Young Austrian woman 'held prisoner for eight years'

Austrian police today said they were "quite sure" a young woman found this week was Natascha Kampusch who vanished on her way to school on March 2, 1998, when she was 10.

The woman claims she has been a captive, confined much of the time in a small cellar in Strasshof, Austria.

The man who allegedly held the woman killed himself on Wednesday a few hours after she sought help at a home near the quiet, small-town street where she says she was held.

While expressing confidence in the women’s identity, investigators said they were still waiting for DNA verification of the identity claim by the young woman, who turned up in a garden near the man’s house.

But the missing girl’s parents met the woman and said they were also sure she was the daughter who disappeared on her way to school in nearby Vienna eight years ago.

Police said she had a surgery scar like Natascha and reported finding the missing girl’s passport in the house.

Police, who confirmed the identity of the alleged kidnapper as Wolfgang Priklopil, a 44-year-old communications technician, said he killed himself by throwing himself in front of a commuter train in Vienna.

They cordoned off the street where Priklopil lived in Strasshof, less than 10 miles north-east of Vienna, and released photos of the hiding place in his house where the young woman purportedly was held.

One photograph appeared to show a small, cluttered room and narrow concrete stairs leading down to it from an entrance so small it would have to be crawled through. Another photo showed a metal hatch that sealed the windowless, underground room.

Federal police spokesman Armin Halm said there was a bed and a toilet in the cramped space.

Images on TV showed a small television in the room, which also had a sink and was littered with piles of books. Police said the woman was occasionally allowed to watch videos.

A female police officer, Sabine Freudenberger, said the young woman told of spending her days with her captor and even doing gardening. She described the woman as “quite chatty”.

Freudenberger, one of the first officers to have contact with the woman on Wednesday, told Austrian television the man apparently threatened her, saying that was probably the reason she didn’t try to flee sooner.

Police said the young woman had been examined by a doctor and did not have signs of injuries, but added that her condition was still being studied.

Freudenberger said she believed the young woman had been sexually abused but didn’t realize it. “It won’t become clear to her … She did everything voluntarily,” Freudenberger said.

The name of the missing girl has been widely reported because of the circumstances of her abduction.

Kampusch’s mother, Brigitta Sirny, said on Austrian TV she was very proud of her daughter.

“She said ’mama mausi’ to me,” Sirny said, recalling the emotional moment she met the young woman and embraced. Mausi – literally “little mouse” - is a pet name some Austrians use in addressing their loved ones.

Kampusch’s father, Ludwig Koch, his eyes glistening and voice wavering, said he never thought he'd live to see his daughter again.

“Honestly, I didn’t think that I’d still experience this,” Koch said on Austrian television.

Investigators released few details as they worked to piece the story together. But state broadcaster ORF carried remarks from Erich Zwettler of the Austrian federal police saying the young woman escaped from her captor when the door to her hiding place was left open, then ran into a nearby garden where she told an elderly woman she had been kidnapped and identified herself as Natascha Kampusch.

Strasshof is the kind of town where neighbours are friendly, but tend to mind their own business. It’s a semi-rural community where tidy houses adorned with flower boxes are mostly set close together. Children play freely in the streets and doors are left open.

Residents were reluctant to speak with reporters. Neighbours said they were shocked by the reports and had seen no signs of anything to raise suspicion.

“I couldn’t sleep last night after I heard the news,” said a middle-aged woman who gave only her first name, Elisabeth. “What goes through the mind of someone like that?”

The woman said she saw the suspect from time to time during walks around the neighbourhood, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. “He was on the street and in front of the house,” she said.

Neighbour Harald Mahr, standing in his garden, said: “I noticed his car, but otherwise nothing.”

Another neighbour, Peter Drkosch, called the suspect an “eccentric” and told Austrian television that he and his wife sometimes saw the man with his mother.

“A few times we heard a young voice,” Drkosch added, saying he thought the voice they heard was maybe that of a girlfriend.

Natascha’s sister told Austrian television her mother almost had a breakdown when police notified her of the discovery of the young woman. She said her mother always held onto the hope that Natascha would come back one day.

“She always said she was still alive,” said the sister, identified as Sabina Sirny.

After Natascha’s disappearance, nothing was the same, her mother said. “There was no real Christmas, no real joys … I didn’t even want to be around my grandchildren the first year or two.”

Nikolaus Koch, a lead investigator, said on Austrian television that the police had contact with the alleged kidnapper about three months after Natascha disappeared in 1998 but he had a “sturdy alibi” at the time.

At the time, another girl told police she had seen Natascha being dragged into a white van. Police interviewed hundreds of van owners and also briefly interviewed Priklopil.

Police tracked down the van yesterday and are investigating if Priklopil had an accomplice, Austrian television reported.