- 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 shack crawling with snakes and scorpions, a new report claims.
Luciana Curtis, 53, who has worked with the likes of Beyonce and appeared on the front cover of magazines including Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan, was taken hostage with her photographer husband Henrique Gendre and their 11-year-old child as they left a restaurant in Sao Paulo last week.
The armed robbers that ambushed them held them for around 12 hours and reportedly stole their car and took money from their bank accounts before releasing them.
The shack only contained a mattress, sink and toilet – and was also housing scorpions and snakes, according to NewsX.
The thugs transferred money from the family’s bank accounts and stole their GWM Havaal SUV – worth around $33,000 – before letting the trio go on Thursday.
Police are still looking for the suspects and reportedly plan to charge them with kidnapping, extortion and robbery.
The family’s terrifying ordeal began on Wednesday night as they left an eatery in the upmarket area of Alto do Lapa.
The alarm is said to have been raised on Thursday morning after the kidnapped couple’s eldest child discovered the rest of her family had not returned home and alerted a relative who called police.
Luciana Curtis, the model daughter of a British businessman, suffered a terrifying kidnap ordeal in Brazil that also involved her husband and her 11-year-old child
Luciana and her family were trapped in a shack that contained a mattress, sink and toilet
Luciana, her husband and her youngest child were released by their captors as the police hunt for them began and they sought help from locals before being taken to safety.
A spokesman for Luciana confirmed the kidnap to local press, adding: ‘The family has been released and they are safe and well.’
A specialist police anti-kidnap unit has been investigating and officers have been analysing CCTV footage around the unnamed restaurant where the gang struck.
The shack Luciana and her family were taken to has already been located by detectives and pictured in 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 specialist police teams, the gang abandoned the family and fled.’
Luciana was born in Sao Paulo to British businessman father Malcolm Leo Curtis and Brazilian teacher mum Katia Maria Furtado de Mendonca Curtis.
Her main residence is in New York although she spent several years living in London.
Luciana pictured with her husband and children during happier times
Luciana Curtis pictured with her husband Henrqiue Gendre
She won the Brazilian final of Supermodel of the World in 1993 after receiving an invite to become a model during a visit to a shopping centre as a teenager and in the world final placed in the top four.
She went on to become the cover of a string of fashion magazines including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire and Nova and has done ads for the likes of Arden B, Harrods, H&M and Victoria’s Secret.
Luciana, who has 22,000 Instagram followers, earned an estimated million dollars to star in Revlon campaigns in 2001 alongside three other models.
Shortly afterwards, she took part in the worldwide campaign for L’Oreal’s ‘True Match’ powder and foundation with Beyonce.
She appeared earlier this year alongside other models on the front cover of ELLE Brazil, which said in a write-up accompanying the photo: ‘The cover of ELLE Brasil #Volume16 is an ode to Brazilian supermodels who, from the late 1990s to the present day, have been taking the profession abroad, appearing on catwalks for major brands and becoming muses of legendary stylists and established photographers.’