Natascha Kampusch

Natascha Kampusch is an Austrian young woman , born the February 17th 1988 in Vienna. It was removed by its kidnapper, Wolfgang Priklopil, electrical engineer 36 year old, in March 1998, whereas it was 10 years old, and was locked up in its house eight years during, during 3096 days. It was only the August 23rd 2006 which it found freedom when it benefitted from one moment of carelessness of its kidnapper: he had asked him to pass the vacuum cleaner in the car and it had profited owing to the fact that to telephone, he had moved away because it noise to escape. Since, it is in a place for the secret held moment, with the variation of the outside world, of its family and the Médias, with the police load of the and the Psychiatre S.

Wolfgang Priklopil, his geôlier, committed suicide while throwing himself under a train the evening of escaped from Natascha. The young girl, via a message read by her doctors, declared: “It belonged to my life, this is why in a certain manner I carry his mourning”.

Natascha spent the eight years of its captivity in the house of its kidnapper and in particular in a hiding place without natural light arranged summarily in the basement of the dwelling with a bed, a wash-hand basin, toilets, an office and arrangements. Its daily newspaper was rate/rhythm by its rising, its catch of breakfast with its kidnapper, the household, the kitchen, television and the reading, sometimes of the discussions with Wolfgang. When its kidnapper, who according to it did not work much, left the house, it remained in general in the hiding place. Sometimes, it had access to the remainder of the residence when it was alone, the exits being protected. It only went very seldom in the garden and always under the monitoring of Wolfgang.

According to the press, the police force suspecterait Wolfgang Priklopil to have misused sexually Natascha Kampusch during its eight years of captivity. However, Natascha did not evoke these details itself, the young woman required that one not ask him any question about possible intimate relationship with Priklopil. She indeed declared with the press: I will not answer any question carrying about intimate or personal details. Everyone wants without stop to raise intimate questions which do not look at anybody. Perhaps that I will tell with my therapeutist, or if I were for of to feel the need, or perhaps never. My intimacy belongs only to me .

The September 6th 2006, Natascha grants an interview with face discovered on television Austrian ORF to tell its captivity. It evoked the personality paranoiac, unstable and threatening of its kidnapper.

Natascha made a point of contradicting certain information published since its escape, on Wednesday, August 23. The press told that its relations with his/her parents were tended, and the young woman specified that its contacts (telephone for the moment) with his/her parents were excellent. Natascha declared: Not, one is unjust towards my mother when him anything is reproached. I like it and she likes me.

Natascha now wishes to resume studies, perhaps of Droit, Psychologie or Journalisme, and to be reintegrated quietly in the company.

Removal

Translates since English

His/her mother, Brigitte Sirny, 55 years, had two now adult girls and four grandchildren in 1998 when Natascha disappeared. After the disappearance of Natascha it appeared that both had disputed the morning when it was removed, with Brigitte admitting to have slapped her daughter with the face. Mr Koch, his father, shows even his former associate to be implied in the disappearance of his daughter, a load of which he excused himself since.

She left the residence of her family in the zone of Donaustadt to Vienna on March 2nd, 1998 to go to school, but she does not arrive or does not come to the house. A witness paid to have seen it entering a white minibus with the windows back and side sunk, and two other witnesses brought back letters G or GF (for Gänserndorf) on the number plate. A witness stated to have seen Natascha being gone up of force in the white minibus, with another person at the wheel. Natascha Kampusch, however, does not report that a second accomplice was present. A massive research followed, without any success. Seven hundred cars were examined, including that of the kidnapper. Priklopil, which lived in Strasshof der Nordbahn in Low Austria, close to Gänserndorf, at approximately half an hour of Vienna in the car, was heard then within the framework of a vast interrogation of the owners of white minibuses. Although he declared that the morning of March 2nd, 1998 he was alone at the house, no additional research was undertaken. The police force was satisfied with its explanation of its reason of the possession of the minibus: in order to transport materials of building site, since Priklopil carried out building work in its house. Moreover, it did not have any police records at this time.

The investigators had studied possible bonds with the crimes of the French serial killer Michel Fourniret.

Captivity

Kampusch was held captive by its kidnapper in a hiding place without natural light arranged summarily in the basement of the dwelling. This hiding place was located at 2,5 meters under the ground and was 2,78 meters length by 1,81 meters of width and 2,37 meters in height 5 square meters only on the whole. It was not a question of a room to be slept ordinary. The part was completely closed, with two doors of which one out of almost indestructible steel. The main door was hidden inside a cupboard in the garage of Priklopil. The hiding place did not have windows nor of natural light. During the first six months of its captivity, Priklopil never enabled him to leave the hiding place, even the night. It passed thereafter most of its time in other parts of the house, even if it however were obliged to spend its nights during its captivity there. After the escape from Kampusch, the Austrian police force discovered inside the hiding place a scale joining a bed on the ground, like several pieces of furniture, of which the convenient ones, a rack, an office with chair and a television. Its kidnapper had made install a ventilator to ensure that the air is renewed there constantly. There were as well sheets of paper, clothing, books, plays and bottles of water in the part. As from June 2005, Priklopil made it possible Kampusch from time to time to walk in the garden. As of on February 17th, 2006, its kidnapper even allowed him to leave at his place. He took it along thereafter during a few hours to Vienna, very close, to ski, but Kampusch did not on the occasion to escape. For more or less unknown reasons, Kampusch contradicted this excursion during the first discussions with the police officers after his escape.

According to an official declaration published after its escape, Kampusch and Priklopil took every morning together the breakfast. Priklopil gave him books it thus received a rudimentary education and, according to a colleague of Priklopil, it had even the air happy. Later, by explaining why it did not have the impression to have wasted its life at the time of its captivity, it stated that “I abstained from with full with tricks. I did not start to smoke nor to drink and I did not côtoyé bad people”. But she also declared: “The idea came me constantly that I had not been born to be locked up all my life… you saw on television the size of the hiding place. It was a place of despair. ” She also showed her kidnapper of physical violence.

Escape

Kampusch, which is eighteen years old today, reappeared on August 23rd, 2006. It was cleaning the BMW 850i of its kidnapper in the garden of his residence. With 12:53, Priklopil received a portable telephone call. It moved away from the vehicle a few moments because of the noise of the vacuum cleaner that Natascha was making pass. It immediately benefitted from the occasion to escape. It seems that its kidnapper realized from there that after the end of the phone call. Approximately five minutes afterwards, it struck the window of a 71 year old neighbor while saying “I am Natascha Kampusch”. The neighbor thus called the police force, whose agents arrived on the spot at 13:04. Kampusch was brought back thereafter to the police station of the town of Deutsch Wagram.

Kampusch was formally identified thanks to a scar on its body, with its passport found in the hiding place of the residence of Priklopil- as well as tests of DNA. The young woman was apparently in physical good state except for a pale dye and a quite comprehensible weight of only 48 kg considering the circumstances. At the end of its captivity, it had grown only of fifteen centimetres.

The first police one to address itself to the young victim after its escape was said astonished by the “intelligence” and the “vocabulary” by the young woman. After two years of captivity, its kidnapper had bought books, newspapers and a radio at educational ends to him. Priklopil, knowing that he was sought by the police force, committed suicide while being thrown under a suburban train close to Wien the Northern station of Vienna. He had apparently warned Kampusch of his suicide while saying to him “one will never catch me alive”.

Continuation of its escape

In its official declaration in front of the press, Kampusch said: “I do not want to answer questions about personal or intimate details”. The Austrian press speculated in the possibility that Natascha would suffer from the Syndrome of Stockholm following its captivity. It indicated that it was saddened by the death of Priklopil, in spite of the fact that this one had held it of captive during eight years. According to the police force, it would have even lit a candle with the mortuary dedicated to its memory. She nevertheless contradicted the idea of the syndrome and described her kidnapper like “criminal”.

Talks

After having received hundreds of requests for maintenance for vast money sums, the teenager granted an interview to Austrian ORF. The ORF did not pay this maintenance, but decided nevertheless to pour all its profit carried out on the sale of the entirety of the interview to other television channels with Kampusch. The interview was thus sold with more than 120 countries for an amount of 290 euros per minute. This sum estimated at a few hundreds of thousands of euros on the whole - will be paid by Kampusch to help of the African and Mexican women. The daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung and the magazine NEWS also devoted a maintenance to the young woman. It was published on September 6th, 2006. Thanks to them, Kampusch offered support of housing, an offer of stable job and the assistance with regard to its stopped education. During its first interview, Christoph Feuerstein asked Kampusch if it felt “only” during its captivity. Kampusch answered: “which ridiculous question” and left the room, returning after a short pause. Kampusch benefitted from these talks to announce publicly certain more precise details of its detention, of which the famine that its kidnapper imposed to him sometimes almost until death, as of the brutal aggressions that it had undergone. Natascha also spoke about sound Insomnie, its Angoisse, its wounds physical and other health issues.

Precise details

Several weeks after its release, Natascha Kampusch admitted having carried out several exits downtown, in the car, company of its kidnapper. During the winter 2005-2006, it also “accomplished two stays in the winter sports resorts of Hochkar and Semmering”.

Sources

Translation in English of the letter of Natascha Kampusch read by its doctors on August 28th, 2006

Random links: