1 00:00:08,730 --> 00:00:11,530 Stratzhof, a prosperous suburb of Vienna. 2 00:00:12,730 --> 00:00:16,050 Natascha Kampusch was imprisoned here for eight and a half years. 3 00:00:17,110 --> 00:00:18,470 This is her story. 4 00:00:20,010 --> 00:00:22,670 What I've learned about people is this. 5 00:00:23,250 --> 00:00:25,070 No one is infallible. 6 00:00:25,570 --> 00:00:30,970 And anyone can find themselves in a position where they lose control of 7 00:00:30,970 --> 00:00:31,970 lives. 8 00:00:34,170 --> 00:00:36,930 That's true for the kidnapper. 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:38,640 And it's true for me. 10 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:46,480 From the moment I was kidnapped, I still had control of my thoughts, but I 11 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:48,800 couldn't do anything about the world outside. 12 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:57,860 The perpetrator had blown a couple of fuses in his head, 13 00:00:57,980 --> 00:01:04,819 and he couldn't control his life either, or he wouldn't have done what 14 00:01:04,819 --> 00:01:05,820 he did. 15 00:01:16,119 --> 00:01:17,480 I'm an outcast. 16 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,540 I have a sign on my forehead that says, crime victim. 17 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:31,960 I think everyone has preconceptions about me. Maybe when I'm older, 18 00:01:32,140 --> 00:01:34,800 people will forget what happened to me. 19 00:01:42,730 --> 00:01:46,570 Since yesterday evening, a 10 -year -old girl has been missing in Vienna's 20 00:01:46,570 --> 00:01:47,570 Donorstadt district. 21 00:01:47,890 --> 00:01:53,470 Natasha wears glasses, she's 1 meter 45 tall, has light brown hair with a fringe 22 00:01:53,470 --> 00:01:54,470 and blue eyes. 23 00:01:54,670 --> 00:01:57,110 She's been missing for more than 34 hours. 24 00:01:57,350 --> 00:02:01,450 All efforts to locate her have been unsuccessful, and the police are 25 00:02:01,450 --> 00:02:02,450 their search. 26 00:02:03,850 --> 00:02:10,669 My mother always said, never part after an argument, because something could 27 00:02:10,669 --> 00:02:11,910 happen to one of us. 28 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,300 And we'd never see each other again. 29 00:02:15,740 --> 00:02:17,440 And then it happened. 30 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,220 She rarely went to school alone. 31 00:02:24,860 --> 00:02:27,160 But on that particular day, she did. 32 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:31,780 I watched her from the window as she left and walked towards the shopping 33 00:02:31,780 --> 00:02:34,000 center. Then she disappeared. 34 00:02:34,620 --> 00:02:35,760 And that was it. 35 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:47,640 I was almost halfway to school when I saw a man in the distance standing in 36 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:52,600 front of a white van as though he were waiting for someone. 37 00:02:53,940 --> 00:02:59,980 I wanted to cross the street, but then I decided 38 00:02:59,980 --> 00:03:02,460 to keep going straight. 39 00:03:06,730 --> 00:03:10,190 When I came nearer, he came towards me, 40 00:03:10,250 --> 00:03:15,990 grabbed me and 41 00:03:15,990 --> 00:03:20,630 dragged me into his truck. 42 00:03:25,750 --> 00:03:30,890 I tried to scream, but no sound came out. 43 00:03:31,570 --> 00:03:33,330 My voice book froze. 44 00:03:33,750 --> 00:03:34,890 No sound. 45 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:41,880 The kidnapper said, if I didn't scream and didn't stand up and did what he 46 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:43,580 he wouldn't hurt me. 47 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,160 I didn't know what was going to happen. 48 00:03:52,660 --> 00:03:55,820 In that moment, I thought it was the end. 49 00:04:05,070 --> 00:04:10,290 I kind of knew the neighborhood from that angle, because when I used to drive 50 00:04:10,290 --> 00:04:13,710 home with my mother, I'd see the treetops and telephone poles. 51 00:04:14,410 --> 00:04:16,910 So I knew roughly where we were headed. 52 00:04:31,630 --> 00:04:38,130 Then he drove the white truck up to his garage, wrapped me in a blue blanket and 53 00:04:38,130 --> 00:04:39,690 carried me into the house. 54 00:04:56,670 --> 00:04:59,770 He carried me downstairs. 55 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:03,300 and put me down for a moment. 56 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:12,020 I didn't know it then, but he'd opened everything up, then he 57 00:05:12,020 --> 00:05:15,080 dragged me and carried me in. 58 00:05:19,980 --> 00:05:26,820 Then he left me in the 59 00:05:26,820 --> 00:05:28,540 cell on the floor. 60 00:05:29,580 --> 00:05:30,600 In the dark. 61 00:05:35,940 --> 00:05:42,660 Natasha was always on time, so when she was ten minutes 62 00:05:42,660 --> 00:05:45,680 late, I thought to myself, where is she? 63 00:05:45,900 --> 00:05:48,140 I'm going to call the childminder. 64 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:49,740 But no one answered. 65 00:05:50,020 --> 00:05:54,440 I called half an hour later, and they told me she'd never arrived. 66 00:05:54,900 --> 00:05:57,280 At that moment, I nearly fainted. 67 00:05:57,760 --> 00:05:59,360 I knew something had happened. 68 00:06:10,660 --> 00:06:16,180 It was as if the earth had just opened up and swallowed her. 69 00:06:28,500 --> 00:06:35,300 I just sat there and counted to myself up to 21, 21 seconds, 70 00:06:35,700 --> 00:06:42,620 and then to 60, and on and on, so I knew roughly how long I 71 00:06:42,620 --> 00:06:43,620 had been there. 72 00:06:44,900 --> 00:06:47,100 But at some point I lost track. 73 00:06:54,469 --> 00:06:56,950 That first day he brought me a mattress. 74 00:06:57,710 --> 00:07:02,390 It was just five centimeters thick and made of foam rubber. 75 00:07:02,970 --> 00:07:08,970 I only had the same blue blanket to cover me, and I had to use my jacket as 76 00:07:08,970 --> 00:07:09,970 pillow. 77 00:07:10,330 --> 00:07:13,910 I wanted to keep my dress on, day and night. 78 00:07:15,050 --> 00:07:17,270 I didn't want to give up anything. 79 00:07:18,190 --> 00:07:20,470 or reveal anything about myself. 80 00:07:22,030 --> 00:07:28,370 He'd taken away my school bag and he burned my shoes in the first few days. 81 00:07:30,330 --> 00:07:32,690 He said I wouldn't need them. 82 00:07:36,170 --> 00:07:41,330 A massive search is launched by police, starting at the housing estate where 83 00:07:41,330 --> 00:07:42,330 Natasha lives. 84 00:07:45,380 --> 00:07:47,440 Concerned citizens are calling in with information. 85 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,320 Soon, the police have evidence of an abduction. 86 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:02,000 Austrian police are investigating the disappearance of 10 -year -old Natascha 87 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,420 Kampusch, who was last seen walking to school on March 2. 88 00:08:07,340 --> 00:08:12,960 She had about a two -kilometer walk to school, starting from her home on the 89 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:13,960 Rheinbahn estate. 90 00:08:16,159 --> 00:08:19,220 Halfway along, there's a roundabout on the Mählandgasse. 91 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:25,640 At approximately 7 .20 a .m. that Monday morning, a girl standing at the 92 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:30,420 roundabout says she saw another girl in a red anorak being forced into a white 93 00:08:30,420 --> 00:08:32,940 truck parked on the right side of the road. 94 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:47,120 I had no way to contact my kidnapper if I needed something. 95 00:08:50,740 --> 00:08:53,160 He just came every day. 96 00:08:55,900 --> 00:09:01,880 Sometimes when he didn't close all the doors behind him, he could hear me 97 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:02,880 knocking. 98 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,840 And then he installed an intercom system. 99 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:13,980 though I could communicate with him. 100 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:24,220 I couldn't tell if it was day or night, because my inner clock had gone 101 00:09:24,220 --> 00:09:25,220 haywire. 102 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:36,160 Years later, the entrance to Natasha's cell is discovered in the garage beneath 103 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:37,360 a disguised trapdoor. 104 00:09:41,130 --> 00:09:44,410 Down below, a heavy cupboard and tyres must be shoved aside. 105 00:09:49,790 --> 00:09:54,130 They reveal a safe, 70 centimetres high, screwed flush with the wall. 106 00:09:58,670 --> 00:10:02,270 Behind that, the half -metre thick wall has been hollowed out. 107 00:10:05,290 --> 00:10:08,270 To get in, you had to crawl backwards through the hole. 108 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:15,060 and then close a 150 -kilo steel and concrete door behind you. 109 00:10:20,820 --> 00:10:26,120 Finally, you turned left to open the double wooden doors and step down into a 110 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:27,360 five -square -meter cell. 111 00:10:30,140 --> 00:10:34,580 It probably took him an hour or so to open the cell. 112 00:10:34,980 --> 00:10:38,640 If he was walking fast or he hadn't locked everything, 113 00:10:39,580 --> 00:10:40,580 It was a bit less. 114 00:10:43,620 --> 00:10:50,480 The effort was enormous, pushing everything aside and opening everything 115 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:58,060 If anything had happened to him or he had been taken ill, he'd never have 116 00:10:58,060 --> 00:10:59,300 got it open. 117 00:11:01,610 --> 00:11:07,750 I would have been sealed up like an Egyptian pharaoh, buried alive, dead and 118 00:11:07,750 --> 00:11:08,750 mummified. 119 00:11:11,150 --> 00:11:14,590 The statement by the young witness triggers an enormous investigation. 120 00:11:16,370 --> 00:11:22,870 Police question 1 ,520 owners of white trucks and 650 other people, 121 00:11:22,990 --> 00:11:29,170 including a man from Strasshof, half an hour from the center of Vienna, a 122 00:11:29,170 --> 00:11:30,650 township with one main street. 123 00:11:31,530 --> 00:11:32,850 No real center. 124 00:11:33,530 --> 00:11:35,310 And 8 ,000 inhabitants. 125 00:11:42,510 --> 00:11:47,470 The man's name is Wolfgang Pricklopiel, an unmarried 35 -year -old 126 00:11:47,470 --> 00:11:50,170 communications technician with no criminal record. 127 00:11:53,190 --> 00:11:57,630 Pricklopiel lives in his mother's house, where two investigators question him. 128 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:00,860 His truck is full of rubble from a building site. 129 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,260 He claims to have been at home on the day of the crime, but has no one to 130 00:12:05,260 --> 00:12:06,260 confirm his story. 131 00:12:07,340 --> 00:12:09,860 Police have no probable cause to search his house. 132 00:12:10,340 --> 00:12:14,640 They take Polaroids of his truck, write a report, and file it. 133 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,740 I met her at Siemens. 134 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:26,400 We did our vocational training there in the early 1980s. 135 00:12:27,070 --> 00:12:28,490 and we both worked there. 136 00:12:29,870 --> 00:12:36,630 Later I set up a company renovating apartments, and I hired Herr Priglopil 137 00:12:36,630 --> 00:12:40,370 because I knew he was a reliable person. 138 00:12:56,709 --> 00:12:59,270 Later on he installed a timer. 139 00:12:59,690 --> 00:13:06,570 The lights went on at a particular time and then it went dark, like in a prison 140 00:13:06,570 --> 00:13:09,630 where the lights go off at 8 p .m. 141 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,580 Every drop of water meant more mold. 142 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,440 It was humid and wet in the little room. 143 00:13:29,820 --> 00:13:32,760 And there were all kinds of insects there. 144 00:13:33,340 --> 00:13:34,980 It smelled musty. 145 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:40,840 It was very cold and damp. 146 00:13:41,740 --> 00:13:43,000 Really disgusting. 147 00:13:50,970 --> 00:13:53,650 And the ventilator was a kind of torture. 148 00:13:54,670 --> 00:13:57,690 It was very loud. 149 00:14:04,010 --> 00:14:09,890 And when it rotated for a long time and became hot, the blades began to melt. 150 00:14:09,950 --> 00:14:15,970 And then it didn't just make that groaning noise, but another annoying 151 00:14:24,219 --> 00:14:27,900 That went on until the fan was broken. 152 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,500 I began to get a sense for when he was coming. 153 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:48,940 I would become very nervous. 154 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:57,700 And then I'd hear the sounds of him unscrewing the safe and 155 00:14:57,700 --> 00:15:00,360 opening the concrete door. 156 00:15:04,860 --> 00:15:07,040 Lots of pounding noises. 157 00:15:07,900 --> 00:15:10,720 I'd sense it in advance somehow. 158 00:15:13,580 --> 00:15:19,700 And I'd get palpitations. My whole body would go into knots. 159 00:15:21,690 --> 00:15:22,990 would twist into nothing. 160 00:15:23,290 --> 00:15:29,270 I'd break out in a cold sweat and I'd feel really queasy. 161 00:15:39,050 --> 00:15:46,030 I remember that Herr Priglopil asked me once, 162 00:15:46,070 --> 00:15:50,830 before the kidnapping, when we were renovating a flat, 163 00:15:51,630 --> 00:15:58,470 how one could effectively install sound insulation to reduce the noise 164 00:15:58,470 --> 00:15:59,670 of a hammer drill. 165 00:16:01,870 --> 00:16:08,710 I told him that cement is a good insulation against voices, but 166 00:16:08,710 --> 00:16:13,710 rockwool would be the best thing to suppress the sound of a hammer drill. 167 00:16:21,420 --> 00:16:28,080 I was horrified, horrified to discover from the police investigation 168 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:33,960 that he used exactly this information to build the cell. 169 00:16:38,380 --> 00:16:45,300 Special investigators in Vienna receive a second tip -off about Wolfgang 170 00:16:45,300 --> 00:16:47,960 Pricklepiel eight days after his initial questioning. 171 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,400 The informant is a police dog handler who lives in Strasshof. 172 00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:57,100 He reports on a neighbor, a reclusive man who owns a white truck. 173 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:02,400 He's a shy loner and protects his house with electronic surveillance systems. 174 00:17:03,420 --> 00:17:07,579 He may store weapons there, and he's thought to have a sexual interest in 175 00:17:07,579 --> 00:17:08,579 children. 176 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:12,060 The officer has never learned his name, but provides a description. 177 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,119 The special task force immediately orders local police in Strasshof. 178 00:17:17,530 --> 00:17:18,810 to check the man's address. 179 00:17:22,670 --> 00:17:24,069 Then a fax arrives. 180 00:17:24,950 --> 00:17:28,750 Wolfgang Pricklepeel isn't registered as living at the house. His mother is. 181 00:17:29,470 --> 00:17:30,970 Pricklepeel is only staying there. 182 00:17:32,490 --> 00:17:34,650 His truck was checked on the 6th of April. 183 00:17:35,970 --> 00:17:38,430 The tip -off is filed and forgotten. 184 00:17:43,110 --> 00:17:45,710 Natasha Kampusch has disappeared into thin air. 185 00:18:07,820 --> 00:18:11,960 Sometimes, when I was giving her pictures of dust in the living room, 186 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:19,660 I would hold them to my chest or kiss them, and I said, don't give up, you're 187 00:18:19,660 --> 00:18:21,020 strong, strong child. 188 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:35,140 At first, I didn't have to help him with his work, because he was afraid. 189 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:39,580 that if I came upstairs, I might attack him with a tool. 190 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:48,840 But when he was sure I was too scared of him to run away, he 191 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:49,840 let me out. 192 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:55,200 But he made sure everything was locked, so I couldn't get out. 193 00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:22,480 I didn't see any daylight for a long, long time. 194 00:19:24,100 --> 00:19:30,580 Then, when I finally came upstairs, I still didn't see any, even though it was 195 00:19:30,580 --> 00:19:33,340 daytime, because he closed the blinds. 196 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:45,800 He began integrating me more and more into his household until I became 197 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:47,300 a... kind of slave. 198 00:19:47,740 --> 00:19:50,200 He always made sure I couldn't run away. 199 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,700 He threatened me and kept everything locked. 200 00:19:56,140 --> 00:20:02,900 It must have been incredibly gratifying for him to keep someone captive, someone 201 00:20:02,900 --> 00:20:07,500 who was there for him alone, someone not even his mother or grandmother knew 202 00:20:07,500 --> 00:20:08,500 about. 203 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:19,960 From the time that Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped, I visited his house about 204 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:24,060 twice a year, but never noticed anything unusual. 205 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:33,060 Herr Priglopil was very concerned with hygiene and cleanliness, and he was 206 00:20:33,060 --> 00:20:34,420 extremely frugal. 207 00:20:40,620 --> 00:20:44,520 On the one hand, he could afford a BMW. 208 00:20:46,180 --> 00:20:50,100 But on the other, he let me go hungry. 209 00:20:56,140 --> 00:20:57,660 That's cruel. 210 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:06,460 For the money he spent on a tank full of petrol, I could have 211 00:21:06,460 --> 00:21:08,420 survived for one or two weeks. 212 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:13,800 or even longer, depending on how much he gave me to eat. 213 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:15,560 Isn't that macabre? 214 00:21:31,420 --> 00:21:36,700 Sometimes, when I went with the police to identify things, I felt I was going 215 00:21:36,700 --> 00:21:37,700 my own execution. 216 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:43,120 I'd have to go somewhere near the school or near my flat because they'd found a 217 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:46,240 bag and wanted to know if it belonged to Natasha. 218 00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:52,700 Sometimes it was a shoe in a bush or a pair of panties in a car or a red jacket 219 00:21:52,700 --> 00:21:53,700 in a garage. 220 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,800 I was always so relieved when I saw that none of these things were Natasha's. 221 00:22:09,770 --> 00:22:16,170 If I had some skin cream, I rubbed some into the wooden boards of my bed, 222 00:22:16,370 --> 00:22:19,110 because it was a bit like furniture polish. 223 00:22:23,910 --> 00:22:30,690 I did a lot of dusting, and at the weekends, because I'd got used to doing 224 00:22:30,690 --> 00:22:35,510 with my mother, when I had time, when I was 225 00:22:35,510 --> 00:22:42,110 locked up, I sorted things out, tidied everything 226 00:22:42,110 --> 00:22:44,010 up, and I dusted. 227 00:22:48,370 --> 00:22:54,410 He was 228 00:22:54,410 --> 00:23:00,150 obsessed with cleaning, and of course he was constantly wiping off things that I 229 00:23:00,150 --> 00:23:01,150 might have touched. 230 00:23:01,390 --> 00:23:06,470 I wasn't really supposed to touch anything because of course fingerprints 231 00:23:06,470 --> 00:23:07,850 ugly, greasy marks. 232 00:23:09,490 --> 00:23:12,990 He would punish me if he found a fingerprint anywhere. 233 00:23:13,670 --> 00:23:18,490 Not only because it was potentially dangerous to find my fingerprints in his 234 00:23:18,490 --> 00:23:23,390 house, but because he hated the look of fingerprints on his household surfaces. 235 00:23:23,850 --> 00:23:26,530 He would grab me by the wrist. 236 00:23:26,910 --> 00:23:32,090 and used the back of my hand to wipe the prints of the refrigerator or the door 237 00:23:32,090 --> 00:23:33,090 frame. 238 00:23:40,590 --> 00:23:46,570 Right at the beginning, he made me wear plastic bags on my head. 239 00:23:47,310 --> 00:23:52,370 I stitched them together and attached them with a rubber band. 240 00:23:55,159 --> 00:24:00,940 It was horrible because the color came off onto my skin and it hurt because I 241 00:24:00,940 --> 00:24:03,220 had to fix it with clips and rubber bands. 242 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:13,000 It would have been easier just to tuck the hair under the plastic. 243 00:24:14,700 --> 00:24:21,000 But he insisted on the clips and grips and they dug into my scalp and hurt. It 244 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:22,000 was tight. 245 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:23,760 Really unpleasant. 246 00:24:27,700 --> 00:24:31,400 It made me frown all the time. It was horrible. 247 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:37,700 Then he said, if I shaved my head, it wouldn't be so bad. 248 00:24:38,100 --> 00:24:39,320 And it was torture. 249 00:24:40,500 --> 00:24:43,520 So when he trusted me enough, I got a pair of scissors. 250 00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:44,900 Blunt, of course. 251 00:24:45,450 --> 00:24:46,570 so I couldn't harm myself. 252 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:49,250 And I used them to cut my hair. 253 00:24:51,290 --> 00:24:53,550 And then he saw that. 254 00:24:54,470 --> 00:24:58,110 He said, he might as well cut it all off. 255 00:24:58,610 --> 00:24:59,610 And he did. 256 00:25:15,060 --> 00:25:21,280 There were times when the torture and the humiliation were so bad that I ran 257 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,320 the window and shouted for the police. 258 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:29,260 Then he grabbed me really roughly and choked me and hit me. 259 00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:36,360 So, of course, 260 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,500 sometimes I would rather be myself. 261 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:48,180 then have to leave it to do something I didn't want to, 262 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:55,160 like help him work, something he did when he was sick, 263 00:25:55,300 --> 00:25:58,040 not at first, but later. 264 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:08,320 I had to come up, and I'd have to make him soup or tea, and then he'd 265 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:09,580 take me down again. 266 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:17,100 It was very frustrating because 267 00:26:17,100 --> 00:26:24,000 when he was sick, he'd completely forget that I have my needs 268 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:30,920 too, that I might want to eat too or need some daylight or I want to 269 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:31,920 wash myself. 270 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,380 The pressure is building on the police to get results. 271 00:26:38,730 --> 00:26:41,910 They decide to tap the telephone of Natasha's mother. 272 00:26:42,530 --> 00:26:45,150 They hope the kidnapper will try to get in touch. 273 00:26:46,370 --> 00:26:48,930 A caller claims to be holding Natasha captive. 274 00:26:50,510 --> 00:26:53,170 But it's a hoax, one of many. 275 00:26:59,310 --> 00:27:02,370 Going hungry was dreadful. 276 00:27:03,010 --> 00:27:07,550 You almost feel like a drug addict and ask yourself, 277 00:27:08,490 --> 00:27:09,610 Why am I hungry? 278 00:27:09,890 --> 00:27:11,590 Why do I even feel hunger? 279 00:27:11,890 --> 00:27:14,030 Why can't I manage without food? 280 00:27:18,750 --> 00:27:25,430 He would show me all the food there was before he gave me anything to eat. 281 00:27:25,690 --> 00:27:28,770 But then he'd only cut off a tiny piece for me. 282 00:27:29,230 --> 00:27:32,110 He decided exactly how much I got to eat. 283 00:27:33,110 --> 00:27:37,170 He never let me have what I wanted or as much as I wanted. 284 00:27:37,950 --> 00:27:43,210 because he said, I moved around so little in the cell, I didn't need it. 285 00:27:58,490 --> 00:28:05,250 He didn't want me to cry, and each time I did, 286 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:09,040 He rubbed my tears into my face with the back of his hand. 287 00:28:11,540 --> 00:28:17,700 Or he took me by the throat and dragged me, choking me, to the bathroom, 288 00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:22,580 where he held my face over the sink so I couldn't cry anymore. 289 00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:28,640 He wouldn't let me cry because he was afraid the hydrochloric acid in my tears 290 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:30,000 would corrode his scalp. 291 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:42,640 He always forced me to look him straight in the eye or look down at the ground 292 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:44,680 in a very submissive way. 293 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:50,700 Of course I couldn't do that for long, because I won't be forced to do anything 294 00:28:50,700 --> 00:28:51,840 against my will. 295 00:28:57,220 --> 00:29:04,000 And of course he got back at me because of that. He kept telling me I'm 296 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:05,000 useless and worthless. 297 00:29:05,740 --> 00:29:08,280 and that I'll never have a chance to escape. 298 00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:18,140 He just liked having someone to dominate. 299 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:24,360 And the more I resisted and answered back, the more satisfying it was for him 300 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,820 put me down and dominate me, to boost his own self -esteem. 301 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:33,360 He despised people. 302 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:38,620 He hated his neighbors, although he was nice to them. 303 00:29:39,300 --> 00:29:45,560 He hated his surroundings and society, so he pretended to be a 304 00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:46,560 conformist. 305 00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:57,180 Herr Bricklopil was an only child, and after the death of his father he 306 00:29:57,180 --> 00:30:00,680 developed a very intense relationship with his mother. 307 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,720 He placed high demands on women. 308 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:15,680 They had to be well -groomed, slender and blonde. 309 00:30:19,300 --> 00:30:26,240 Of course, these were hard demands to 310 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:27,240 fulfill. 311 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:41,580 A private detective with his own theories about the crime mounts a 312 00:30:41,580 --> 00:30:43,900 against the police's handling of the investigation. 313 00:30:44,660 --> 00:30:49,620 As a result, 120 files have to be transferred to a new police commission. 314 00:30:49,820 --> 00:30:53,220 By the end, there will be 167 files. 315 00:30:55,900 --> 00:30:59,260 Natasha's body has supposedly been buried in an allotment. 316 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:00,560 Nothing is found. 317 00:31:00,820 --> 00:31:05,480 A year later, the private detective insists on another dig. He suspects 318 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:06,540 Natasha's mother. 319 00:31:08,899 --> 00:31:13,860 The private detective cooked up a theory that I was having an affair with a 320 00:31:13,860 --> 00:31:19,860 businessman and Natascha was in the way. So we murdered her and buried her in a 321 00:31:19,860 --> 00:31:20,860 pond he owned. 322 00:31:22,300 --> 00:31:28,400 And the detective kept on at the police about digging there until they agreed. 323 00:31:28,740 --> 00:31:30,860 And of course they found nothing. 324 00:31:40,730 --> 00:31:42,930 You are locked up there in the dark. 325 00:31:43,490 --> 00:31:45,710 There is no electricity and you are hungry. 326 00:31:46,230 --> 00:31:50,310 And then, yes, you think to yourself, what's the point? 327 00:31:50,790 --> 00:31:52,610 Why not put an end to all this? 328 00:31:54,590 --> 00:32:01,430 But then you come to the conclusion that you mustn't give up 329 00:32:01,430 --> 00:32:06,790 because the whole thing is such a monstrous injustice. 330 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:11,000 You mustn't allow yourself to be defeated. 331 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,080 It was a kind of fighting spirit that kept me alive. 332 00:32:25,420 --> 00:32:32,400 He had lots of books, and he'd probably kept all the books he had to read 333 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:33,400 in school. 334 00:32:33,420 --> 00:32:35,460 And then I got them. 335 00:32:38,010 --> 00:32:43,850 He went out and bought me non -fiction books, because I liked them, and some 336 00:32:43,850 --> 00:32:46,250 dictionaries, and books on philosophy. 337 00:32:54,650 --> 00:33:00,090 I wanted to learn and discover things in my own way. 338 00:33:01,230 --> 00:33:05,310 So I asked him to send me tests from math books. 339 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:16,420 He was good at math, so I asked him to mark the tests for me, and he did. 340 00:33:18,460 --> 00:33:22,920 But unfortunately, it's the way he did it. 341 00:33:24,220 --> 00:33:30,010 He found mistakes everywhere, and because he had this controlling side, 342 00:33:30,010 --> 00:33:31,330 wanted to dominate me. 343 00:33:31,810 --> 00:33:34,610 He just crossed everything out in red ink. 344 00:33:38,290 --> 00:33:42,710 All that time I felt he wanted to be like some old -fashioned teacher. 345 00:33:43,850 --> 00:33:48,730 I'm in charge here, and that's probably how he was treated in his childhood. 346 00:33:51,270 --> 00:33:57,750 I appreciated the fact that he was always polite and very 347 00:33:57,750 --> 00:34:03,990 reliable. On the other hand, he was rather shy and a bit introverted. 348 00:34:05,390 --> 00:34:12,090 He always tried not to offend anyone, and I'm sure he was a very obliging 349 00:34:12,090 --> 00:34:14,710 person, neighbor, son and grandson. 350 00:34:27,700 --> 00:34:31,719 Sometime later, the Vienna City Council offered their help. 351 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:35,560 They said something I shall never forget to this day. 352 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:41,239 I should buy a grave, a plot, so I could have a place to go to talk to Natascha. 353 00:34:41,580 --> 00:34:46,360 I left the office, sat in my car and burst into tears. 354 00:34:46,620 --> 00:34:49,260 I couldn't even drive home. 355 00:34:51,770 --> 00:34:52,770 My child is alive. 356 00:34:52,909 --> 00:34:54,050 She isn't dead. 357 00:34:54,350 --> 00:34:56,489 Natasha was never dead for me. 358 00:34:56,889 --> 00:34:58,930 No one ever showed me any proof. 359 00:34:59,230 --> 00:35:01,590 There was no evidence to the contrary. 360 00:35:01,910 --> 00:35:04,490 So I always believed Natasha was alive. 361 00:35:05,290 --> 00:35:07,330 Right through the eight and a half years. 362 00:35:32,759 --> 00:35:38,000 After a few years, I could go out into the garden with him, sometimes at night, 363 00:35:38,020 --> 00:35:39,720 for five or ten minutes. 364 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:46,340 I was so happy I could touch the trees and the hedge, and I could feel the 365 00:35:46,340 --> 00:35:47,680 and the wind on my skin. 366 00:35:48,460 --> 00:35:51,660 Because, of course, there is no wind in the house. 367 00:35:52,990 --> 00:35:54,030 And it was so good. 368 00:35:55,330 --> 00:36:01,950 I asked him if I could take a twig from the hedge back down to myself so I could 369 00:36:01,950 --> 00:36:05,270 always think about it as a kind of memento. 370 00:36:06,310 --> 00:36:11,190 Who takes something from the garden into the house to remember it by? 371 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:29,000 For a while I kept a diary, a kind of workbook, where I wrote 372 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,060 down everything I did in the house. 373 00:36:31,660 --> 00:36:35,480 Clearing up this, cleaning that, siliconing. 374 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,500 I had to wash every tile by hand before it could be laid. 375 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:44,860 I had to check every tile for flaws because of course you wouldn't use any 376 00:36:44,860 --> 00:36:45,860 that wasn't perfect. 377 00:36:46,240 --> 00:36:50,820 I squeezed out sponges, shoveled rubble, carried heavy packets of tiles. 378 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:52,440 It was exhausting. 379 00:36:52,700 --> 00:36:54,760 I was extremely weak and thin. 380 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:11,780 The first few years I baked a cake for Natasha on her birthday and 381 00:37:11,780 --> 00:37:14,280 chucked it away after a couple of weeks. 382 00:37:15,100 --> 00:37:18,560 But I always tried to keep Natasha alive in my mind. 383 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,260 to include her wherever she was. 384 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:27,520 I tried to let her know somehow, maybe by telepathy, that I was thinking of 385 00:37:30,100 --> 00:37:36,660 On my birthday, I always remembered all the birthdays I had celebrated with lots 386 00:37:36,660 --> 00:37:39,620 of other kids and with a special cake. 387 00:37:44,660 --> 00:37:46,800 And how different it is now. 388 00:37:47,210 --> 00:37:49,210 all alone in the cell. 389 00:37:58,970 --> 00:38:04,290 Well, of course, at the beginning nothing. 390 00:38:04,730 --> 00:38:11,710 The kidnapping, of course, but all the humiliation and the other 391 00:38:11,710 --> 00:38:13,450 things didn't come till later. 392 00:38:15,980 --> 00:38:21,260 Then I really began to hate him for the way he was torturing me. 393 00:38:23,060 --> 00:38:30,040 But maybe the secret, the reason I survived all those years, was because 394 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:34,700 I forgave him for everything almost as soon as it happened. 395 00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:44,980 I think if I hadn't forgiven him, 396 00:38:48,810 --> 00:38:54,450 I would have been so full of hate and 397 00:38:54,450 --> 00:39:01,350 negative feelings that it would have become unbearable and it 398 00:39:01,350 --> 00:39:03,170 would have destroyed me physically. 399 00:39:10,070 --> 00:39:16,890 The kind of crime he committed is usually the result of some 400 00:39:16,890 --> 00:39:18,130 illness or injury. 401 00:39:18,950 --> 00:39:22,910 And a person can't usually do anything about an illness. 402 00:39:26,650 --> 00:39:29,870 But this criminal had a conscience. 403 00:39:30,430 --> 00:39:32,470 He still had a conscience. 404 00:39:33,630 --> 00:39:37,230 He was aware on some level of what he was doing. 405 00:39:38,310 --> 00:39:45,250 You could see that he was weak and unstable because of some kind of illness 406 00:39:45,250 --> 00:39:46,250 injury. 407 00:39:47,500 --> 00:39:53,800 He had become so unstable that he saw the kidnapping as the solution to his 408 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:54,800 problem. 409 00:39:55,860 --> 00:40:01,320 It didn't matter what the problems really were or how he thought this could 410 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,560 help, but he did see it as a solution. 411 00:40:09,700 --> 00:40:13,380 That actually made me feel... 412 00:40:13,710 --> 00:40:16,490 pity and compassion for him. 413 00:40:17,010 --> 00:40:22,930 Because many people are looking for the meaning of their lives and many fail. 414 00:40:24,090 --> 00:40:29,190 Some commit suicide, others take a wrong turning. 415 00:40:29,630 --> 00:40:36,550 And he thought that if life hadn't given him what he wanted, 416 00:40:36,750 --> 00:40:38,570 he must take it by force. 417 00:40:39,530 --> 00:40:44,590 He felt that he must become like everything that had injured him and made 418 00:40:44,590 --> 00:40:45,590 ill. 419 00:40:47,890 --> 00:40:50,910 Seven years have passed since Natasha Kampusch is kidnapping. 420 00:40:51,470 --> 00:40:54,190 Seven years in which she has grown into a young woman. 421 00:40:54,550 --> 00:40:56,270 No one would recognize her now. 422 00:40:56,930 --> 00:41:01,010 They're still looking for her, or rather for a name in police files. 423 00:41:02,770 --> 00:41:07,550 And that allows her kidnapper to take her out into the city, even to work for 424 00:41:07,550 --> 00:41:09,140 him. renovating an apartment. 425 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:15,820 Many people ask why I didn't simply run away while he was busy. 426 00:41:17,060 --> 00:41:23,740 But he always made sure I was carrying something heavy or there was some other 427 00:41:23,740 --> 00:41:25,540 reason I couldn't just run. 428 00:41:27,820 --> 00:41:31,080 He was very good at keeping up the pressure. 429 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:41,260 And we'd be out in his van, and I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone. 430 00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:49,920 He said he'd kill anyone I spoke to, or he'd kill me and anyone who'd seen me. 431 00:41:52,700 --> 00:41:54,020 It was hopeless. 432 00:42:07,150 --> 00:42:12,890 Once we were on the way to the hardware store, we got caught in a traffic jam. 433 00:42:14,190 --> 00:42:18,070 And there was a police checkpoint up ahead of us. 434 00:42:19,790 --> 00:42:26,190 There was a rather stocky policeman there. A friendly type. 435 00:42:29,130 --> 00:42:32,030 But he didn't look too intelligent. 436 00:42:37,669 --> 00:42:44,430 And I tried to signal him with my eyes that something was wrong, 437 00:42:44,590 --> 00:42:46,750 but he didn't pick it up. 438 00:42:47,590 --> 00:42:52,730 He probably thought I was mentally disturbed or epileptic or something. 439 00:42:53,790 --> 00:42:57,250 Anyway, he didn't notice or ask any questions. 440 00:42:57,810 --> 00:43:01,250 He just checked the car documents and waved us through. 441 00:43:06,240 --> 00:43:11,820 If someone jumps out of a car and starts pounding on the windows of other cars, 442 00:43:12,060 --> 00:43:15,320 they don't look especially normal or trustworthy. 443 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:23,340 The way I looked at the time, so thin and pale, people might have thought I 444 00:43:23,340 --> 00:43:25,220 crazy or a drug addict. 445 00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:42,900 I own an events hall, and in July 2006, Herr Priglopil called me 446 00:43:42,900 --> 00:43:45,520 and told me he wanted to borrow my trailer. 447 00:43:47,500 --> 00:43:51,360 And one evening we drove to this hall. 448 00:43:54,860 --> 00:44:01,720 He had to pick up a trailer he owned, or he owned 449 00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:02,720 with Holzapfel. 450 00:44:06,850 --> 00:44:09,870 And then I saw Holzapfel. 451 00:44:10,550 --> 00:44:16,550 But I didn't know if he was his accomplice or if he would believe me 452 00:44:16,550 --> 00:44:18,310 was obviously his best friend. 453 00:44:19,970 --> 00:44:20,970 When he came, 454 00:44:22,950 --> 00:44:25,590 he was accompanied by a young girl. 455 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:34,020 I saw the girl as I opened the door to the hall and he introduced her to me 456 00:44:34,020 --> 00:44:35,940 as an acquaintance. 457 00:44:36,300 --> 00:44:38,500 I shook her hand and said hello. 458 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:46,940 That was hardly a situation where I could have said something. 459 00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:49,700 So I didn't try to escape. 460 00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,020 I just did what I was supposed to do. 461 00:44:53,450 --> 00:44:57,730 shook his hand and said nothing, the way he'd drummed it into me. 462 00:45:00,970 --> 00:45:07,410 Then I had to leave because I was under time pressure. 463 00:45:17,010 --> 00:45:19,910 I got everything that you want. 464 00:45:20,940 --> 00:45:27,820 Like a heart that was so true, just call on me and send a 465 00:45:27,820 --> 00:45:31,220 love with love from me to you. 466 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:40,060 I could have committed suicide, thought it was much better to be dead than 467 00:45:40,060 --> 00:45:41,060 locked up for good. 468 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:46,860 But that day, thank heavens, I found the courage and just ran away. 469 00:45:55,210 --> 00:46:00,290 At 1 .04 p .m. today, a confused young girl was discovered in a garden in the 470 00:46:00,290 --> 00:46:01,290 town of Strasshof. 471 00:46:01,550 --> 00:46:05,750 When police arrived, the young woman claimed to be Natasha Kampusch. 472 00:46:07,470 --> 00:46:13,770 He was talking on his cell phone, and he'd told me to vacuum the van, 473 00:46:13,930 --> 00:46:15,690 which I was doing. 474 00:46:20,510 --> 00:46:27,430 The noise was so loud that he walked over to the swimming pool, maybe 11 475 00:46:27,430 --> 00:46:28,430 away. 476 00:46:28,750 --> 00:46:31,890 He'd left the garden gate open, unlocked. 477 00:46:34,050 --> 00:46:36,310 So I grabbed the opportunity. 478 00:46:36,830 --> 00:46:43,770 I left the vacuum cleaner on and ran away, really, really fast, as 479 00:46:43,770 --> 00:46:45,570 fast as my legs could carry me. 480 00:46:47,340 --> 00:46:50,440 When they searched the house, police found a prison cell in the garage. 481 00:46:52,060 --> 00:46:56,260 It has just been reported that the alleged kidnapper has committed suicide. 482 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:03,760 Then apparently he drove to the train station and he laid down on the tracks. 483 00:47:04,300 --> 00:47:06,740 Then the train ran over his head. 484 00:47:07,100 --> 00:47:08,200 Then he was dead. 485 00:47:15,050 --> 00:47:19,670 Natasha Kampus becomes a media star overnight, darling of the world's press. 486 00:47:20,250 --> 00:47:24,110 The missed tip -off from the police dog handler causes a political storm. 487 00:47:24,530 --> 00:47:28,070 Their talk of cover -ups, mistakes, hard truths. 488 00:47:28,570 --> 00:47:31,890 Austria's scandal -wracked government resigns two years later. 489 00:47:32,210 --> 00:47:38,270 The papers spread rumours of sadomasochism, child pornography rings 490 00:47:38,270 --> 00:47:39,270 accomplices. 491 00:47:39,919 --> 00:47:42,300 Of course they want to make headlines. 492 00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:47,320 Child pornography and Natascha Kampusch are linked all the time. 493 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:49,540 That's so painful. 494 00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:58,960 No sadomasochists, no pornography ring came by. 495 00:47:59,620 --> 00:48:04,560 As far as I was concerned, I only had contact with a kidnapper. 496 00:48:04,940 --> 00:48:06,720 Did he do something like that? 497 00:48:07,500 --> 00:48:09,940 I don't think so, because he didn't have the time. 498 00:48:10,500 --> 00:48:11,880 But we'll never know. 499 00:48:13,700 --> 00:48:18,080 We could only ask him, and he would probably deny everything. 500 00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:23,460 But no one would believe him, because people like to hear stories about 501 00:48:23,460 --> 00:48:25,840 sadomasochism and child -porn rings. 502 00:48:26,260 --> 00:48:27,560 That's the way it is. 503 00:48:29,450 --> 00:48:33,130 People love horrible things and they can't get enough of them. 504 00:48:34,030 --> 00:48:39,110 They seek them out and exaggerate them and embellish them, make them even more 505 00:48:39,110 --> 00:48:41,890 terrible and disgusting and revolting and vile. 506 00:48:53,450 --> 00:48:59,110 The press asked me straight out whether I was raped or sexually abused and that 507 00:48:59,110 --> 00:49:00,110 kind of thing. 508 00:49:00,430 --> 00:49:06,290 But in my eyes, the way the media treated me after my escape is a form of 509 00:49:06,290 --> 00:49:09,390 too. And they should be punished for it. 510 00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:29,640 In many people I trigger some kind of unconscious aggression. 511 00:49:30,460 --> 00:49:35,920 Maybe the whole crime and what happened to me triggers aggression and I'm the 512 00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,880 only one they can still reach and so it all lands on me. 513 00:49:43,700 --> 00:49:47,980 Right from the start I said I'm not a victim. 514 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:53,820 Because I knew that if I present myself as a victim and show everyone how 515 00:49:53,820 --> 00:49:57,920 terrible it was, they'd never accept me as a normal person again. 516 00:49:58,380 --> 00:50:03,120 They'd say, you, you've debased yourself so far. 517 00:50:03,340 --> 00:50:05,380 What do you think you're doing here? 518 00:50:05,640 --> 00:50:10,320 Go back where you came from. Go back down to your filthy swamp. 519 00:50:10,940 --> 00:50:14,180 That's how most people are. That's how they think. 520 00:50:18,169 --> 00:50:21,190 I just want people to treat me normally. 521 00:50:22,890 --> 00:50:29,610 I deserve a chance like anyone else. I think people should be glad I halfway 522 00:50:29,610 --> 00:50:30,950 survived all this.