Whoa, I just saw something like this on Without a Trace the other night!
Links to stories:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20255080-2703,00.html
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=1b96f809-41a2-4aaa-bf77-a5d8ac0f7911&p=2
EIGHT harrowing years had passed, but there was instant recognition between father and the daughter who had been held captive in an underground dungeon since they last saw each other.
Natascha Kampusch stopped and stared at Ludwig Koch for a few moments, as if to dispel any lingering possibility that this was a dream. Then the frail teenager, dressed in the simple orange dress and ballet shoes provided by her abductor, jumped into her father's arms, clung tightly to his neck and began to sob uncontrollably.
Mr Koch's tears flowed freely too. There was no need for DNA tests or photorecognition technology: he was in no doubt that this was his long-lost child.
"She is 100 per cent my daughter," wept Mr Koch as he hugged the child he had not seen since she was 10 years old.
"The only way to imagine it was to picture a scene from a movie," said Herwig Haidinger, a senior police officer who was present at the reunion on Wednesday night. "It was completely overwhelming."
Mr Koch said later that at their reunion his daughter simply said: "Dad, I love you." "And the next question was: 'Is my toy car still there?' It was Natascha's favourite toy, I never gave it away in all those years," he told the Austrian daily Kurier.
"I always put out of my mind the thought that she was dead."
On Thursday, Natascha was also reunited with her mother, Brigitte Sirny, for the first time since the morning in 1998 when she was snatched off a Vienna street as she walked to school.
Police have taken the family to a "secure location" to allow them some privacy, but also to give detectives the chance to piece together the story of the most astonishing crime in Austria's post-war history.
They will tread carefully. Psychologists have indicated they believe Natascha is exhibiting clear signs of Stockholm syndrome - a psychological condition in which long-held hostages begin to identify with their kidnappers - which may have led her to come to sympathise with Wolfgang Priklopil, her captor.
But it is only through these delicate interviews that they will come close to the truth.
On Wednesday night, when he realised that she had escaped after eight years living in an underground room in his house, Priklopil, 44, threw himself under a train.
Austrian media reports say Natascha received the news of his suicide calmly. Natascha, who has reportedly told police that Priklopil sexually abused her, said he had warned her that he would never be captured alive.
She was held in a purpose-built 1.8mx3m cell beneath the garage of Priklopil's house in Heinestrasse in the village of Strasshof, near Gaenserndorf, 24km northeast of Vienna.
The room was equipped with a bed, a cupboard and a few children's books. The only visible clue to its existence was a 50cm-wide hole in the cellar floor.
Priklopil forced Natascha to call him Gebieter, an old-fashioned term for "master" usually only found in fairy stories.
Adolf Brenner, chief of police in the Deutsch-Wagram district, said: "He seems to have made great efforts to keep her away from the outside world. She was allowed limited access to the television and radio, and sometimes she was given videos.
"On the surface she seems to be in good spirits and has repeatedly said how happy she is to be freed."
For more than seven years, Natascha never left her cell. But a few months ago Priklopil began to allow her to spend short periods in his garden and even took her on shopping trips. He warned her, however, that any attempt to escape or shout for help would not be a good idea.
At lunchtime on Wednesday, Natascha was allowed into the garden on her own and seized her chance. She ran to a neighbouring house and told an elderly woman that she had been held captive nearby for many years. At 1.04pm the woman rang the police.
Natascha was taken to the local police station where she told them her name. Within minutes, police from the Lower Austria Crime Squad and the Natascha taskforce, set up when she was first kidnapped, were with her.
Aware that she had finally escaped, Priklopil climbed into his red BMW and sped away from his home. Details of his car were circulated to police patrols around Vienna and a chase ensued.
Priklopil shook off the pursuing cars and abandoned his car in a shopping centre car park. Police say he called a friend and told him he needed help because he was being chased for a drink-driving offence. The friend took Priklopil away from the area.
At about 9pm, officers received a report that a man had jumped under a train at the Praterstern Vienna North station.
A spokesman said: "We found BMW keys in the pocket and he was wearing the correct clothes. We have not yet performed a DNA test but we can say with certainty that this suicide was Wolfgang Priklopil."
His death deprived Austria, and in particular Natascha, of justice. She was abducted on March 2, 1998, a day when it seems she was considering running away from home. She had taken her passport with her as she left for school and it was found on Thursday in Priklopil's house.
Her parents had fought bitterly and friends said she was often upset and moody because she was unhappy at home. On the day of her disappearance she had had an angry quarrel with her mother.
Witnesses saw her being bundled into a white mini-van. The vehicle had the letter G on its registration plate, indicating that it was from Gaenserndorf, the area where she was found.
The owners of all such vans, including Priklopil, were traced and interviewed. He was released after officers decided that he "seemed completely respectable". As the years passed without news, the scale of the police hunt was reduced.
Mr Koch, however, never gave up hope and never stopped searching. He and Ms Sirny separated acrimoniously, flinging accusations at one another about their daughter's disappearance.
He gave up his bakery business and began working nightshifts in a factory while spending his days searching for information about his missing child.
"We would be sitting here for hours if I told you everything I have done to try to find her - everything a man could possibly do," Mr Koch said.
"You continue to believe for the love of the child."
He continued to believe right up to the moment the unbelievable actually happened. He described her rescue as "the greatest thing that could possibly be".
But there are many questions outstanding, the answers to which he fears.
Mr Koch said: "Natascha is emaciated, with a very, very white skin and bruises over her entire body. I cannot bear to think where they came from."
Ms Sirny, who received the news of her daughter's return while abroad, said: "This is the most wonderful day of my life. I was called in the afternoon by the police and I just couldn't believe it. I just can't wait to see her again."
Family friends said Natascha's mother had been traumatised by memories of the row she had had with her daughter just minutes before her abduction. Austria has also been soul-searching since Natascha's escape. Priklopil's neighbours have become a particular focus of attention.
They described the self-employed communications technician as "a very calm and low-key" man who never seemed to miss a day's work. He lived in a house built by his father, and next door to his uncle, but seemed to never have guests, apart from an occasional visit from his elderly mother who would come around to make him lunch.
Priklopil's house was bristling with security cameras and alarms and was known locally as "Fort Knox". One local resident said he told neighbours never to pop around unannounced because he had "built a number of surprises into my house and we don't want somebody innocent to get fried".
Josef Jantschek said: "I know it sounds awful now, but we had a good relationship with Wolfgang. How could we know something so terrible was going on? We used to stand at the fence with him for hours talking about God and the world."
However, he added, Priklopil would often act strangely when his mother came to visit. He would pace around the garden staring at the grass and looking in the bushes and checking every window. He told his neighbours he was just "cleaning up and making everything perfect".
Max Edelbaucher, who led the investigation into Natascha's disappearance until his retirement last month, said he had received "the best retirement gift I could ever have imagined".
Mr Edelbaucher added: "Nobody, not me nor any other policeman, believed that she could still be alive. This is a sensation. However, it is horrible that a girl could be held in our area for eight years while being unsuccessfully searched for by thousands of policemen.
"We thought about it so much and had so many theories, even that she had fallen into the hands of a child pornography gang, everything.
"So many investigators gave their all, their heart's blood to getting her back. It is simply wonderful that she is still alive."
The Times
Cliffs:
10 yr old girl is kidnapped,
after 8 years of being kept in a 6 sq ft hole she escapes.
Dude who was her "Master" Jumps under moving train after she escapes.
Links to stories:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20255080-2703,00.html
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=1b96f809-41a2-4aaa-bf77-a5d8ac0f7911&p=2
EIGHT harrowing years had passed, but there was instant recognition between father and the daughter who had been held captive in an underground dungeon since they last saw each other.
Natascha Kampusch stopped and stared at Ludwig Koch for a few moments, as if to dispel any lingering possibility that this was a dream. Then the frail teenager, dressed in the simple orange dress and ballet shoes provided by her abductor, jumped into her father's arms, clung tightly to his neck and began to sob uncontrollably.
Mr Koch's tears flowed freely too. There was no need for DNA tests or photorecognition technology: he was in no doubt that this was his long-lost child.
"She is 100 per cent my daughter," wept Mr Koch as he hugged the child he had not seen since she was 10 years old.
"The only way to imagine it was to picture a scene from a movie," said Herwig Haidinger, a senior police officer who was present at the reunion on Wednesday night. "It was completely overwhelming."
Mr Koch said later that at their reunion his daughter simply said: "Dad, I love you." "And the next question was: 'Is my toy car still there?' It was Natascha's favourite toy, I never gave it away in all those years," he told the Austrian daily Kurier.
"I always put out of my mind the thought that she was dead."
On Thursday, Natascha was also reunited with her mother, Brigitte Sirny, for the first time since the morning in 1998 when she was snatched off a Vienna street as she walked to school.
Police have taken the family to a "secure location" to allow them some privacy, but also to give detectives the chance to piece together the story of the most astonishing crime in Austria's post-war history.
They will tread carefully. Psychologists have indicated they believe Natascha is exhibiting clear signs of Stockholm syndrome - a psychological condition in which long-held hostages begin to identify with their kidnappers - which may have led her to come to sympathise with Wolfgang Priklopil, her captor.
But it is only through these delicate interviews that they will come close to the truth.
On Wednesday night, when he realised that she had escaped after eight years living in an underground room in his house, Priklopil, 44, threw himself under a train.
Austrian media reports say Natascha received the news of his suicide calmly. Natascha, who has reportedly told police that Priklopil sexually abused her, said he had warned her that he would never be captured alive.
She was held in a purpose-built 1.8mx3m cell beneath the garage of Priklopil's house in Heinestrasse in the village of Strasshof, near Gaenserndorf, 24km northeast of Vienna.
The room was equipped with a bed, a cupboard and a few children's books. The only visible clue to its existence was a 50cm-wide hole in the cellar floor.
Priklopil forced Natascha to call him Gebieter, an old-fashioned term for "master" usually only found in fairy stories.
Adolf Brenner, chief of police in the Deutsch-Wagram district, said: "He seems to have made great efforts to keep her away from the outside world. She was allowed limited access to the television and radio, and sometimes she was given videos.
"On the surface she seems to be in good spirits and has repeatedly said how happy she is to be freed."
For more than seven years, Natascha never left her cell. But a few months ago Priklopil began to allow her to spend short periods in his garden and even took her on shopping trips. He warned her, however, that any attempt to escape or shout for help would not be a good idea.
At lunchtime on Wednesday, Natascha was allowed into the garden on her own and seized her chance. She ran to a neighbouring house and told an elderly woman that she had been held captive nearby for many years. At 1.04pm the woman rang the police.
Natascha was taken to the local police station where she told them her name. Within minutes, police from the Lower Austria Crime Squad and the Natascha taskforce, set up when she was first kidnapped, were with her.
Aware that she had finally escaped, Priklopil climbed into his red BMW and sped away from his home. Details of his car were circulated to police patrols around Vienna and a chase ensued.
Priklopil shook off the pursuing cars and abandoned his car in a shopping centre car park. Police say he called a friend and told him he needed help because he was being chased for a drink-driving offence. The friend took Priklopil away from the area.
At about 9pm, officers received a report that a man had jumped under a train at the Praterstern Vienna North station.
A spokesman said: "We found BMW keys in the pocket and he was wearing the correct clothes. We have not yet performed a DNA test but we can say with certainty that this suicide was Wolfgang Priklopil."
His death deprived Austria, and in particular Natascha, of justice. She was abducted on March 2, 1998, a day when it seems she was considering running away from home. She had taken her passport with her as she left for school and it was found on Thursday in Priklopil's house.
Her parents had fought bitterly and friends said she was often upset and moody because she was unhappy at home. On the day of her disappearance she had had an angry quarrel with her mother.
Witnesses saw her being bundled into a white mini-van. The vehicle had the letter G on its registration plate, indicating that it was from Gaenserndorf, the area where she was found.
The owners of all such vans, including Priklopil, were traced and interviewed. He was released after officers decided that he "seemed completely respectable". As the years passed without news, the scale of the police hunt was reduced.
Mr Koch, however, never gave up hope and never stopped searching. He and Ms Sirny separated acrimoniously, flinging accusations at one another about their daughter's disappearance.
He gave up his bakery business and began working nightshifts in a factory while spending his days searching for information about his missing child.
"We would be sitting here for hours if I told you everything I have done to try to find her - everything a man could possibly do," Mr Koch said.
"You continue to believe for the love of the child."
He continued to believe right up to the moment the unbelievable actually happened. He described her rescue as "the greatest thing that could possibly be".
But there are many questions outstanding, the answers to which he fears.
Mr Koch said: "Natascha is emaciated, with a very, very white skin and bruises over her entire body. I cannot bear to think where they came from."
Ms Sirny, who received the news of her daughter's return while abroad, said: "This is the most wonderful day of my life. I was called in the afternoon by the police and I just couldn't believe it. I just can't wait to see her again."
Family friends said Natascha's mother had been traumatised by memories of the row she had had with her daughter just minutes before her abduction. Austria has also been soul-searching since Natascha's escape. Priklopil's neighbours have become a particular focus of attention.
They described the self-employed communications technician as "a very calm and low-key" man who never seemed to miss a day's work. He lived in a house built by his father, and next door to his uncle, but seemed to never have guests, apart from an occasional visit from his elderly mother who would come around to make him lunch.
Priklopil's house was bristling with security cameras and alarms and was known locally as "Fort Knox". One local resident said he told neighbours never to pop around unannounced because he had "built a number of surprises into my house and we don't want somebody innocent to get fried".
Josef Jantschek said: "I know it sounds awful now, but we had a good relationship with Wolfgang. How could we know something so terrible was going on? We used to stand at the fence with him for hours talking about God and the world."
However, he added, Priklopil would often act strangely when his mother came to visit. He would pace around the garden staring at the grass and looking in the bushes and checking every window. He told his neighbours he was just "cleaning up and making everything perfect".
Max Edelbaucher, who led the investigation into Natascha's disappearance until his retirement last month, said he had received "the best retirement gift I could ever have imagined".
Mr Edelbaucher added: "Nobody, not me nor any other policeman, believed that she could still be alive. This is a sensation. However, it is horrible that a girl could be held in our area for eight years while being unsuccessfully searched for by thousands of policemen.
"We thought about it so much and had so many theories, even that she had fallen into the hands of a child pornography gang, everything.
"So many investigators gave their all, their heart's blood to getting her back. It is simply wonderful that she is still alive."
The Times
Cliffs:
10 yr old girl is kidnapped,
after 8 years of being kept in a 6 sq ft hole she escapes.
Dude who was her "Master" Jumps under moving train after she escapes.
.jpg)
