Natascha Kampusch

Natascha Kampusch
Born	1988 Vienna, Austria

Natascha Kampusch (born February 17, 1988 in Vienna) is an Austrian teenager who was abducted at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998, and remained in custody of her kidnapper, Wolfgang Priklopil, for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006.

Early years and family

Kampusch was born to Brigitta Sirny, and raised by Sirny and her partner Ludwig Koch in Vienna, Austria. Her family included two adult sisters, and five nieces and nephews. Sirny and Koch separated while Kampusch was still a child. Kampusch spent time with both of them, having returned to her mother's home from a vacation with Koch the day before her kidnapping.

Kidnapping

The 10-year-old Kampusch left her family's residence in Vienna's Donaustadt district on 2 March 1998 for school, but failed to arrive at school or come home. A 12-year-old witness reported having seen her entering a white minibus with dark rear and side windows, and two other witnesses reported the letters G or GF (for Gänserndorf) on the license plate. The 12-year-old also claimed she had seen Kampusch being dragged into the white minibus, with another person at the wheel. Kampusch, however, does not report that a second man was present. The police doubted the 12-year-old witness's story after teachers told them she was prone to fantasizing, but she still maintained her story 8 years later. A massive search followed, yielding no success. In a massive police effort, 700 minivans were examined, including that of Priklopil, who lived about half an hour from Vienna by car in the Lower Austrian town of Strasshof an der Nordbahn, near Gänserndorf. Although he stated that on the morning of 2 March 1998 he was alone at home, no further investigation was undertaken. The police were satisfied with his explanation of why he owned the minibus: to transport construction site rubble, since Priklopil was doing construction work in his house. Furthermore, he had no criminal record at that time and the police had no further reason to suspect him.

The white van was not the only lead the police followed. It turned out afterwards that the white van was the only viable lead, so the media concentrated on it, often creating the impression that this was the only lead. The police searched the area where the girl disappeared with dogs and search teams, divers searched ponds and many men with criminal records as sex offenders were checked. Many speculations about child pornography rings or organ theft were offered. The girl had carried her passport with her when she left (she had been on a family trip to Hungary a few days before) and the police extended the search abroad. Accusations against Kampusch's family complicated the issue even more; on May 25, 2007, her mother was officially charged and ordered to stand trial for aiding in the abduction to cover up sexual abuse.

Officials also investigated possible links to the crimes of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret.

Captivity

Kampusch was held in a very small, secret room, in Priklopil's house, which is situated in Strasshof an der Nordbahn, Heinestraße 60, for the period of her confinement. It was hidden 2.5 metres underground with only 5 m² of space -- 2.78 m length x 1.81 m width x 2.37 m height (approximately 9 ft long, 6 ft wide, with a 7 ft 9 in ceiling). The chamber was not an ordinary bedroom. It was enclosed, with two doors and a strong-room door made of steel. The entrance was hidden behind a cupboard in Priklopil's garage. The room had no windows or daylight. For the first years of her captivity Kampusch was not allowed to leave the tiny space at night and for the first six months of her captivity she was confined to the small chamber day and night. Afterwards, she spent increasing amounts of time upstairs in the rest of the house, but each night was sent back to the chamber to sleep, and while Priklopil was at work. In later years, the room was remodelled according to Kampusch's specifications. When the police found the room, it contained a ladder leading to a bed over a nightstand with a drawer, a shelving unit and small cupboards, a TV, a desk and chair, a toilet and sink, hooks for clothes, a bulletin board and a ventilator that pumped air into the cell. The room was cluttered with papers, books, clothes, boxes, games and water bottles. From June 2005, she had been allowed to walk in the garden. Only after 17 February 2006 was she allowed to leave the house with Priklopil who threatened her with death if she made a noise. He later took her on a skiing trip to a resort near Vienna for a few hours, during which time she did not have a chance to escape. She initially denied this in interview and only admitted to lying after conclusive evidence was provided.

According to Kampusch's official statement after her escape, she and Priklopil would get up early each morning to have breakfast together. Priklopil gave her books, so she educated herself, and according to a colleague of his, she appeared happy. Later, when explaining that in general she did not feel she had missed anything during her imprisonment, she noted, "I spared myself many things, I did not start smoking or drinking and I did not hang out in bad company". But she also said: "I always had the thought: Surely I didn't come into the world so I could be locked up and my life completely ruined. I give up in despair about this unfairness. I always felt like a poor chicken in a hen house. You saw my dungeon on television and in the media. Thus you know how small it was. It was a place to despair." Dietmar Ecker, Kampusch's media advisor, said Kampusch told him Priklopil "would beat her so badly she could hardly walk. When she was beaten black and blue, he tried to smarten her up. Then he would take his camera and photograph her".

Priklopil had warned Natascha that the doors and windows of the house were booby-trapped with high explosives. He also claimed to be carrying a gun, and that he would kill her and the neighbours if she attempted to escape. Nevertheless, Kampusch on one occasion fantasized about chopping his head off with an axe, although she quickly dismissed the idea. She also attempted to make noise during her early years of captivity by throwing bottles of water against the walls. She said that on trips out with Priklopil she had attempted in vain to attract attention.

Kampusch has said that of her relationship with Priklopil that "I always felt that I was the stronger one". She has recalled that she had a bell in her room which Priklopil told her to ring if she needed anything and that she rang it so often he switched it off. She would also send him to the supermarket to buy food to cook for dinner and force him to celebrate Christmas. In an article in The Mail on Sunday on 17 September 2006 it was reported that Kampusch has said she had several opportunities to escape. She has admitted that Priklopil would even 'suggest' ways for her to escape. Several neighbours told journalists that he would be seen eating in a restaurant while she apparently waited in the car outside.

Escape

The 18-year old Kampusch reappeared on 23 August 2006. She was cleaning and vacuuming her kidnapper's BMW 850i in the garden. At 12:53pm, someone called Priklopil on his mobile phone, and he walked away to take the call because of the vacuuming noise. Kampusch left the vacuum cleaner running and ran away, unseen by Priklopil, who, according to the caller, completed the phone call without any sign of being disturbed or distracted. Kampusch ran for some 200 metres through gardens and a street, jumping fences, and asking passers-by to call the police, but they paid her no attention. After about five minutes, she knocked on the window of a 71-year old neighbour known as Inge T., saying, "I am Natascha Kampusch". The neighbour called the police, who arrived at 1:04 pm. Later Kampusch was taken to the police station in the town of Deutsch Wagram.

Kampusch was identified by a scar on her body, her passport (which was found in the room where she had been held), and by DNA tests. The young woman was in good physical health, although she looked pale and shaken and weighed only 48 kg (approximately 106 lb), almost the same weight (45 kg) as eight years earlier when she disappeared. She had grown only 15 centimeters (approximately 6 in).

Sabine Freudenberger, the first police officer to speak to Kampusch after her ordeal, said that she was astonished by her "intelligence, her vocabulary". After two years Priklopil had brought her books, newspapers, and a radio, tuned mainly to Ö1, an ORF station that is known for promoting education and classical music. She also states that she constantly had a feeling that she lacked something: "A deficit. So I wanted to make that better and I tried to educate myself, to teach myself skills. I have learned to knit for an example". Priklopil, having found that the police were after him, killed himself by jumping in front of a suburban train near the Wien Nord station in Vienna. He had apparently predicted his suicide by telling Kampusch that "they would not catch him alive".

After escape

In her official statement she said "I don't want and will not answer any questions about personal or intimate details".

There is speculation that Kampusch may have Stockholm syndrome as a result of her ordeal. She said "I feel more and more sorry for him - he's a poor soul", in spite of having been held captive for eight years by him, and according to police she lit a candle for him at the morgue. She has, however, denied the hypothesis of Stockholm syndrome and referred to her captor as a "criminal".

Interviews

After reportedly hundreds of requests for an interview with the teenager, with media outlets offering vast sums of money, Kampusch was interviewed by Austrian public broadcaster ORF. The interview was broadcast on 6 September 2006 after her approval. ORF did not pay for its interview, but said any proceeds from selling the interview to other channels would be forwarded to Kampusch. The interview was sold to more than 120 countries at a fee of €290 per minute. This money - estimates say some hundred thousand euros - will be donated to women in Africa and Mexico by Kampusch. Likewise she plans projects to help these women. As of 6 September interest has been enormous.

The newspaper Kronen Zeitung and news magazine NEWS also interviewed Kampusch. The interview was published on 6 September 2006. Both press interviews were given in return for a package including housing support, a long-term job offer, and help with her education.

On her first interview Christoph Feurstein asked her if she had been lonely during captivity. Kampusch snapped "what a ridiculous question" and left the room, returning after a brief pause. Prior to the interview, which was edited to her approval, she had spent four hours with her media adviser Dietmar Ecker doing a trial run. She has announced that she "chose" her advisors during captivity because she had been impressed by what she heard of them on the radio. While in her first interview Kampusch seemed intent upon projecting strength, follow-up interviews with Christoph Feurstein in December 2006 and January 2007 offered a more extensive picture of Kampusch's sufferings.

Books

The book Girl in the Cellar; the Natascha Kampusch Story by Allan Hall and Michael Leidig appeared in November 2006, written in English. Kampusch's lawyer called the book speculative and premature and planned legal action against it.

Together with two journalists, Kampusch's mother wrote a book about the ordeal, Verzweifelte Jahre ("Frantic Years"). Kampusch appeared at the initial presentation of the book in August 2007, but did not want to be photographed or interviewed. Her mother writes that she did not have much contact with Kampusch after the escape because Kampusch was shielded from the outside world.

Media Endeavors

Natascha Kampusch has established her own website containing lots of personal information including pictures of herself on December 5th 2007 [1]. She will become the host of her own talkshow at the new Austria TV station PULS 4 starting in Spring 2008, which has the working title of In Conversation With ... Natascha Kampusch.

External links

• Natascha Kampusch´s Official Homepage
• Kidnapper a poor, lost soul: victim, 21 August 2007

• English translation by International Herald-Tribune of open letter released by Kampusch on 28 August 2006
• Diagram of the hidden room Kampusch lived in by APA
• Diagram and pictures of the hidden room by Federal Criminal Police Office of Austria
• Interview with Natascha with English Subtitles