Cops investigating kidnapped Brit quizzing partner on identity claims
The partner of a millionaire feared Brit kidnapped in Ecuador is being quizzed by police after being rescued, it has been claimed.
, former honorary consul of the United Kingdom in Guayaquil, was abducted in the early hours of Saturday from a farm he owned, Ecuadorian police confirmed. A video said to show signs of forced entry, along with traces of blood and ransacked rooms, is understood to be circulating on social media.
Now focus by local authorities has switched to 78-year-old Mr Armstrong’s partner Katherine Paola Santos amid claims made on social media about lies over her identity. Lawyer Ricardo Vanegas claimed in a tweet about the Colombian: “Following the kidnap of Colin Armstrong, it’s become known that Katherine Paola Santos was born in the Colombian city of Barranquilla and began having surgery to look more feminine and that her birth name is Alberto Santos. It appears she is now being investigated by prosecutors and police in Ecuador over the kidnap of Colin Armstrong.”
Colombian media says the ongoing investigation to locate Mr Armstrong is being handled personally by Ecuador National Police director Cesar Augusto Zapata along with a specialist anti-kidnap and extortion unit called UNASE. British intelligence services are also said to be assisting the Ecuadorian-led investigation into the whereabouts of the missing expat.
As well as founding and owning a large agricultural supply company in the South American country, he is a director along with his son of the 500-acre Tupgill Park Estate near Leyburn in North Yorkshire, which has been the family home for more than 45 years.
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Ecuador’s National Police have so far made only one official comment on the kidnap, which happened at around 2.45am local time on Saturday at the British businessman’s ranch called Rancho Rodeo Grande near the town of Baba in Los Rios province, two hours drive north of Guayaquil.
Mr Armstrong was kidnapped in the early hours of SaturdayIn a tweet sent on Saturday, the force said: “Following an apparent criminal act against a businessman in the early hours of this morning in Los Rios, specialist police units are carrying out operative and investigative work on the ground.”
Mr Colin, as he was known affectionately by staff at the ranch, is understood to have been kidnapped in an operation involving more than 15 gangsters and forcibly bundled into a black BMW he owned with his partner which was later found abandoned near the scene.
Last night it was reported Nick Armstrong, Mr Armstrong’s son who helps run the family estate in North Yorkshire, had flown to Ecuador to help police locate his father.
Police are now quizzing Mr Armstrong's partner (Agripac/AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Armstrong and Katherine Paola Santos in Jamaica (Instagram)His daughter, Diana Armstrong-Bruns, an estate agent based in California, told MailOnline: “This is a critical time, we’ve been told not to say anything to anyone. We just want my father back.” Mr Armstrong, who is thought to have previously been married to an Ecuadorian woman, has had a long association with the South America country. He founded Agripac in 1972.
Colin's adopted son, Leo Morris, helps run a restaurant at the family's Yorkshire estate. The estate now welcomes more than 150,000 visitors a year to an attraction known as the Forgotten Corner which was originally built as a private folly. Footage showing the aftermath of the kidnap was posted online shortly after it happened.
A woman thought to be a member of staff filming inside the ranch took close-up shots of broken plates on the floor and a man who appeared to be holding a bandage to his head. She then walked into one of the bedrooms where there was blood over the bed and said as she focused in on the stained sheets: “This is where they hit him. My God what is this!!!”
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