Photo: Getty Images
Luciana Curtis, a New York-based model, her husband, Henrique Gendre, and their 11-year-old child were held at gunpoint, kidnapped and held hostage in her home country of Brazil for 12 hours, the New York Post reports, citing the local outlet Gazeta.
Curtis, 47, and her family were reportedly ambushed by a gang of men while leaving a restaurant in the post Alto do Lapa neighborhood in Sao Paulo Wednesday (November 27) night. The victims were forced at gunpoint into their own car, which was driven to a wooden shack in Brasilandia that only had one mattress, toilet and sink, according to photos shared by Gazeta.
“The armed criminals approached the victims outside a restaurant and took them captive,” police said in a statement obtained by the New York Post.
The gang obtained funds transferred money from the couple's bank accounts before freeing the family early Thursday (November 28) morning. Police were already searching for the victims after the couple's eldest child, who didn't attend the dinner, alerted authorities that they'd never returned home.
“During the search by specialist police teams, the gang abandoned the family and fled,” police said via the New York Post.
The family reportedly flagged down locals and asked for help after they were released from the hostage situation.
“The family has been released and they are safe and well,” a spokesperson for the model told Gazeta via the New York Post.
Curtis, the daughter of British businessman Malcolm Leon Curtis, primarily lives in New York but splits time between Sao Paulo and London. The 47-year-old won the Brazilian final of Supermodel of the World in 1993 and was featured on the covers of Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan magazines, while also modeling for Harrods, H&M and Victoria's Secret.