Toronto spiritual healer, wife violently robbed in Ecuador

I shared a byline for this story, a Star exclusive. Made a lot of international phone calls and painstakingly pieced the facts together.

Stephen Aube and his wife, Laura Milcawich,
were attacked in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, last Thursday.
Facebook photo, hosted on thestar.com

They had gone to Ecuador to find peace, rejuvenation and spiritual healing. Instead, a Toronto couple was taken hostage by a gun-wielding gang in a perplexing robbery that has left officials in both countries tight-lipped.

Stephen Aube, a 40-year-old self-described spiritual healer, and his wife, Laura Milcawich, left their Toronto home three weeks ago for Vilcabamba, a village near the southern city of Loja. Aube was leading spiritual workshops from the popular meditation destination, known as the Valley of Longevity.

But on Thursday, during a walk through the mountainside, Aube and Milcawich were approached by a group of men reportedly armed with guns and machetes.

See my story in the Toronto Star.