The Crime Book

196

O

n the morning of 2 March

1998, 10-year-old Natascha

Kampusch began the walk

to school from her home in a suburb

of Vienna. She never made it there.

Unemployed telecoms engineer

Wolfgang Priklopil snatched the

child from the street and took her to

his home in the suburb of Strasshof,

just a 30-minute drive away. After a

12-year-old witness reported seeing

Natascha being dragged into a

white minibus by two men, police

launched a massive search of 776

vehicles – including Priklopil’s.

When interviewed, the 44-year-old

told police he had been alone at

home at the time of the abduction,

and that he was using his van to

remove rubble during construction

work on his house. He was not

questioned further, and his home

was not searched.

A secret prisoner

For the next eight years, Priklopil

held Natascha captive in a

5-square-metre (54-sq.-ft)

soundproof, windowless cellar

under his garage. The space was

well hidden, and so secure that

it took an hour to get inside it. Early

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Vienna, Austria

THEME

Child abduction

BEFORE

1984 Eighteen-year-old

Austrian Elisabeth Fritzl is

imprisoned by her father, Josef,

in an underground dungeon at

the family home. She remains

there for 24 years, and gives

birth to seven children, all

fathered by Josef.

1990 In Japan, nine-year-old

schoolgirl Fusako Sano is

kidnapped by Nobuyuki

Sat o, a mentally disturbed

unemployed man, and held

for nine years.

AFTER

2013 Three American women,

Amanda Berry, Michelle

Knight, and Georgina DeJesus,

escape from the home of Ariel

Castro, who imprisoned, raped,

and starved them for 10 years.

I ALWAYS FELT LIKE A

POOR CHICKEN IN A

HEN HOUSE

THE KIDNAPPING OF NATASCHA KAMPUSCH,

1998–2006

The effects of long-term captivity

After being released from her

long imprisonment, Natascha

Kampusch received intensive

treatment from doctors and

psychologists to help her come

to terms with her experience.

Prolonged captivity can have

a profound psychological impact

on victims, particularly if their

abductor was also sexually

abusive or violent. Experts say

the will of anyone stripped of

autonomy eventually breaks. As

they experience trauma after

trauma, they stop fighting their

captors, and often surrender

to powerlessness. Submission

can be followed by depression,

dissociative disorder, post-

traumatic stress disorder, and

anxiety. When victims are

released from their confinement,

psychologists say what they

need most is time with their

families or loved ones to recover,

and to assimilate well in their

home environment. Having an

opportunity to talk about their

experience, if and when they

choose, also aids recovery.

196-197_Natascha_Kampusch.indd 196 13/01/2017 15:19

197

Natascha Kampusch later bought

the house where she was kept in a cell

(above), to prevent it from becoming a

“theme park”.

See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III 186–87

■ The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst 188–89

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION

on, Priklopil warned Natascha that

he had a gun, and that he would

use it to kill her if she tried to

escape. He told her that the doors

and windows of the house were

booby-trapped with explosives.

As the years passed and

Natascha reached her early teens,

she became less docile towards

her captor. Priklopil responded by

stepping up his efforts to cement

his domination over her: he began

regularly beating and starving her,

and keeping her in darkness for

long periods. He also brought her

upstairs to clean his house. On a

few occasions, he took Natascha

with him on trips outside the

house, during which the girl was

too afraid to run away, or to reach

out to the people she encountered.

Breaking free

On 23 August 2006, when she was

18, Natascha finally found a chance

to escape. Priklopil had asked

her to vacuum the interior of his

car, which was parked in the yard.

He took a call on his cell phone, and

wandered off for a moment to get

away from the noise. Natascha left

the vacuum running to cover her

and simply walked out the gate.

You saw my dungeon... You

know how small it was. It was

a place to despair.

Natascha Kampusch

She then started sprinting down

the street, begging passers-by for

help. At first she was ignored, but

finally she convinced someone to

contact the police. On the day of

Natascha’s escape, Priklopil went

to a close friend and confessed his

crime, saying: “I am a kidnapper

and a rapist.” He then killed himself

by jumping in front of a train.

Once Natascha had emerged,

Austria’s police were criticized for

failing to investigate certain leads

in the wake of her disappearance.

In the years that followed, rumours

persisted that Priklopil had had an

accomplice – fuelled by the young

witness’s insistence that two men

had taken Natascha. In 2012, a

nine-month international probe,

which included experts from the

FBI, looked closely at the case and

concluded that it was highly likely

Priklopil had acted alone.

Natascha Kampusch’s traumatic

ordeal and her sensational escape

made global headlines. In 2011, she

wrote an account of her captivity,

3,096 Days; in 2016, she published

another book, 10 Years Of Freedom,

in which she reflected on her

difficult adjustment to her new life

amid constant public scrutiny. ■

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