Natascha Kampusch

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 killed himself by stepping in front of a train at a nearby station.

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, 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.

During the eight years of her captivity, Kampusch was held in a small cellar underneath Přiklopil's garage.

The entrance was concealed behind a cupboard.

The cellar had only 5 sqm of space.

It had a door made of concrete and was reinforced with steel.

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, and 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 has said that Kampusch seemed relaxed and happy when Přiklopil and she called at his home to borrow a trailer.

She has written a book about her ordeal, 3,096 Days (2010), which was later adapted into a film and released in 2013.

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.

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 found to be defamatory by a criminal court; his 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.

After her 18th birthday, she was allowed to leave the house with Přiklopil, but her kidnapper threatened to kill her if she made any noise.

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 she had no chance to escape 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, so she educated herself.

She did not feel that she had missed 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".

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 a car.

A large portion of Kampusch's time upstairs was spent doing housework for Přiklopil and cooking for him.

Dietmar Ecker, Kampusch's media advisor, said that Přiklopil "would beat her so badly that she could hardly walk".

Přiklopil would starve her to make her physically weak and unable to escape.

Kampusch was also raped by Přiklopil.