Posted on 08/24/2006 5:41:00 PM PDT by Deo volente
Eight years ago, on March 2 1998, 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch kissed goodbye to her mother Brigitte and set off from her home in Vienna to school. She never made it. Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest ever hunts in Austria. But despite teams of detectives following thousands of leads there was no trace of Natascha - a shy, attractive schoolgirl with light brown hair, who left home without her Gameboy and beloved cuddly mouse.
Until, that was, Wednesday lunchtime, when an elderly neighbour phoned police to say she had found a pale young woman in distress. The woman had a scarcely believable story - that she had just escaped from a man who had held her prisoner in his garage for more than eight years.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Hi there!
I thought you might be interested in this story, one with a happy ending.
There was a case like this in Pittsburgh (of all places) a little while back.
I'll see if I can find the story link.
She was held in a 6ft by 10ft (1.83m by 3.05m) cell beneath the garage of Priklopil’s house in Heinestrasse in the village of Strasshof, near Gänserndorf, 15 miles northeast of Vienna.
The room was equipped with a bed, a cupboard and a few children’s books. The only visible clue to its existence was a 20in hole in the cellar floor.
...
For more than seven years, Natascha never left her cell. But a few months ago Priklopil began to allow her to spend short periods in his garden and even took her on shopping trips. He warned her, however, that any attempt to escape or shout for help would not be a good idea.
At lunchtime on Wednesday Natascha was allowed into the garden on her own and seized her chance. She ran to a neighbouring house and told an elderly woman that she had been held captive nearby for many years. At 1.04pm the woman rang the police. Natascha was taken to the local police station where she told them her name.
How horrible! Can you imagine a child being kept in a 6x10 foot cell under a garage, never seeing the light of day, from the ages of 10 to 17? I hope the monster who did this to her rots in hell. But thank God she's alive and her parents' faith that she would return is rewarded.
Enough of this. Can anyone tell me the latest developments in Aruba or the Jon Benet case? /s
her physical and emotional scars will, certainly, take some
time to heal. it sounds like she has a wonderfully supportive
family around her, though. bless them all.
Leni
oh you can see such incredible pain in their eyes.
A new story with more details, and a picture of the perp (now dead).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/25/wcaptive25.xml
"EIGHT harrowing years had passed, but there was instant recognition between father and the daughter who had been held captive in an underground dungeon since they last saw each other.
Natascha Kampusch stopped and stared at Ludwig Koch for a few moments, as if to dispel any lingering possibility that this was a dream. Then the frail teenager, dressed in the simple orange dress and ballet shoes provided by her abductor, jumped into her father’s arms, clung tightly to his neck and began to sob uncontrollably.
Herr Koch’s tears flowed freely too. “She is 100 per cent my daughter,” wept Herr Koch as he hugged the child he had not seen since she was 10 years old.
“The only way to imagine it was to picture a scene from a movie,” said Herwig Haidinger, a senior police officer who was present at the reunion on Wednesday night. “It was completely overwhelming.”
Yesterday Natascha was also reunited with her mother, Brigitte Sirny, for the first time since the morning in 1998 when she was snatched from a Vienna street as she walked to school.
“She looked at me and I saw straightaway it was my little girl. A mother doesn’t forget the face of her child. I knew. I opened my arms and called her my little mouse and she said ‘mama’. She knew it was me,” Frau Sirny said last night in an interview on Austrian television. “In all this time I have never given up hope that she would come knocking on the door. I left her bedroom exactly as it was when she vanished, I never changed a thing. It’s all still there waiting for her.
“I didn’t ask her any questions about her ordeal, I just listened. I know she will tell me everything when she is ready. She was taken when she was 10 years old and yet she survived, she was sensible and waited for her chance. She knew I would come.”
Police have taken the family to a “secure location” to allow them some privacy, but also to give detectives the chance to piece together the story of the most astonishing crime in Austria’s postwar history."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2328291,00.html
given those details of her captivity, that
evil monster is right where he belongs.
I think McCain wants to be Hillary's running mate.
------
I think I like cheese.
about as messy as our sons bedroom.
we do let him out for fresh air and she was,
certainly, treated much differently too.
glad they are giving the family some privacy!
What a beautiful child. My prayers are for a future that can bring her happiness and comfort. Ten years is a lot of time full of insane events to put behind her. I pray she has strong people helping her adjust to life after tragedy. God bless her.
A society that considers itself civilized will not allow this man to remain alive.
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