Natascha Kampusch, a youngster snatched from a Vienna street and concealed below a trapdoor, was entombed beneath a suburban house for eight years by a man who abused and humiliated her. She was 10 when taken and 18 when she escaped.
Wolfgang Priklopil, 36, her abductor, created a soundproof dungeon under his Strasshof, Austria, house. The Guardian said that she lived in a concrete bunker with a secret hatch and steel door.
“It was beneath a trapdoor in the garage, down some stairs, through a hollowed-out concrete wall hidden behind a cupboard,” she told the source. “It was five by five meters, bare, soundproofed, windowless, and filled with fan rattle.”
CNN said that Kampusch was hit “up to 200 times a week,” hearing bones snap. Sometimes Prikopil confined her to his bed at night and made her clean half-naked.
In her book 3,096 Days, she said the sexual assault was “minor,” citing The Guardian. 3096 Days, a 2013 film on her story, including sexual assault sequences that Kampusch has never corroborated.
Kampusch wrote in her biography about the night he shackled their wrists and brought her into his bed. Though expecting rape, she said that the guy who battered her wanted to hug.
Kampusch survived by controlling what she could. She told The Guardian that she returned “to the age of a dependent toddler,” demanding to be tucked in and given bedtime tales. She told the newspaper that at 12, she pictured her 18-year-old self pledging to defeat her kidnapper, which saved her.
Her regimen included reading, cooking, and cleaning “year in and year out,” according to ABC News Australia. She started resisting Priklopil’s demands by not calling him “Maestro” when she got older.
“I proved my strength to myself… that I still had self-respect,” she told A&E.
Priklopil was distracted by a phone call while cleaning the identical white vehicle used in her kidnapping on August 23, 2006.
“I stood frozen,” she said in her book. “Then everything happened fast. I dropped the vacuum and ran to the garden gate. It opened.”
Neighbors phoned cops. DNA identified Kampusch hours later. Priklopil committed suicide before being caught.
Kampusch was praised for her survival and kindness toward her captor after her release.
After his death, she told The Guardian, “I mourn for him.” “If I had only met him with hatred, it would have consumed me and sapped my strength.
Kampusch, 37, resides in Vienna. She wrote many books, hosted a talk show, and acquired the Strasshof mansion to prevent it from becoming a shrine.
“I want to reclaim the interpretation of my own story,” she remarked.
If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text “STRENGTH” to 741-741 to reach a qualified crisis counselor.
