Suitably Flip

8-Year Kidnapping Ordeal Has Happy Ending

Just amazing.

Austrian authorities said Thursday they believe they have identified a girl who has been missing for more than eight years by a scar on her ear.
...
Natascha Kampusch vanished in Vienna on her way to school on March 2, 1998, when she was 10. Her mysterious disappearance triggered a massive search that extended into neighboring Hungary.

On Wednesday, police said they found a teenage girl in a garden northeast of Vienna who told them she was Kampusch. The young woman, who was identified late Wednesday by her father, mother and half-sister, told police that she had been kidnapped and kept in house by a man for years, Halm said.

Wolfgang Priklopil, the alleged kidnapper, was kind enough to spare Austrian taxpayers the expense of a trial, as he leapt in front of a train in Vienna last night, following a long police chase.

The Times Online has additional details on yesterday's amazing events.

When police raided Priklopil’s two-storey house last night ... they found a 20in (50cm) hole in the cellar floor under the car service bay that led into a dungeon that had been Natascha’s bedroom for eight years.

The room was only 6ft x 10ft (1.8m x 3m), and contained a bed, a cupboard and a few children’s books.
...
At lunchtime yesterday Natascha was allowed out in the garden but for some reason her captor did not accompany her. Seeing her chance to escape she ran into a nearby property, where she was found by an elderly woman. Natascha told her that she had been held captive in a cellar near by for many years and the woman rang the police.
...
At about the same time her captor had discovered her escape, jumped into his red BMW and fled at speed. He was spotted by a police patrol heading into Vienna and a 200km/h (125mph) car chase started.

Details are still vague but it appears that he managed to lose the police for a while, during which time he parked his car and called an as-yet unnamed friend.
...
It is believed he was picked up by the friend and driven to an unknown location.
...
Just before 9pm a call came in describing a man of his description who had just jumped under a train at the Praterstern Vienna North train station.

Police said:  "...[W]e can say with certainty that this suicide was Wolfgang Priklopil."

The "National Crime Squad" described Natascha as having a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, which I suppose is hardly surprising after 8 years.  What's most amazing to me is the fact that - Stockholm Syndrome be damned - when she had what was apparently her first opportunity for escape in all these years, she siezed it without hesitation.

According to police, [Natascha's father] Herr Koch walked in and there was a long pause as the two stared at each other. Then Natascha, who was wearing just the simple knee-length orange dress and ballet shoes she had on when she escaped, jumped up and threw her arms around her father's neck.
...
Herr Koch said afterwards: "I never gave up hope. But I am so wonderfully relieved."

Comments

8-Year Kidnapping Ordeal Has Happy Ending

Just amazing.

Austrian authorities said Thursday they believe they have identified a girl who has been missing for more than eight years by a scar on her ear.
...
Natascha Kampusch vanished in Vienna on her way to school on March 2, 1998, when she was 10. Her mysterious disappearance triggered a massive search that extended into neighboring Hungary.

On Wednesday, police said they found a teenage girl in a garden northeast of Vienna who told them she was Kampusch. The young woman, who was identified late Wednesday by her father, mother and half-sister, told police that she had been kidnapped and kept in house by a man for years, Halm said.

Wolfgang Priklopil, the alleged kidnapper, was kind enough to spare Austrian taxpayers the expense of a trial, as he leapt in front of a train in Vienna last night, following a long police chase.

The Times Online has additional details on yesterday's amazing events.

When police raided Priklopil’s two-storey house last night ... they found a 20in (50cm) hole in the cellar floor under the car service bay that led into a dungeon that had been Natascha’s bedroom for eight years.

The room was only 6ft x 10ft (1.8m x 3m), and contained a bed, a cupboard and a few children’s books.
...
At lunchtime yesterday Natascha was allowed out in the garden but for some reason her captor did not accompany her. Seeing her chance to escape she ran into a nearby property, where she was found by an elderly woman. Natascha told her that she had been held captive in a cellar near by for many years and the woman rang the police.
...
At about the same time her captor had discovered her escape, jumped into his red BMW and fled at speed. He was spotted by a police patrol heading into Vienna and a 200km/h (125mph) car chase started.

Details are still vague but it appears that he managed to lose the police for a while, during which time he parked his car and called an as-yet unnamed friend.
...
It is believed he was picked up by the friend and driven to an unknown location.
...
Just before 9pm a call came in describing a man of his description who had just jumped under a train at the Praterstern Vienna North train station.

Police said:  "...[W]e can say with certainty that this suicide was Wolfgang Priklopil."

The "National Crime Squad" described Natascha as having a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, which I suppose is hardly surprising after 8 years.  What's most amazing to me is the fact that - Stockholm Syndrome be damned - when she had what was apparently her first opportunity for escape in all these years, she siezed it without hesitation.

According to police, [Natascha's father] Herr Koch walked in and there was a long pause as the two stared at each other. Then Natascha, who was wearing just the simple knee-length orange dress and ballet shoes she had on when she escaped, jumped up and threw her arms around her father's neck.
...
Herr Koch said afterwards: "I never gave up hope. But I am so wonderfully relieved."