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<\/p>\nTHE disturbing story of how a young girl was held captive for over 8 years has shocked many.<\/p>\n
Natascha Kampusch was only 10-years-old when she was kidnapped in broad-daylight from the streets of Vienna in March 1998.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Natascha Kampusch was 10-years-old when she was snatched from the streets of Austria.<\/p>\n
She was raised by her mother Brigitta Sirny and father Ludwig Koch in Vienna.<\/p>\n
Her parents separated when Kampusch was still a child and divorced after her abduction.<\/p>\n
She had spent time with both of them, having just returned to her mother's home from a holiday with her father the day before her kidnapping.<\/p>\n
Since her harrowing ordeal, Kampusch has gone on to write two books about her experiences, in the hope that it can help others and prevent a repeat of the scarring incident.<\/p>\n
Natascha Kampusch was held captive for over eight years, spurring the title of one of her books 3,096 Days.<\/p>\n
She was held prisoner in a house on the outskirts of Vienna, kept in a dungeon three metres below ground.<\/p>\n
Kampusch was forced to cook and clean for her captor while living in a small cellar underneath his garage.<\/p>\n
The day her life changed forever started like any normal day for any schoolchild.<\/p>\n
She headed to Brioschiweg primary school as she had done countless times before.<\/p>\n
However, Wolfgang Priklopil was waiting in his white Mercedes van, parked on the street of her route.<\/p>\n
As she walked passed the van, Priklopil pounced, grabbing the young girl and dragging her into his van.<\/p>\n
Kampusch struggled, as anyone would, but her attacker was stronger and managed to overpower her with ease.<\/p>\n
A 12-year-old witness reported having seen her being dragged into a white minibus by two men, although Natascha Kampusch never reported a second man at the scene.<\/p>\n
She recalls,\u00a0\u201cI asked him if he was going to kill me or bury me in the woods, but he told me to keep quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was wrapped in a blanket, and then carried down to the basement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I was placed in the darkness, a dark room, the dungeon. I was in shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pitch black. I kept on thinking that someone would come and find me, that my mum and school would be missing me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was convinced the police would come and save me, like in the movies and on TV."<\/p>\n
The entrance to the cellar was concealed behind a cupboard, \u00a0with a door made of concrete that was reinforced with steel.<\/p>\n
The room had no windows and was soundproofed, to prevent anyone hearing her screams.<\/p>\n
Priklopil would regularly starve her to make her physically weak and unable to escape.<\/p>\n
He had warned her that the doors and windows of the house were booby-trapped with high explosives.<\/p>\n
Also claiming to be carrying a gun that he would use to kill her and the neighbours if she attempted to escape.<\/p>\n
When she cried, he used violence against her.<\/p>\n
Kampusch, then 18-years-old, managed to escape from Priklopil's house on August 23, 2006.<\/p>\n
She was cleaning and vacuuming her kidnapper's red BMW sportscar, when he received a call on his mobile phone, walking away from her and the noise of the vacuum cleaner.<\/p>\n
Kampusch left the vacuum cleaner running and ran away, while her captor was oblivious, continuing his phone call.<\/p>\n
She ran 200 metres through neighbouring gardens and a street, jumping fences, and asking passers-by to call the police, but they paid her no attention.<\/p>\n
Knocking on the window of a 71-year-old neighbour, Kampusch managed to explain her situation and they called the police.<\/p>\n
Recalling the moment she tried to escape, she said\u00a0 \u201cI crept to the gate which was usually closed or blocked by heavy objects, but not on this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could hardly breathe. I felt solidified, as if my arms and legs were paralysed, jumbled images shot through me.<\/p>\n
"Then I saw a woman in a garden house and knocked on her window and whispered \u2018Please help me!\u2019<\/p>\n
"She asked what I was doing in her garden and then called the police."<\/p>\n
When Natascha escaped after nearly nine years in captivity, Wolfgang Priklopoil took his own life before the police were able to catch him.<\/p>\n
He killed himself by lying down in front of a train shortly after her escape.<\/p>\n
After the alleged suicide of Priklopil, two coroners who examined the case files determined that he might have been murdered.<\/p>\n
It is claimed that Priklopil was already dead when his body was put on the railway tracks.<\/p>\n
Kampusch's own father believes his daughter has not revealed the full story of her years in captivity or what happened on the day she finally managed to escape.<\/p>\n
When told that they had found her captor's decapitated body, she accused the police of killing him and demanded to be left alone with the coffin to pray for him.<\/p>\n
It was reported that she claimed the house from Priklopil's estate because she wanted to protect it from vandals and being torn down.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Natascha said: "I think he was a lonely person, he was like a person without friends and without any love and perspectives."<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, she still lives there at weekends because she feared it would "become a theme park".<\/p>\n
And\u00a0Natascha continues to clean the entire house from top to bottom to the exact specification her tormentor demanded.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Natascha Kampusch told Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry: "Please stay strong and never give up yourself – and I hope that Madeleine appears."<\/p>\n
Since her escape and the re-telling her story, she has been subjected to vile abuse from online trolls and can relate to what the McCann's have endured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had police protection when I was first stalked.<\/p>\n
"During my time in captivity my mother was accused of killing me and burying me by a private detective and former family judge who wrote a book. It was horrible for her.<\/p>\n
"She lost her child and then was accused of killing me. She was very angry about it and sued the person."<\/p>\n
She said that her mother had never given up hope, saying:"If you lose your child you will believe in anything to get her back."<\/p>\n
Kampusch hopes her story and words of advice will give the couple hope that one day, they will see their daughter again.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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