How Natascha Kampusch Survived Eight Years In Captivity
4/15/202646 min
On March 2, 1998, 10-year-old Austrian girl Natascha Kampusch disappeared on her way to school.
What followed was 3,096 days in captivity, hidden inside a soundproof cellar, cut off from the outside world and shaped by fear, control, and a deeply complex psychological dynamic with her captor.
Journalist Rahni Sadler spent a lot of time getting to know Natascha, interviewing her in 2011 and again in 2016, and even visiting the house where she was held. In this episode, she offers insight into Natascha’s story - revealing the quiet strength, nuance, and resilience behind one of the most confronting cas...
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First 90 secondsGemma Bath· Host0:00
[birds chirping] It's March 2nd, 1998, in Vienna, Austria, and 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch is walking to school. Usually, her mom drives her, but they had a fight, so she's decided to make her own way. Suddenly, a white van pulls up next to her, and a man gets out and grabs her- Ah ... throwing her inside before slamming the door. He drives her to a house outside the city and locks her inside a secret soundproof dungeon, custom-made for this very moment. The room is dark. There's no windows. It's tiny, only a few square meters, with a heavy steel door and a few basic bits of furniture: a narrow bed, a small sink, a table. This is to become Natascha's prison, her home for the next 3,096 days. [somber music] I'm Gemma Bath, and you're listening to True Crime Conversations, a podcast exploring the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. Just a heads-up, this episode mentions physical and sexual abuse, as well as suicide. Two years after her escape, after nearly a decade in captivity, Natascha bought the house that she was imprisoned in. Many found the move unsettling, strange. Some found it symbolic. Why