Something truly horrific happened to a ten-year-old girl in Vienna, Austria was kidnapped.
Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch had just returned home to Vienna after a holiday at her father’s place in Hungary. The morning after she had returned, March 2nd 1998, Natascha set off for Brioschiweg primary school, making the walk to school alone.
Once school was out, Brigitta Sirny was waiting for her daughter to return home but when she never made it back, the worry began to settle in. Brigitta called the school to find out where her daughter was. It turned out Natascha never made it to school. Immediately after finding this out, Brigitta called the police and reported Natascha as missing.
The search started almost immediately, police taking search dogs on the route Natascha would’ve taken to school. The dogs didn’t alert to catching any scent leaving the police to start suggesting the possibility of kidnapping.
Days went by before a young girl, 12, came forward to speak to the police. The young girl claimed to have witnessed Natascha being forced into a white minivan by two men. This gave the police their first solid lead in the case.
Every vehicle that matched the description given was searched and their owners interviewed. 776 minivans were searched, including Wolfgang Přiklopil, during his interview, Přiklopil claimed that he was using the van to transport rubble and that when Natascha was kidnapped he was home alone. Despite the weak alibi police believed him.
Whilst searching the vehicles, police found out that Natascha’s passport had gone missing with her, leading them to believe that she had her passport on her person. This forced police to expand their searches past the Austrian borders and into Hungary.
As the search continued, Natascha Kampusch was being held in a soundproof cellar. The entrance to the room was hidden by an inconspicuous looking cupboard inside Wolfgang Přiklopil’s garage. The room that Natascha was inside was just barely five squared meters in size without any windows and the only way she could get fresh air was through a tiny vent. The soundproof space was sealed shut by two rooms, one of which was made of concrete and reinforced with steel.
Back with the search, police began to suspect that Natascha may have gone to child pornography rings or organ theft. This led the police to a French serial killer, Michel Fourniret. When that search didn’t go anywhere the speculations began to turn on to Natascha’s family. Those accusations came out against Brigitta Sirny, claiming that she had a part in the kidnapping of her young daughter. This never went anywhere other than a lawsuit in later months.
During the investigation, the head of special commission, Ludwig Adamovich came to look into the police work of Natascha Kampusch’s case. Whilst looking for loopholes in the investigation, Adamovich claimed that “the time Kampusch was imprisoned might have been better for her than what she experienced before.”.
The experience of imprisonment that Natascha was supposedly better off in started out confined in a cellar for six months straight where she would throw her water bottle at the wall to try to get attention. She was abused, mentally, physically and sexually.
To break her down mentally, Přiklopil would tell her family had refused to pay the ransom he put out. How the doors and windows were booby-trapped with high explosives or how he would kill Natascha and his neighbours if she escaped. When he would severely beat Natascha afterwards he would try comforting her.
After the initial six months were over, Přiklopil slowly began allowing Natascha to have more freedom around his house. This included forcing her upstairs to clean and prepare his food, she would always be returned to the cellar to sleep or whilst Přiklopil went to work.
Throughout the entirety of her entrapment, Přiklopil watched Natascha’s new daily routine and made sure that she was still studying. He bought her books, magazines and games so that she was still learning. Přiklopil got her a TV but only allowed her to watch recorded shows and he got her a radio, where she learned English since he would only let her listen to foreign stations.
The restrictions began to lessen as Přiklopil began trusting Natascha more and more. It started out with being out of the cellar for most of the day, then going out in the garden at night. Years had gone by at this point and Natascha was going out on walks with Přiklopil. She was threatened with death if she were to ever act out of line but that didn’t stop Natascha from trying to draw attention on the trips out.
One of the notable times she had left the Přiklopil home was when Natascha was taken to visit one of Přiklopil’s business partner’s house and to ask about borrowing a trailer. The business partner later claimed that Natascha looked happy and carefree but it was most likely that Přiklopil had threatened her to act that way whilst out.
Another trip was when Přiklopil took Natascha to a ski resort on the outskirts of Vienna. The pair were there for a few hours and Natascha has said that she had zero chance to escape whilst they were at the resort.
After eight years of being held captive, on August 23rd 2006 at 12:53, Natascha was cleaning Přiklopil’s car in the garden with a vacuum when Přiklopil got a call. To avoid the noise that the vacuum was making, Přiklopil walked away and left Natascha alone in the garden. Taking the chance to run, Natascha sprinted away leaving the vacuum on to keep Přiklopil away from the car for as long as possible. She hopped over neighbour’s fences and ran through the street. Five minutes of asking passers-by and getting ignored, Natascha knocked on the window of a 71-year-old neighbour’s window. The woman called the police on Natascha and by 13:04 the police arrived.
It took taking blood and looking for a childhood scar for the police to believe Natascha when she said that she was Natascha Kampusch. Later when the police searched the cellar where she was held, they found her passport. When Natascha went missing she was 45kg (99lbs) and after getting found she weighed 48kg (106lbs) and she had only grown 15cm in eight years.
Before the police managed to catch Přiklopil, he had gone to train tracks near Wien Nord Station. He jumped in front of an incoming train and ended his life rather than getting captured and charged for his crimes. According to Natascha, Přiklopil was always planning to end his own life rather than getting caught, she quoted what he told saying that “they won’t catch him alive.”.
According to the police, Natascha cried inconsolably after finding out about Přiklopil’s death and she even lit a candle in the morgue. In a later documentary, Natascha Kampusch: 3069 days in captivity, Natascha is quoted saying that “I feel more and more sorry for him — he’s a poor soul.”. All of this made media started diagnosing Natascha with Stockholm syndrome which she wholeheartedly denied, she claimed it was disrespectful and she pointed out that throughout the documentary she referred to Přiklopil as a criminal.
Almost instantly after her escape, Natascha was getting interview requests from different media outlets all offering large sums of money. The first interview that Natascha took was with ORF and with her permission, the interview was broadcast on September 6th 2006. ORF didn’t give Natascha any money for the interview instead he followed her request and sent any proceeds from selling the interview to women in Africa and Spain. This amount came up to around 300,000 euros.
Newspaper Kronen Zeitung and newsweekly NEWS interviewed Natascha in exchange for housing support, a long-term job and help with her education. This was another example of Natascha not receiving money to talk about her experience.
After a few years, Natascha bought the house she was kept in to protect it from vandals. She visits the home regularly and cleans the walls claiming that it was almost therapeutic. “I know it’s grotesque — I must now pay electricity, water and taxes on a house I never wanted to live in.” That was Natascha’s response to owning the home she was kept in, she also said that she’d fill the cellar in if she were to sell the house. That was still went through in 2011 when Natascha had the basement filled in but kept the home.
With some of the money she had earned, Natascha donated some to Elizabeth Fritzl, a woman who was held captive by her father. Another accomplishment of Natascha Kampusch’s was becoming a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She wrote a letter to the Austrian Minister of Agriculture, saying “the animals would, if they could, flee as I did because a life in captivity is a life full of deprivation.”
To this day Natascha Kampusch is fighting for others and working to make life better for others and herself despite everything she has gone through.
Comments
Post a Comment