'I asked Ecuador kidnappers, what do you get from killing me?'

Colin Armstrong owns an estate in Yorkshire but has lived in Ecuador since the 1970s

A Yorkshire millionaire said he thought he would be killed after he was abducted alongside his girlfriend and held hostage for four days in Ecuador.

Fifteen armed men dressed in police uniforms took Colin Armstrong, 79, and Katherin Paola Santos, 31, from his home in Guayaquil to a concrete cabin six hours away in the early hours of 16 December 2023.

The former honorary consul, who owns the Forbidden Corner and Saddle Room attraction in North Yorkshire and Ecuadorian agriculture firm Agripac, said his kidnappers demanded a $5m (£3.7m) ransom.

Mr Armstrong said: "One of the habits these people have is removing fingers or ears. I had visions of them coming in and taking some fingers."

The businessman inherited the Tupgill Park estate, near Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales, from his father, a racehorse trainer, but has spent much of his adult life in Ecuador.

Mr Armstrong and his partner have now spoken publicly about their ordeal.

On their way to the cabin, they were taken out of Mr Armstrong's BMW – which had been used to ram down the security gate on the way out of the property – to another car and then a third vehicle before arriving at the concrete block.

The couple of 10 years were allowed a few hours of rest before the men sent Ms Paola Santos to see Mr Armstrong's son, Nicholas, while wearing what they said was a bomb vest.

"They told her, 'if you go anywhere near a police station we will know, and we'll explode it'," Mr Armstrong said.

The couple are spending 10 days in North Yorkshire before returning to Ecuador

Ms Paola Santos, a former model from Colombia, said: "Guayaquil now is very dangerous.

"Years ago it was a fun and wonderful city, but four or five years ago it changed because of the many cartels."

She said her mind was "on another planet" while in that "sad and terrible room".

"I care for Colin, so he was my priority in this moment. He was bleeding so I asked for a first aid kit, alcohol and cotton."

Mr Armstrong said he had been taken from the house naked, so plastic ties around his arms had "lacerated" his skin while he was pushed between vehicles.

Ms Paola Santos was tasked with giving the younger man a phone with his father on the line. After hitchhiking to the city and getting a taxi to his home using $40 (£30) from her captors, she handed it over.

He agreed with his father to "take advice" on what to do and informed the British ambassador.

This led to the president of Ecuador being informed.

Still in the cabin, he was passed another phone call.

"A man with a gravel voice told me he had given orders to kill me, after nine of his guys had been arrested. It was an extraordinary conversation," he said.

"In a moment of bravado, I said, 'what do you get from killing me? Instead of a charge of kidnapping it's a charge of murder,' " and he just rang off.

"My hands were shaking - what a stupid thing to say. These people have killed so many."

Mr Armstrong at the Forbidden Corner in Leyburn, which he owns along with the Saddle Room on the same estate

Meanwhile, his son had refused to speak directly to Ms Paola Santos until police arrived. His wife and baby were inside, and "the bomb could explode at any moment", she said.

The woman sat on a tennis court, alone and scared, until police arrived and passed her a pair of scissors. The "bomb" was later discovered to be fake.

"Never did anybody tell me if it was fake or not. In that moment, I thought, it's possible I die now.

"All my life passed before my eyes – it was a very sad and hard moment."

She was returned to her home by police, but "for days I don't know about Colin – no texts, no nothing".

Mr Armstrong said he spent days "wondering when I'm going to hear that chain rattle and a hitman come in".

"While we were together and we could hold hands, say 'we're going to get out of this, we're going to get out'," he added.

After days of negotiation between the gang and security experts, the original ransom figure came down to "much less", Mr Armstrong said.

"My son Nick was able to say, 'I am prohibited from paying, company bank accounts are frozen'," he added.

"One of our security people went with a suitcase, and did the traditional thing - put it down, walk away, don't look back."

Late in the evening on Saturday 19 December, some of the men left him alone on the side of the road near Manabi, where police picked him up.

"They drove me home to my wife and my two daughters in the house, all crying," Mr Armstrong said.

The next morning, he took a car to see Ms Paola Santos.

Mr Armstrong was pictured with Ecuadorian police after they picked him up

"The last time I saw Kate, we didn't know when we'd see each other again," he said.

"It was very emotional and we only had a short time."

The Armstrong family travelled home to Topcliffe in North Yorkshire for Christmas, and Ms Paola Santos back to her family in Colombia.

Mr Armstrong said: "That's when my marriage had to split up because my children said, 'Dad this can't go on, you've got to choose'. I chose."

He and Ms Paola Santos travelled to Amsterdam and Antarctica a short time later.

They now live together in Ecuador, and Mr Armstrong has chronicled their ordeal in a new book, Kidnap.

Ms Paola Santos said they were "celebrating that we are alive" while travelling.

She said: "There were many possible [moments] we could [have] died. It was a terrible thing, but this changed my life.

"We had a bad thing [happen], but it is a new life for me and Colin, and we are together now."

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