Held Captive For 8 Years : Natascha Kampusch

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But as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code killer. So head to mood.com browse their amazing selection of functional gummies and find the perfect gummy for whatever you're dealing with. And remember to use promo code killer at checkout to save 20% off your first order. Hello everyone. What is up? Welcome back to another episode of Killer in Stink You Guys. Thank you so much for joining me here today. If you're new here, hi, my name is Savannah. I'm your host of Killer Instinct. Before we get started, make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button. That way you never miss an episode we post weekly here on the podcast every single Wednesday. And you are not going to want to miss it. We also upload the video version onto YouTube on Wednesdays as well. So make sure you are subscribed. Now today you guys, as you can tell by the title of this episode, we have a crazy, crazy case to unpack. And as I mentioned to you guys last week, the true crime category for the month of September is survival cases. We kicked it off last week with the case of Mary Vincent. And today we are talking about the horrifying case of Natasha campus. Natasha was only 10 years old when she was abducted and held hostage by her kidnapper for eight and a half years. So with that all being said, let's jump right on into it today. Natasha was born on February 17, 1988 to her parents Brigata and Ludwig in Vienna, Austria. Her mother worked as a seamstress at the time and her father was a baker. She was one of three daughters and was the youngest. Her older sisters were from her mother's side. They were her half sisters. They were from a previous marriage that her mother had and they both were older by the time Natasha was born. Now because of this, Natasha said that she grew up oftentimes feeling like she was the third wheel to her sisters and almost had to fight to be seen within her family. Even though she did say that she was doded on and loved on when she was born, these insecurities of hers did still weigh her down. Natasha said that her childhood and her relationship with her parents was oftentimes difficult. Her mom ran a tight ship. Natasha claimed that she was very image driven and she wanted Natasha to always be dress nice and to look her best to make it appear that there were no problems on the inside. Natasha said that her mom had a more cold personality. She was not one who really allowed herself to show her emotions. She was not the mom who was giving her children a bunch of affection and she would get uncomfortable if anyone would ever express any affection towards her. For example, Natasha claimed that when she would cry as a young child, her mom was not stepping into that nurturing role that she would hope her mother would do. But her mom was a very strong woman and tried to instill some of these behaviors in Natasha, telling her that by being tough, she was able to assert herself in the world and that people would take her more seriously. Now, as for Natasha's father, Ludwig, Natasha described him as being the complete opposite from her mother. He was always there to provide emotional support and affection. However, that was only during the times that he was coherent. Ludwig had an alcohol and drinking problem. He would spend his nights out drinking at bars, sometimes even taking his young daughters with him to the bars as well. He then would have to wake up in the early hours of the morning to do prep work for the bakery and he would sleep the rest of the day. Now, growing up, Natasha was not able to fully recognize the poor behavior that her father was exhibiting and so from her perspective, she just really loved her dad. Now, probably one of the most important and influential people in Natasha's life at this time when she was growing up was her paternal grandmother. Her grandma ran the bakery with her father and lived just a few minutes away from Natasha when she was growing up. They spent a lot of time together doing different activities and Natasha would tag along to her grandmother's day to day. Now, as she got older, the two did drift apart a little bit as some of Natasha's interests did not align with her grandmother's but the two loved each other and that never changed. That love that they had always remained the same. Now, when Natasha was in kindergarten, her parents did end up separating and it's not entirely clear what the root cause of the separation was, although the alcohol issues that Ludwig had have been suspected to have been the main reason to cause the separation. Ultimately, it was Natasha's mom who made the decision to go ahead with this separation and Natasha was obviously very heavily affected by this decision. She would sit back and often watch as her parents spent hours yelling and arguing in front of her and she really felt like she was no longer a priority to her family. She felt like her parents had their own issues. She wasn't really close to her sister. She really did feel like the black sheep of the family. Now, even though they were separated, her parents remained living together so they were all in the same house for two years after the separation and after the two years, Ludwig moved out of the home and moved into his own house and Natasha spent her time going back and forth between his and her mother's home. Now leading up to March of 1998, Natasha had spent weeks pleading with her mom to allow her to walk to school by herself. Now up until this point, Natasha had always been driven to school by her mother and dropped off in the front of the building. But as Natasha was getting older, she really began to crave some independence and she began to feel embarrassed in front of the other kids and she also felt like these other kids and the other students had more independence than she did. Even though she was only 10 years old, she did really strive to have some older kid responsibilities. Now again, Natasha asked her mom several times over and over to walk by herself and initially the answer was always "no". Her mom was really adamant that she wasn't comfortable with Natasha walking by herself. However, over the course of the few weeks, her mom ultimately agreed. They had several conversations about it and when her mom did finally say yes, Natasha was thrilled. She felt like this was one step closer to her gaining her independence and she felt like she wanted to show her mom and really prove to everyone that she wasn't a little child anymore and that she could handle the responsibility. Now I do want to point out that the trip from Natasha's home to the school was not a very long one. All in all, it was about five minutes. It would not have taken Natasha a long time to make the walk to school and she was adamant that this was something she could handle. Now the two decided that March 2nd, 1998 was going to be the very first day that Natasha would walk to school. Natasha woke up that morning, slipped on her outfit that her mother had picked out for her the night before and walked towards the front door without saying goodbye to her mom. Now Natasha and her mom had gotten into a little bit of an argument the night before Natasha's mom had told her that she was not allowed to go and visit her dad anymore at her father's house. Her mom was doing this for reasons of protecting Natasha from her alcoholic father. However, Natasha at the time who was only 10 years old did not see it that way. So obviously the two of them got into a little bit of a tiff with each other the night prior. So the next day on March 2nd when Natasha was heading towards the door, she didn't feel a giant urge to say goodbye to her mom because the two were still dealing with the after effects of that argument that they had. Now Natasha does remember stopping at the front door before she did leave the home that morning questioning if she should say goodbye to her mom. She said that her mom always told her never to leave without saying goodbye because you never know if it was going to be the last time you would ever see someone again. However, she decided to go ahead anyways and walked out of the door and began her walk to school. Now as Natasha began her trip, she remembered feeling very overwhelmed. This walk seemed a lot more daunting in reality than the thought of it once did. There were now street signs that she had to remember. There were cars that she had to watch out for. It wasn't just a simple walk to school like she thought it was. However again, she was adamant on the fact that she wanted to prove to everyone that this was something she could do. Now Natasha ended up turning onto a street called Melon Gase and as she was walking, she noticed that there was a car that looked out of place on the right side of the street. Now this also happened to be the side of the street that Natasha was walking on as well. The car was a delivery van and Natasha said that there was a man standing in front of it. Natasha described the man as being skinny, not very tall and he seemed a bit younger. Now because this was the route that Natasha was taking to school, she really had no choice at the time but to walk by this man. She had to pass him. However, as she was getting closer and closer to him, Natasha said that a certain type of fear came over her and she immediately felt uneasy. Natasha said that she did have thoughts on crossing the street and walking on the opposite side of the road, however she did not. When she got closer and closer to the man and was finally in his line of sight, she said that he looked over at her and interestingly enough, Natasha said that when the two locked eyes, her fears really went away. She saw that the man had blue eyes, he had long hair and he looked as if he could be a college student. On the outside, this man did not seem like the type of man that would be a threat to Natasha. Natasha said that when she saw this man, she felt an odd sense of sympathy for him. She felt sorry for him. She said that he seemed lost and vulnerable. Natasha told herself to keep walking and walk past this man. However, before she knew it, he had grabbed her by the waist and threw her into the open door of the van. Natasha claimed that everything happened so quickly, almost as if it was choreographed. The van door immediately closed behind her and the man got into the front seat of the car and ordered Natasha to sit down and not to move and he began driving and Natasha realized in this point in time that she had been kidnapped. Natasha tried to ask the man questions, however she was ordered not to speak. Natasha then claimed she asked the man if he was planning on sexually assaulting her and he actually did answer this question. He told Natasha, "No, he was not going to do that and that she was too young for that." She said he then went on to say that he was planning on taking her to a forest to turn her over to the others. Natasha said that the man claimed, "I will turn you over and then I'll have nothing more to do with you. We will never see each other again." When Natasha heard this, she immediately froze with fear. She had heard of child pornography rings as being something on the news and felt like that was also her fate. She felt like that was exactly what was going to happen to her. The man did end up driving Natasha out to a forest after driving for some time and he ordered her to get out of the car. He did seem as if he was waiting for someone he was looking around, checking his surroundings. He seemed as if he was waiting for someone to pull up in a car. However, after some time he said, "They're not coming." And ordered Natasha to get back into the car before driving off again. Now after driving for some time, the van did come to a stop inside of a home garage. The man told Natasha to lay down while he got out of the car, got a blue blanket and threw it over her. He then picked her up and carried her through the house. He allowed Natasha to stop and use the bathroom and when she did, she felt a sense of relief that she was able to be in a room alone, but she knew very quickly that she was trapped. There were no windows inside of the bathroom and the only way out of it was through the door that she came in, with the man standing on the other side. Now after coming out of the bathroom, the man then picked her up again and carried her down several steps before laying her on the floor of a room that was completely pitch black. He then left the room for several minutes, leaving Natasha alone and came back with a light bulb that he had screwed into the wall. Now once he did that, Natasha was then able to see her surroundings more clearly. The room she was in was small. It was approximately 54 square feet with wood paneling. There was a toilet in the corner in a stainless steel sink on the wall. She described it as if it almost appeared to be a sauna. The light-colored walls, she said, reminded her of a sauna. The door was made of concrete and it was reinforced with steel and the room had no windows and was soundproof. Let me tell you guys about the online cannabis company that's completely revolutionizing how we deal with life's challenges from sleepless nights to those stress-filled days. Moode.com has created an entire line of functioning gummies and functional flour crafted for your ideal mood made with 100% federally legal THC. And you can get 20% off your first order at Moode.com with promo code killer. And what makes these different is how they paired THC and other cannabinoids with herbs and adaptogens. But their flour is what really blows me away. They've partnered with small family-owned US farms who are custom cultivating their bud with unique, turpian profiles. I mean, they have cannabis products for literally everything. I'm talking immune support, menopause, PMS symptoms, mental clarity, sexual arousal, and each one is crafted using federally legal cannabis grown on these small family-owned farms. But best of all, not only does mood stand behind everything with an industry leading 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code killer. So head to mood.com, browse their amazing selection of functional gummies, and find the perfect gummy for whatever you're dealing with. Hey everybody, my name is Bob the drag queen. And I'm on exchange. And we are the host of sibling rivalry. This is the podcast where two best friends gab, talk smack, and have a lot of fun with our black queer selves. Yeah, for sure. And you know, we are family. So we talk about everything, honey, from why we don't like hugs to black lives matter, to interracial dating, to other things, right Bob? Yeah, and it gets messy and we are not afraid to be wrong. So please join us over here at sibling rivalry available anywhere you get your podcasts. You can listen and subscribe for free. For free, honey. Now, there was sort of a Murphy bed situation. The bed was screwed into the wall. However, there was no mattress on the bed. Now the man did tell Natasha that he would have to go and get a mattress from his apartment in Vienna. Now, when Natasha heard this, she pleaded with her kidnapper to take her with him, to take her to Vienna that he could keep her in Vienna. Because from Natasha's standpoint, she felt like her chances of survival were much higher if he were to take her to a more populated city. However, her kidnapper told her that that was not an option. He said that it was too dangerous to bring her there because the walls of his apartment were thin. There were a lot of neighbors. It was just too risky. He told Natasha that while he was outfetching the mattress that he would pick her up some belongings, he asked her what she was going to need while she was in Vienna. She was there. He actually equated it to if she was going to a hotel and forgot her toiletry bag, what supplies would she need. And that is when Natasha told him that she needed a hairbrush, a toothbrush, and toothpaste, which he ended up bringing her. Now as far as the man's demeanor went, Natasha claims that the man spoke with almost a very gentle voice. She said it was the same type of voice that people speak when they're talking to their pets or their animals. It was that high-pitched, gentle voice. However, he was able to change his mood in the flip of a switch. For example, right before he left to go fetch the mattress and the toiletries, Natasha asked him if she would be able to keep her book bag with her, the backpack that she was taking to school that day. When asking this, the man got extremely angry and accused her of trying to outsmart him and his tone became very, very terrifying. Now, Natasha immediately got quiet and did not want to anger him anymore. He left the room and returned hours later that night with the belongings. Now, when he walked in, Natasha did ask for the man to stay with her and to read her a bedtime story. Now, the way that Natasha really explains this was that she was craving any sort of normalcy at this point. Nothing about her circumstances at that moment were normal, but she was craving some sort of familiarity, craving some sort of comfort, and the man did actually agree to do this. He read her the book, The Princess and the P, the second edition, in that soft voice that he initially had before finishing the book, kissing her forehead and leaving the room. Now, for the next few days of captivity, Natasha begged her kidnapper to let her go. She said that the police were going to be out looking for her and that if he let her go now, she would be able to go free and would never tell anyone about what happened. Now, because there were no windows inside of the room, the dungeon that Natasha was being held in, she didn't have any concept of time. She did not know what was morning, she did not know what was night, she did keep that light bulb on for all hours of the day. She actually asked her kidnapper to do this because she felt safer with the light on. And Natasha said that for the first few days, her kidnapper treated her almost like a small child that he needed to protect. It wasn't like in the movies where you see these abductors, you know, torturing their victims and treating them horribly, even though that was Natasha's case, she was being tortured in a different way. He was not violent with her for those first few days, but that doesn't mean that his treatment of her was not uncomfortable and frightening in it of itself. He did things like feeding Natasha piece by piece of her food. He wouldn't allow her to have chewing gum because he claimed that he was afraid that she would choke on it. He also would brush her teeth at night and not let her hold the toothbrush. He also brought her gifts like fresh clothes and shoes. And because of his treatment of her, Natasha became completely dependent on him. This was a psychological manipulation tactic. And it was so Natasha would be co-dependent and really rely on him for everything. And because of this, Natasha is able to look back and say that she did notice a psychological regression. Even though she was 10 years old and more than capable of doing the things that he would not allow her to do, her being dependent on someone for basic necessities made her revert back into a toddler-like mindset. Now back at Natasha's house, her mom did call the police to report her missing after Natasha failed to come home from school on March 2nd. When she didn't come home, her mom called the school, which is when she learned that Natasha never even made it to school that day to begin with. She ended up calling police that night and by the next day, police were looking for Natasha. There were hundreds of police officers that were searching the area. There were helicopters flying overhead. But because of the child pornography rings that had been prominent in the area, police were speculating that that could have been a possible motive for Natasha's disappearance. Natasha also had her passport with her when she left the house on March 2nd. And this obviously made police worry because it meant that Natasha could really be anywhere at this point. Her having her passport really opened up a lot of other theories as to if Natasha was even in the country. She could have been anywhere in the world by that point. Now by day four of the search for Natasha, police had received over 130 tips. Many people had claimed that they had spotted Natasha in different places. One man even called police and demanded ransom money of one million dollars. Now the one tip that police failed to pursue at the time and did not look into until much later was the day after Natasha's abduction. There was a 12 year old girl who claimed to have seen a young girl getting kidnapped by a man in a white van on the same street that Natasha was taken from. The girl was sitting in her house while she watched Natasha being abducted. But the police did not take her seriously at that time. So that is what the beginning of the investigation really looked like. And before we move forward, I want to take a minute and talk about who this abductor is. Who the man is that kidnapped Natasha and kept her in a dungeon that he built underneath the garage of his home. Now that man, the man who abducted Natasha is 35 year old Wolfgang Prick lapill. Wolfgang was born on May 14, 1962 to his parents Carl and Walter and Vienna. Wolfgang grew up as an only child and went on to work as a communications technician. Now Natasha recalled her consistent questioning of Wolfgang during her initial days of captivity where she would ask him questions about himself such as what his name was, what he did for a living. She was trying to gather as much information as she could, hoping that when she would escape one day, she would be able to tell the police as much detailed information about her abductor as possible. And when Wolfgang did finally reveal his name to her, she actually did not believe him and was convinced the name was fake because she didn't think Wolfgang was the name of a criminal. It did not sound like the name of a man who would be abducting her. Now within the first week of her captivity, Wolfgang brought Natasha a hot plate and ready to cook meals that she would be able to make herself while she was in the dungeon. Now after six months of captivity and as the winter months were approaching, Wolfgang brought Natasha a space heater to keep the room warm and also brought her her old backpack with all of her old school supplies. Now she then used her school supplies to keep her busy. She would write letters to her parents and beg Wolfgang to send them to her family so they would know that she was alive, however he refused. Now even though he denied sending the letter, Wolfgang did gift Natasha with a computer that could only be used for playing games. The games came on these CDs and sometimes Natasha and Wolfgang would play these games together. Now throughout the entirety of Natasha's captivity, she spent time thinking of different ways and different avenues that she could take in order to escape from her abductor. One time she peeled off the skin of some lemons and rubbed it on her skin to try and fake some infection or irritation and she told Wolfgang that she needed to go to the doctor and was hoping that he would take her to the hospital that way she could tell the doctors that she needed help. However, Wolfgang very quickly realized that this infection came from lemons and it was not an actual medical emergency and he got very upset with Natasha and punished her by turning off the light in the dungeon, leaving her in darkness. Now almost every evening without fail, Wolfgang would bathe Natasha. He would bring in warm water bottles and she would undress and sit in the stainless steel sink and he would wash her body with water and soap. Now Natasha claimed that it didn't seem that Wolfgang was getting any sort of gratification while doing this. She described it as if he was scrubbing down a car or a household appliance. Now I want to get back to the investigation for a moment and I specifically want to talk about that tip that came in from the 12-year-old girl that witnessed Natasha's abduction. Now police did follow up with this tip several weeks later. However, again, the girl called in the tip the day after Natasha's abduction so it wasn't until several weeks that police ended up getting to this tip and once they did, they made an announcement in the media that every owner of a white van would be questioned. Again, this was the van that the 12-year-old girl claimed to have seen Natasha being put into. Now the issue here was that because police gave the media and the public a heads up on this, this gave Wolfgang time to prepare. It gave him time to clean the car and police did show up to Wolfgang's house on the 35th day of Natasha's captivity. Now when Wolfgang met with police, he willingly showed police the car and said that he used the van for renovation work on his house, police asked Wolfgang where he was on March 2nd and he said that he spent the whole day at home even though there were no witnesses that could confirm that alibi for him. Now surprisingly enough, police were satisfied with the answers that Wolfgang was giving them and did not feel a need to search Wolfgang's house. Now Wolfgang even said he allowed police to search the van. the home if they wanted to, however, they denied doing so. All they did was take several pictures of the white van before moving on. And that ended up itself as frustrating for so many reasons because had they gone forward with looking through the house, had they fully followed up with Wolfgang in particular and had they gone into the home as they probably should have, they would have been able to see that Natasha was right underneath them the whole time. Now on Easter Sunday, which was April 12, 1998, this was the day that Wolfgang told Natasha that she would never be allowed to be set free. Up until this point, Wolfgang was giving Natasha glimmers of hope here and there, saying that he just needed to let some time pass over before he was able to set Natasha free. However, on this day, he brought Natasha and Easter basket with candy and chocolate and then broke the news that since her parents had not tried to contact him about ransom money to get her back, that that had to have meant that they clearly did not care about her and he no longer could let her go. This really was a psychological tactic that Wolfgang used in order to get inside Natasha's head. He would constantly say thanks to Natasha to try and make her believe that her family was not looking for her, that her family did not miss her, that her family did not care about her. But when Wolfgang told Natasha that he was never going to be allowed to let her go, he promised to take very, very good care of her. And as you can imagine, all of the hope that Natasha had that she would be set free, that she just needed to hang on a little bit longer and that he would follow through with his promise, all of that hope had been crumbled and crushed. And the months of captivity turned in two years and collectively, like I said in the beginning, Natasha was held captive for eight and a half years, that was three thousand and ninety six days. Throughout her captivity, Wolfgang used different tactics to ensure control over Natasha. For example, he installed an inner calm system, where he would be able to speak to Natasha in the dungeon whenever he wanted to and from anywhere in the house. This was showing her that no matter if he was in the dungeon or not physically, he would always be able to hear every move she made. He would terrorize her daily by abruptly using the system to ask her if she had brushed her teeth or if she had eaten all of her food. He would keep the inner calm line open on his end so Natasha could constantly hear his every sound. That was his breathing, his walking, it was all coming through to make her feel like he was always there and there was no escaping him. Wolfgang also intimidated Natasha by telling her that there was a hidden video camera in the dungeon. So not only could he hear her, but physically he could see her as well. However, this was not true and it was just another lie that Wolfgang told Natasha. He also turned off the electricity in Natasha's dungeon at 8pm every night and at one point he even demanded that Natasha called him "mystro", something that Natasha refused to do. Now two years into Natasha's captivity, Wolfgang made another rule. He refused to allow Natasha to speak of anything that happened to her prior to her captivity. She was not allowed to speak about her parents, her family, she was not allowed to speak about missing them, she was not allowed to speak about her school, her teachers, her friends, her room. Everything that happened prior to her abduction was never allowed to be spoken about and again this was another tactic that Wolfgang was using to try and separate Natasha from her life prior to captivity. Now throughout the entirety of the eight and a half years and Natasha was held hostage, she continued to show strength and resilience. She never let Wolfgang see her crack. She knew that it was pivotal to her survival and she continued to show strength and that strength is what helped her survive but it was by no means easy. A year after her abduction, Natasha found herself depressed and Wolfgang did not know how to deal with this. While he would never address Natasha's depression up front, he did things to try and cheer her up. He would put a television in the dungeon. He tried to play games with her but it was not working. Natasha told Wolfgang that the one thing that would help make her feel better was if she was allowed to go upstairs and take a bath for a year. Her entire bathing process just consisted of being put in that stainless steel sink in the dungeon and all she wanted was a proper bath. And while Wolfgang did debate on this for quite some time, he ultimately agreed but that did not come without its fair share of threats to Natasha either. Now several days later, after Wolfgang agreed to allow Natasha to take a bath, he went down to the dungeon to grab her. And while they were walking upstairs, he warned Natasha that if she screamed, he would hurt her. He also said that all of the windows in the house had been secured with an explosive device and that if she tried to escape through a window, the house would explode. He did allow her to take this bubble bath before ultimately bringing her down to the dungeon yet again. Now over the years, Wolfgang did allow Natasha to have small tastes of freedom here and there. He would allow her to spend more time upstairs. However, she was still under a microscope. Wolfgang never took his eyes off of her. She was under permanent surveillance. Now in late 1999, Wolfgang told Natasha that she needed to pick out a new name. Now again, this was a part of his plan to separate Natasha from her life prior to her abduction and it was a part of his control. It was a control tactic. He told her that she was no longer allowed to go by the name Natasha because she belonged to him. Now Natasha refused to do this for quite some time. However, ultimately she did end up having to agree to this. Wolfgang gave her no other option. So because of this, she chose the name Bibbian and that is the name that Wolfgang referred to her as. Throughout her years of captivity, Natasha experienced many forms of abuse beyond just psychological. She experienced verbal abuse. Wolfgang would criticize her appearance and her weight. He would call her dumb and stupid. He would say things to her such as, "I am your king and you are my slave. You obey. You have no right to your own life. You are here to serve me." He would also bring a scale down to the dungeon once or twice a week to track Natasha's weight and would say things like he would need to bring her to a quote unquote fat farm. He put Natasha on a no sugar diet and also forced her to drink a glass of red wine a day, claiming it would help prevent a heart attack. Now he would force her to clean the house, sometimes half naked as a punishment if he was mad at her, sometimes while she would clean he would physically abuse her. He would kick her in the tailbone, her side or her shin. If Natasha was ever to cry from the pain that she experienced, Wolfgang would take her arm and wipe her tears from her face. And if that didn't work, he would even grab Natasha by the throat and drag her to the sink and run her face under cold water. One time, when Natasha was preparing dinner, Wolfgang got angry at her and told her that she would not be allowed to eat anything. Now because at this point she had already been starved, she grabbed the food and quickly tried to force it into her mouth, but he slapped it out of her hand. She then used her other hand to try again. However, he grabbed her wrist so tightly that she dropped the food on the ground. She then tried to grab the food and was able to put some of it into her mouth. However, he grabbed her by the throat, dragged her over to the sink, forced her teeth apart, until she choked up the food. Natasha said that she was physically beaten by Wolfgang up to 200 times a week. Now over time, Wolfgang's paranoia grew extensively. He began forcing Natasha to hide her hair underneath a plastic bag that way if police were to show up at the home, they would not be able to find any traces of hair or any strands of hair. But again, over time this paranoia became so strong and it ultimately led to Wolfgang shaving Natasha's head. He shaved her head completely bald. That way, for him, he would not have to worry about there being strands of hair throughout the house. Now, that paranoia really caught up to him and it took over everything in his life. He needed everything to be clean and in order. He would force Natasha to go room by room with a cleaning cloth and wipe off any and every fingerprint. Now, when Natasha turned 14 years old, this was the first time that she slept in Wolfgang's bed. He locked his bedroom door behind him and placed the key on a high-up cabinet that not even he could reach without standing on his tiptoes. He then tied her wrist to his wrist with plastic cords that way he would feel her every move. Now, I do want to mention that Natasha has always been very private in regards to whether or not she was sexually abused by Wolfgang and I do want to honor that. I don't want to exploit any of the details because also she She is not given any of the details. She has always remained very quiet. on this part of her captivity. However, I do want to read an excerpt from her book, "3,096 Days in Captivity" that she wrote in regards to some of those intimate details to give you a little bit of a better understanding. In her book, she said, quote, "one of the first headlines about my kidnap or after I escaped was the sex beast. I will not write about this part of my imprisonment. It is the last remaining bit of privacy I would like to preserve now that my life in captivity has been picked apart by the innumerable reports and interrogations, photographs, etc. But I will say this much. In their eagerness, the media, for the sensational, the journalists of the red top press were far off the mark. In many respects, the kidnapper was a beast and more cruel than can possibly be depicted. But in this sense, he was not. Naturally, he subjected me to minor sexual assaults. But when he manacled me to him on those nights, I had to spend upstairs. It wasn't about sex. The man who beat me locked me in the cellar and starved me wanted to cuddle." End quote. So that was the excerpt from Natasha's book in regards to, you know, the sexual assault element. And like she said, she has been very private about those details and we are going to completely honor that. Now I want to move on to February 17th 2006 and this was Natasha's 18th birthday. And again, she was kidnapped when she was 10 years old. She is now 18 and still held in captivity by Wolfgang. She woke up to an 18th birthday cake on the kitchen table. But for Natasha, her 18th birthday meant something far more significant. Now Natasha had promised herself for years that when she turned 18, that was going to be the year that she escaped from captivity. 18 was a monumental year for her for many reasons. It was the first year that she would be considered an adult. She would be able to claim her independence. This was something that was really important to her even before her abduction. She always talked about as a child looking forward to turning 18 and being able to be self-sufficient. It was something that was very important to her. So again, not only was it just for her independence, but this year meant a lot. There was a lot of significance surrounding it because this was the year that she would escape. So now I want to move on to August 23rd, 2006. And this was day 3,096 of captivity. Natasha said that the day started out as any normal day. Wolfgang woke up in a good mood and he told Natasha that he had a couple errands that they needed to get done that day. One of which was getting rid of the white van, the same van that was used during the abduction. He had ordered Natasha to vacuum the car so they could prepare it and clean it to get rid of it. Natasha was vacuuming the car while the car was in the driveway. So they were outside at this point. Wolfgang was watching Natasha like a hawk. Again, this is something that he did at all hours of the day. She was always under Wolfgang's surveillance. She began vacuuming the car and that is when Wolfgang received a phone call. Now he did try and stay on the phone while he was watching Natasha. However, because of the noise of the vacuum, Wolfgang had to step away for a moment. Now this was the very first moment in years, in 8 and a half years, that Natasha had not been watched while she was outside. Again, there were moments of her being alone while she was in the dungeon, but she had never been left alone outdoors. Natasha said at that moment she was frozen in front of the car. She realized that Wolfgang was not looking at her and she felt a sense of paralysis through her arms and her legs, but she knew she needed to take her moment. She immediately dropped the vacuum cleaner and ran over to the garden gate and to her surprise, it was open. In that moment, she said that everything happened so fast, but she made the split decision to run. She ran for approximately 218 yards through the neighborhood in gardens. She was jumping fences and at one point came across three people walking on the street. She asked them to call the police and use their phone, however they refused. She then had to keep going. She continued running and eventually came across a home where a 71-year-old woman named Inga lived. At first, the woman was startled and yelled at Natasha to get off of her lawn. However, Natasha then told her that her name was Natasha campus and that she had been abducted. The woman at this point was very taken aback and she didn't know what to believe, because again, Natasha did not look well when she arrived to the woman's house. She was incredibly skinny and frail. She had been starved for years at that point. She also had a buzz cut because her hair was shaved off. She had dark circles under her eyes. She just did not look well and the woman did not know what to believe at the time, but ultimately she did call the police. Whether she called the police to report Natasha or to help Natasha, it is unclear because when police arrived, they yelled at Natasha to put her hands up almost as if she was the one who was in the wrong. However, when police approached her, Natasha told them that she had been abducted by Wolfgang Pricklepill and that her name was Natasha campus. At this point, police were shocked because the name Natasha was something that they had known for years. However, it was a case that they deemed would not be solved. After eight and a half years, not many people had a lot of faith that Natasha was going to be coming home alive. So for police to hear that this was Natasha, it was definitely shocking. Now Natasha was ultimately brought to the police station and she was finally free. After 3,096 days in captivity, eight and a half years, she was free. Once they got to the police station, police gave her a DNA test, which obviously came out to be as a match to Natasha. Detective sat down with Natasha, they gave her a sandwich and a jacket and asked her to tell them as much information as she could. Now up until this point, Natasha hadn't conversed with another person in over eight and a half years. So as you can imagine, this was quite an out-of-body experience for Natasha. The last time that she had spoken to anyone else other than Wolfgang was when she was 10 years old. Now she's 18. She had never spoken to another human in over eight and a half years. While at the police station, Natasha was also reunited with her mother after eight and a half years, her mom walked into the station and broke out into tears, laughing and smiling. The two hugged each other for a long, long time. Her sisters also walked into the station and her father came later as well. Everyone was in disbelief that Natasha was alive. Like I said, after eight and a half years, most people had assumed the worst in regards to Natasha's well-being. After being reunited with her family, Natasha then spoke with a police psychologist. Now while this was all happening, a full-on manhunt was on for Wolfgang. However, after several hours of searching, police learned that Wolfgang had taken his own life by lying down in front of an oncoming train. Now before ending his life, he did call his best friend and confessed to his crimes, saying that he was a kidnapper and a racist. Now Natasha's first few days of freedom were spent in a psych ward, acclimating back to normal life was something that was going to take time and people wanted her to have as smooth of a transition as possible. Two weeks after her escape, she did several media interviews and then she moved into one of her nurses' homes with her nurse and stayed there for several months before transitioning into living in her own apartment. Now many people questioned this decision in regards to Natasha's living situation. They figured that Natasha would want to live with her parents or live with her mom. However, Natasha claimed all along that her plan was to be self-sufficient at the age of 18. She wanted to take charge of her own life. It was something that was incredibly important to her. After being held captive for eight and a half years, she wanted to do things her way and that is exactly what she did. Since her escape, Natasha has published books, one called 3,096 days and another called 10 years of freedom. She also was an activist and makes public appearances talking about her life in captivity and what happened beyond it. And that you guys is the case of Natasha campus. And I am so curious to hear what you have to say about it. Let me know in the comments below. I want to hear all of your thoughts, but with that being said, you guys that is all for me today. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Killer Instinct. Again, if you're new here, hi. My name is Savannah and I am your host of Killer Instinct. Again, make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button, though you never miss an episode we post weekly here on the podcast every single Wednesday. You guys are not going to want to miss it. I'll be back next week with a brand new one for you guys and until then, stay safe. Bye guys. [Music] (gentle music)