Natascha Maria Kampusch (born 17 February 1988) is an Austrian author and former talk show host. At the age of 10, on 2 March 1998, she was abducted and held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper, Wolfgang Přiklopil, for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006. Upon her escape, Přiklopil died by suicide by train at a nearby station. She wrote a book about her ordeal, 3,096 Days (2010), which was later adapted into a film that was released in 2013.
Early life Kampusch was raised by her mother, Brigitta Sirny (née Kampusch), and her father, Ludwig Koch, in Vienna. Kampusch's family included two adult sisters, and five nieces and nephews. Sirny and Koch separated while Kampusch was still a child and divorced after her abduction. Kampusch spent time with both of them, and had returned to her mother's home from a holiday with Koch the day before her kidnapping. At the time of her abduction, she was a student at the Brioschiweg primary school.
Abduction The 10-year-old Kampusch left her family's residence in Vienna's Donaustadt district on the morning of 2 March 1998, but failed to arrive at school or come home. A 12-year-old witness reported having seen her being dragged into a white minibus by two men, although Kampusch did not report a second man being present. A massive police effort followed in which 776 minivans were examined,So ließ die Polizei Nataschas Entführer laufen T-Online extract from Sirny's book, in German"Wer fotografiert seine Tochter nackt mit einer Peitsche?" 20min.ch Interview with the primary Police investigator Max Edelbacher, in German including that of her kidnapper Přiklopil, who lived about half an hour from Vienna by car in the Lower Austrian town of Strasshof an der Nordbahn near Gänserndorf. He stated that he was alone at home on the morning of the kidnapping, and the police were satisfied with his explanation that he was using the minibus to transport rubble from the construction of his home.
Speculations arose of child pornography rings or organ theft, leading officials to also investigate possible links to the crimes of French serial killer Michel Fourniret. Kampusch had carried her passport with her when she left, as she had been on a family trip to Hungary a few days before, so the police extended the search abroad. Accusations against Kampusch's family complicated the issue even more.
Captivity During the eight years of her captivity, Kampusch was held in a small cellar underneath Přiklopil's garage. A trap door in the garage led to a narrow flight of stairs to a basement room. The entrance to the cellar in which she was held was a small steel hatch concealed behind a cupboard. The room had no windows and was soundproof. For the first six months of her captivity, Kampusch was not allowed to leave the chamber at any time. Přiklopil controlled the lighting and electricity, at first leaving it on all the time, and he installed a two-way intercom through which he would give commands at random, something Kampusch likened to torture methods. However, Kampusch examined the intercom's three buttons and discovered the third button allowed her to silence his random orders. Přiklopil brought food, books, and rationed TV programming (one to two hours on the weekdays and two to four hours on the weekend). He did not come to the dungeon on weekends because, Kampusch learned later, his mother came for overnight visits.
In 2000, Kampusch had her first menstrual period and asked her captor for sanitary pads. She reported that everything changed after that, and "my childhood ended". He then began bringing her into the house more frequently and forcing her to meticulously clean. Přiklopil's house had been his parents' house and he wanted to renovate several rooms. Kampusch became his renovation worker. She describes Přiklopil forcing her to do difficult work well beyond her capabilities, such as dragging large slabs of stone and other heavy lifting and moving. He also forced her to do things like hand him tools, and if she handed him the wrong tool he became very angry. She became strong from this work and eventually gained the courage to physically strike Přiklopil, which was met with overpowering force. He began restricting her food and she became weaker.
She engaged in other quiet acts of resistance. Early in her captivity, Přiklopil demanded that she call him "maestro." She refused. Later, he demanded that she kneel in front of him, which she refused. He attempted to force her body into a kneeling position, but she resisted and he did not succeed in forcing her to kneel.
For several years of her captivity, she was not allowed to leave the tiny space at night. Afterward, she spent increasing amounts of time upstairs in the rest of the house, but each night was sent back to the chamber to sleep, as well as while Přiklopil was at work.
In later years, she was seen outside in the garden alone, and Přiklopil's business partner had said that Kampusch seemed relaxed and happy when he called at Přiklopil's home to borrow a trailer. After her 18th birthday, she was allowed to leave the house with Přiklopil, but he threatened to kill her if she attempted to escape or attract any attention. He later took her on a skiing trip to a resort near Vienna for a few hours. She initially denied that they had made the trip, but eventually admitted that it was true, although she said that no opportunities to escape had arisen during that time.
According to Kampusch's official statement after her escape, Přiklopil and she would get up early each morning to have breakfast together. Přiklopil gave her books, with which she educated herself. She did not feel that she had missed out on anything during her imprisonment, but 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, "It was a place to despair".Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September 2006. "It was a place to despair: kidnap girl ". Accessed 7 September 2006. She was given a television and radio to pass the time, although she was initially only allowed to watch taped programmes and listen to foreign radio stations so that she would not be aware of the publicised search for her. At one point, she tried to escape by jumping out of Přiklopil's car.
A large portion of Kampusch's time upstairs was spent doing housework and cooking for Přiklopil. Dietmar Ecker, Kampusch's media advisor, said that Přiklopil "would beat her so badly that she could hardly walk". He would also starve her to make her physically weak and unable to escape. He also raped her.
Přiklopil had warned Kampusch 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, when out in public with Přiklopil, she had unsuccessfully attempted to attract attention.
Escape The 18-year-old Kampusch escaped from Přiklopil's house on 23 August 2006. At 12:53 pm, she was cleaning and vacuuming her kidnapper's white van in the garden when Přiklopil got a call on his mobile phone. Because of the vacuum's loud noise, he walked away to take the call. Kampusch left the vacuum cleaner running and ran away when Přiklopil was out of sight. She ran for some 200 metres (218 yards) through neighbouring gardens and a street, jumping fences, and asking bystanders 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, by her passport (which was found in the room where she had been held), and by DNA tests. She was in good physical health, although she looked pale and shaken and weighed only ; she had weighed when she disappeared eight years earlier. Her body mass index reached as low as 14.8, outside the normal range of 18.5 to 24.9, and she grew only during her captivity.
Controversy Ludwig Adamovich, head of a special commission looking into possible police failures in the investigation of the kidnapping, claimed that the time Kampusch was imprisoned "was always better than what she had known until then". This assessment was denied by Brigitta Sirny, and Adamovich's statement was in a news report by a criminal court; his defamation conviction was later overturned on appeal.
In Kampusch's 2010 book about her kidnapping, 3,096 Days, she stated that her parents slapped her, and that she was considering suicide on the day of her abduction. However, Kampusch asserted that her mother was not abusive and that her home life was better than life in captivity.
Kidnapper Wolfgang Přiklopil (; 14 May 1962 – 23 August 2006) was an Austrian communications technician. He was born to Karl and Waltraud Přiklopil in Vienna, and was their only child. His father was a traveling cognac salesman and his mother was a shoe saleswoman. Přiklopil worked at Siemens for a time as a communications technician. His father died when he was in his 20s. He spoke "often and admiringly of Hitler" and his contemporary political hero was Jörg Haider of Austria's Freedom Party, had the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler on his shelf, and when the 9/11 attacks happened, he took pleasure in the attacks on the "conspiracy of global Jewish dominance."
Přiklopil fled in his red BMW sports car that was later found in a Vienna car park; knowing that the police were after him, he died by suicide that night by jumping in front of an oncoming train near the Wien Nord station in Vienna. He had apparently planned all along to end his own life rather than be caught, having told Kampusch, "they would not catch [him] alive".
Evidence recovery was complicated, as Přiklopil's only computer was a 1980s Commodore 64, which is incompatible with modern-day data recovery software. Before Kampusch escaped, Přiklopil was trying to procure false papers as a Czech citizen to "begin a new life" with Kampusch.Crooked nose drove Kampusch kidnapper claims his best friend , The Independent
Aftermath In her official statement, Kampusch said, "I don't want and will not answer any questions about personal or intimate details". After Kampusch's escape, police investigated whether Přiklopil had an accomplice,ORF, 25 August 2006. "Hatte Entführer einen Komplizen?". Accessed 25 August 2006 but they eventually determined that he acted alone.
Kampusch sympathized with her captor in the documentary Natascha Kampusch: 3096 days in captivity. She said, "I feel more and more sorry for himhe's a poor soul". According to police, she "cried inconsolably" when she was told that he was dead; she had developed feelings for him and she lit a candle for him at the morgue. She has, however, referred to her captor as a "criminal".
Newspapers quoting unnamed psychologists suggested that Kampusch might suffer from Stockholm syndrome, but Kampusch says that this is not the case. She suggests that people who use this term about her are disrespectful of her and do not allow her the right to describe and analyze the complex relationship that she had with her kidnapper in her own words.
Interviews