People Who Survived Kidnapping And Brutalization

September 9. 2009

Jaycee Lee Dugard

When kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard’s story hit the press last month, it shone a light on child abductions and the terrible ordeal innocent victims of crime go through at the hands of their captors.

Another case that was quite sad is the story of 21-year-old Austrian, Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted as a young girl by a sadistic, cruel man. 

Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, nabbed her off the streets of Austria when she was 10-years-old and forced her to live in a tiny, soundproofed cellar under his garage that could barely hold a bed. He viciously beat her on a regular basis, until she was black and blue and by all accounts, sexually assaulted her as well.

At age 18, while cleaning his BMW in the driveway, she made a run for it and escaped, when Priklopil was distracted by a cell phone call. She ran into a house on a neighboring street, where she found an elderly man, who called the police. Fearing arrest for kidnapping Natascha 8-years prior, Priklopil killed himself by standing in the path of a train.

When she learned of his death, Natascha cried out of pity for him, exhibiting clear signs of Stockholm Syndrome, much like Jaycee Lee Dugard, who felt sorry for her kidnapper when he was apprehended.

After years of mind control and mental abuse, with the intent to make victims malleable, people who have been kidnapped, often struggle with conflicting feelings.

After she was returned to her family, the network Puls 4 in Austria gave her a talk show titled “Natascha Kampusch Trifft.” It was good of them to give her such a great job, welcoming her back to living out in the open. She is a brave woman to embrace public life again and I salute her courage.

Hopefully in time, Jaycee Lee Dugard and her children will acclimate to public life as well and enjoy all the great things in life they have been missing, due to the unconscionable crimes that were committed against them. God bless them all. Their stories are testament that recovery is possible.