed and is safe and sound.”
A police kidnapping unit has been investigating and officers have been analyzing CCTV footage around the unnamed restaurant where the gang attacked.
The hut to which Luciana and her family were taken has already been located by detectives and photographed in the Brazilian press.
Police previously said in a statement: “The armed criminals approached the victims outside a restaurant and took them captive.”
“During the search by specialized police teams, the gang abandoned the family and fled.”
Luciana was born in Sao Paulo to a British businessman father Malcolm Leo Curtis and a Brazilian professor mother Katia Maria Furtado de Mendonca Curtis.
His main residence is in New York although he spent several years living in London.
Luciana photographed with her husband and children in happier times
Luciana Curtis in the photo with her husband Henrqiue Gendre
She won the Brazilian final of Supermodel of the World in 1993 after receiving an invitation to become a model during a visit to a shopping center as a teenager and in the world final she placed in the top four.
She landed on the cover of a number of fashion magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire and Nova, and has done advertisements for companies including Arden B, Harrods, H&M and Victoria’s Secret.
Luciana, who has 22,000 followers on Instagram, earned an estimated $1 million for starring in Revlon campaigns in 2001 alongside three other models.
Shortly after, she participated in the global campaign for L’Oreal’s ‘True Match’ powder and foundation alongside Beyoncé.
She appeared earlier this year alongside other models on the cover of ELLE Brazil, which said in an article accompanying the photo: “The cover of ELLE Brazil #Volume16 is an ode to the Brazilian supermodels who, since the late 1990s 1990 to present Since then, I have taken the profession abroad, appearing on catwalks for major brands and becoming muses for legendary stylists and established photographers.