Tami Maro

Chloe Ayling was 20 when she flew to Milan for a photoshoot and woke up naked inside a duffel bag in the trunk of a car. Her kidnappers injected her with ketamine, chained her to a dresser and demanded €300,000. If nobody paid, she would be auctioned off on the dark web. It was July 2017. A British glamour model from London got booked for what looked like a high-profile gig in one of the fashion capitals of the world. She walked up to the studio, reached for the door, and a gloved hand clamped over her mouth and nose from behind. A second man rushed her from the front. They pinned her to the floor, the needle went in, and everything went black. When she woke up, her mouth was taped, her hands were cuffed to her ankles and she was zipped inside a black bag with no clothes and no shoes. She banged on the trunk and screamed "driver, driver." Nobody stopped. They drove her two hours out of Milan to a remote farmhouse and handcuffed her to a piece of furniture. When she asked why, the answer was worse than the kidnapping: "You've already been put up for sale." Her photos were posted on the dark web like a product listing, and her captor told her there was "huge interest." He told her that if she tried to run, she would be killed. For six days she kept him talking. Then she told him she had a two-year-old son. That changed everything. They drove her to the British Consulate in Milan and let her go. And then the internet turned on her. During those six days she had gone shoe shopping with one of her kidnappers, so half the world called it a publicity stunt. Other models posted photos mocking her. "It's disgusting," she says. The court didn't think it was a stunt. Lukasz Herba got 16 years and 9 months in prison. His brother Michal was extradited from the UK and convicted too. Years later, Chloe was diagnosed with autism, and she says that explains why she reacted so calmly that people refused to believe her. In 2024 the BBC turned her story into a six-part drama called Kidnapped. Do you believe Chloe Ayling, or do you still think it was staged?