A British family who purchased a private island near Nicaragua found themselves embroiled in a struggle with local drug lords, when the mom and former Playboy Bunny became involved with their burly handyman. It ended with the dad of three dying of stress related asthma attack after he set alight his wife’s former lover and his family’s kidnapper.
The saga of Jayne Gaskin and her ex-partner Phil’s children, Damien 13, James 11, and Cherry nine, began when Jayne decided she had enough of the quiet life in Hampshire – and instead wanted to buy an island on the “cocaine highway”, a notorious drug route to Miami.
Jayne, her children, and her new partner, also named Phil, tried to exchange their ordinary life in Britain for the 9.5-acre Lime Clay island on the Mosquito Coast of Central America. But as Phil arrived at the airport he felt as a sense of foreboding, saying: “I suppose I should be feeling really excited but I just feel apprehensive and worried that I’m doing the right thing taking these children out all the way over to this island.” Phil’s gut feeling was correct. The story ended tragically with the family kidnapped at gunpoint and Phil succumbing to an asthma attack weeks after the fact from stress. Even worse, face of their demise would rock up on the island on the family’s invite.
Phil and Jayne, who were trailed by Channel 4 documentary maker Billy Paulett, asked Teodoro to join as their resident security guard, handyman and construction worker, according to The Price of Paradise, a podcast by Wondery and Forest Sounds. While Phil and the three children yearned for their former life in England, Jayne was resolute in making the move succeed, despite the tension, deathly silent nights, and constant plague of sand flies nipping at their skin.
Phil admitted: “It’s all very pretty. But it’s still not my idea of paradise. It’s growing on me. But there’s no going back because Jayne’s not leaving this island.” The couple’s strategy was to transform the island into a tourist hotspot and Phil began constructing six cabanas, each accommodating up to four guests – this is where Teodoro would come in.
Billy said Phil was “devoted” to Jayne, adding “I certainly got the impression that Phil absolutely adored Jane and would do anything for her – I’m not saying he was dragged there but if Jane’s dream had been to move to a cottage in Scotland I think he would have followed her.”
However, the documentary maker was terrified of Teodoro, saying he looked like he could “snap him like a twig.” Billy continued: “The thing I noticed about him were the eyes -and I’d interviewed a lot of gangsters in the past but its always the eyes that get you and they were a light brown hazel-y colour but they were sort of dead.
“He smiled and he laughed but it was quite an unnerving smile and laugh – he would chuckle but end up staring at you. He’s built like a heavyweight boxer – he’s big and lean. You instantly knew he was ex-military just because of the way he carried himself.” For a time Phil and Theodoro tried to turn the one measly one-room cabin into a home. Prior to departing England, Phil had allocated approximately £50,000 for the resort’s construction, employee wages, materials, fuel, and food. However, expenses began to escalate unexpectedly.
Phil confessed: “It’s a lot more expensive living here than I thought it was going to be. I’ve got about 90 weeks to make this work at present rates of expenditure.” After noticing Teodoro’s lack of commitment to his duties, he was promptly dismissed, only to return a few days later pleading for his job.
However, following a heated exchange with Jayne, it emerged that the two were involved in an affair which concluded when he slept with the family’s cook. Addressing Teodoro on the show, Jayne stated: “I don’t know how much English you understand. You mess around with me, next thing you mess with the cook. I don’t want someone like that on my island. You no like me anymore.”
Teodoro retorted: “You have husband and these children, you know.” Before departing the island, Teodoro ominously said: “This is my country. One day she gone and I stay in my country. You will see.”
Then in the dead of night situation reached boiling point when five masked men invaded their home, demanding $1 million in exchange for their lives. In the Channel 4 documentary, Phil said there was “Lots of commotion outside the hut and the next thing I know somebody said, Mr. Philip, you better do what you’re told. There was a gun pointing at me telling me get down on the floor.” They were abducted, forced onto a motorboat, and taken out to sea. However, as the men bent over the kids in their sodden pyjamas, it became clear from his voice that one of the men was his wife’s ex-lover and the family’s ex-handyman Teodoro.
He said: “First of all, I recognised his voice, and the children also recognised his voice.” They eventually managed to escape after Phil retaliated, flipping a fuel canister and matches over in his hand before setting the motorboat on fire. Phil saw his hand was on fire but carried on dousing their captors in fire before throwing himself overboard.
Jane grabbed the kids and they leaped overboard taking refuge in an alligator-infested swamp overnight. He said: “All I could hear was bang, bang. I didn’t look back I was running for my life at that point. The men came after us, there were two men and they had got me down in a corner, they found me. I could see a gun. They were waving the gun at me and he was pulling the trigger but there were no bullets left.”
“We went right back into the bush, through some swamp. We waded through right up to our knees, then we hide in the swamp behind a tree.” Jayne said: “We stayed completely silent all night because I knew Teodora enjoyed hunting in the bush. He used to talk about hunting tigers at night. I knew he enjoyed killing. He would often recount how he had previously killed people and relished in drinking men’s blood. These were the tales he spun.”
Phil managed to hail a passing fishing vessel, which transported the family to safety. They relayed their terrifying experience to local law enforcement, who located the kidnappers after a week-long search. Despite the trauma they endured, Jayne was adamant that they should return to the island.
Phil said: “This is my prison, the sea forms my bars, and I’m perpetually haunted, yet the only escape from this island is in my dreams.” Phil’s health began to decline due to the stress, leading to a respiratory infection. Following a series of severe asthma attacks, the family chose to leave the island with Phil to be near medical facilities. Tragically, Phil passed away four weeks later. It is believed that Jayne and her children have since sold the island and relocated back to London.
