The Doha Insider!

This heart wrenching story happened way back in time. It all started in Vienna, on March 2^nd, 1998. First off, Natascha Kampusch was born in Vienna, 17 February, 1988. She was raised by her parents in Vienna, Austria. She had two older sisters, 5 nieces and nephews. Her parents split when she was just a kid, but she still spent time and visited them both.

          On March 2^nd, on 1998, a day after she came back from visiting her dad during the holidays, 10 year old Natascha left her house and was on her way to school, but reports say she didn’t arrive to the school or back home. A witness said that they saw Natascha being hauled into a white minibus by two men, which then was confirmed by Natascha that there was only one man. Then it was later reported that police checked about 776 white buses, even the kidnapper’s car, but he proved to them at the time that he wasn’t involved in any way. Natascha was captured by Wolfgang Priklopil, who was a technician, for a long and frightening eight years. He held her captive in a small cellar, under his garage, in his grand-father’s house, that was built during World War II.  The cellar was hidden behind a cupboard, and had very little space, and had a steel door, with no windows and was completely soundproof, which made it hard for Natascha to escape.

          In the first frightening months, she wasn’t allowed out of the cellar at all, and then after a few years, she’d always have to be in it at night and not upstairs or anywhere else. Then, Priklopil would let her go out, but threatened to kill her if she did anything that would bust him and would get him in danger. Even though he kidnapped her, Natascha didn’t quite resent him as much as a normal person would.  A colleague of Priklopil said that she appeared happy, but at the same time, she’d have some sort of hatred. She said that Priklopil “would beat her so badly she could hardly walk. When she was beaten black and blue, he tried to smarten her up. Then he would take his camera and photograph her.” Natascha said she thought about escaping many times, but the man told her that all windows and doors had explosives, and that he had a gun and would kill her if she attempted to.

          Then on August 23^rd, 2006, Natascha had the best opportunity. She was vacuuming and cleaning Priklopil’s car, and when he got a call, he decided to go somewhere else to talk because of the background noise. When he did, Natascha took the chance, left the vacuum on and ran for it! She ran about 200 meters, through streets, gardens, and jumping over fences. She then reached a 71 year old neighbor, stating who she was. The neighbor immediately called the police, who took Natascha to a police station. On the other hand, Priklopil managed to escape a police chase, and committed suicide, by jumping in front of a moving train. He actually planned to die, rather than go through consequences and get caught, by telling Natascha that they wouldn’t be able to catch him alive.

          After her escape, she released a statement, that actually shower her sympathy towards her kidnapper, saying “I feel more and more sorry for him – he’s a poor soul.” According to the police, Natascha actually cried when she got the news of his death. She even attended his morgue, and lit him a candle. With all the media attention, Natascha kept to herself, and didn’t talk so much about all details. But at the end, she had her own talk show, and she had many interviews.

          In my opinion, I think that Natascha’s feelings towards her kidnapper really surprised a lot, especially how she defended him, and cried over him. It just shows how she isn’t judgmental and still thanks him for how he taught her how to self teach herself. Also, he stopped her from going through all the teenage problems, like smoking, and drinking, that she says she’s thankful for. That’s something so many people go through, so I think she thanks him for not letting her go through that trouble. But at the same time, I don’t understand how she hasn’t had much contact with her mother, and why she hasn’t opened up about this a lot, especially since a lot of teenagers, like myself, have had their attention caught by it. It’s a true and heroic story. I don’t know how I could survive 8 years of torment and usually isolation.