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10-year-old Natascha Kampusch was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts when Wolfgang Priklopil kidnapped her. The 44-year-old probably triggered the Stockholm syndrome in a student. After eight years, she managed to escape from the torturer’s house. However, she could not be happy, and at the news of her executioner’s death, she burst into tears.
- Wolfgang Priklopil imprisoned, abused and sexually abused Natascha Kampusch for eight years. When he found out that his victim had escaped and notified the police, he committed suicide
- Natascha Kampusch, after escaping, showed symptoms of the Stockholm syndrome — she regularly visited the place where she was imprisoned, explained that thanks to the kidnapping she had avoided drinking alcohol and smoking, and on the news of her executioner’s suicide, she burst into tears
- Kampusch is currently 34 years old. After the ordeal was over, she wrote two books — “3096 days” and “10 years of freedom”. She didn’t start a family
- You can find more similar news on the TvoiLokony home page
10-year-old Natascha Kampusch went missing in 1998 when she was walking home from school. The schoolgirl was addicted to food, depressed and lonely. In fact, she spent her last moments of freedom fantasizing about suicide. As «The Guardian» writes, she dreamed that she would throw herself under the car and then her mother would regret it.
The day of the kidnapping was the first time the parents had allowed the girl to go home alone. At that time, no one expected that they would see the child only in eight years.
The caretakers immediately reported to the police about Natascha’s disappearance. Investigators initially as the most likely scenario they considered the child running away from home because on the same day the girl had an argument with her mother. The police also did not believe another 12-year-old student who reported to the police that she saw a man in a white van who was forced to pull Kampusch into the vehicle.
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The road inspection of white vans later ordered did not bring results, although the policemen also checked the hijacker’s car. Wolfgang Priklopil said during the inspection that he was using it for construction work. The policemen believed him and did not check what was in the trunk under the rubble and rubbish. This is how the girl ended up in the basement of one of the houses in Strasshof an der Nordbahn on the outskirts of Vienna. The dungeon where she lived was five square meters.
She spent eight years of her life there. During this time, Priklopil completely controlled the girl’s life, incl. he shaved her head, made her walk naked and rationed her food. When she managed to escape, she weighed just over 44 kg.
Rape of a 14-year-old girl
Priklopil could be good and endearing one day, like Dr. Jekyll, only to turn into Mr. Jekyll the next day. Hyde. He ordered to kneel in front of him, to call himself a champion. When the girl obeyed his orders too slowly, she was beaten and kicked all over her body. She was hit in the knee once with a knife. Another time he threw a bag of cement at her.
The next few days he apologized to the girl. He bought her jellies and sweets. He put a TV and a radio in the basement and let him play computer games. The idyll lasted until another attack of aggression.
The torturer regularly approached the girl. The first time she stayed she raped by her executioner when she was 14 years old. The attacker, to immobilize her, bound her hands and tied a cable to the bed. When he became convinced that he enslaved the girl, he began to give her more freedom. She could clean the whole house, take care of the garden or wash the car. The torturer also took her on short trips to the city.
On August 23, 2006, Priklopil had Natascha dusted off his white van, which was to be sold to a new owner the next day. Suddenly the phone rang. The kidnapper couldn’t understand what the man on the other side of the phone was saying, so he walked away and disappeared from the girl’s sight. Yeah without waiting long, she ran through the open gate and asked a passer-by to call the police.
At the news of the executioner’s death, she burst into tears
On the evening of the same day that she ran away Priklopil committed suicide. Upon learning about this from the police, Natascha burst into tears. Years later, she returned to Priklopil’s house, which she received from the local authorities as compensation for her suffering. Therefore, the press began to attribute the Stockholm syndrome to her. However, the woman denied this in one of her books.
Stockholm syndrome — symptoms
Briefly and simplified, Stockholm Syndrome can be defined as attachment to the kidnapper. The disease entity derives its name from a bank robbery that took place in 1973 in Stockholm. The bandits held hostages for six days. When they were released, they did not want to cooperate with the police, but defended the attackers — they collected money to help them, and one of the imprisoned women became engaged to the villain. This is why the Stockholm Syndrome expresses a feeling of sympathy and solidarity towards the perpetrator. It happens that prisoners help their persecutors. The symptomatic symptoms include:
- the victim does not allow himself to think that he is being harmed;
- defends and explains the behavior of his executioner;
- fears for the torturer’s fate and does not want to hurt him;
- does not believe in facts against the perpetrator;
- reacts with aggression to attempts to help;
However, Kampusch with his behavior rather confirms the thesis about the Stockholm syndrome. A woman wrote in one of her books that thanks to kidnapping and detention against her will she avoided the “mistakes of youth” — smoking and drinking alcohol.
Natascha Kampusch – what is she doing today?
Natascha Kampusch is now 34 years old. After her ordeal was over, she wrote two books — “3096 days” and “10 years of freedom”. She didn’t start a family. According to the portal viva.pl, she paid 25 thousand. Euro to the account of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was imprisoned and raped by her father for 24 years.
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