US-based model, husband and child kidnapped and held 12 hours after leaving restaurant in Brazil: reports
Luciana Curtis, an international model; her photographer husband; and their 11-year-old child were kidnapped and held hostage for 12 hours in her home country Wednesday night, according to reports. (Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/Getty Images for ARD
Luciana Curtis, an international model; her photographer husband Henrique Gendre, and their 11-year-old child were kidnapped and held hostage for 12 hours in her home country Wednesday night, according to reports.
"The armed criminals approached the victims outside a restaurant and took them captive," Brazilian police said in a statement, according to the New York Post, citing local reports.
Curtis, 47, who was born in Brazil, has been on the cover of fashion magazines like Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan and worked with celebrities like Beyoncé while modeling for brands such as Victoria’s Secret and H&M.
She has homes in New York, London and Brazil.
The family was forced by the kidnappers into their own car after they had been dining in an upscale neighborhood in São Paulo. They were forced to drive to a shack on the outskirts of the city with just a mattress, toilet and sink, where they were held captive overnight, according to reports.
They were released early Thursday after the kidnappers stole money from their bank accounts.
Curtis walking a runway in Brazil in 2004. (Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images)
MULTI-STATE POLICE PURSUIT OF ALLEGED KIDNAPPER ENDS IN FIERY COLLISION WITH 3 DEAD
"During the search by specialist police teams, the gang abandoned the family and fled," police said, according to the Post.
The couple’s oldest child, who didn’t go to dinner with the family, alerted police after they didn’t return from dinner Wednesday.
"The family has been released, and they are safe and well," a rep for Curtis told local media, the Post reported.
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No arrests have been made.