Natascha Kampusch
Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on her way to school in Vienna and held captive by Wolfgang Priklopil for over eight years in a basement dungeon. She escaped in 2006.
On March 2, 1998, ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was abducted on her way to school in Vienna, Austria. Her kidnapper, Wolfgang Přiklopil, imprisoned her in a purpose-built dungeon beneath his house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn.
For over eight years, Natascha was held in a 54-square-foot cell. As she grew older, Přiklopil allowed her more freedom within the house during the day but continued to abuse her.
On August 23, 2006, while Přiklopil was distracted by a phone call as Natascha cleaned his car in the garden, she ran away and alerted a neighbor. She was 18 years old.
Přiklopil fled when he realized Natascha had escaped and killed himself by jumping in front of a train that same evening. Natascha has since become an author and media personality, though she has expressed complicated feelings about her captor.
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