Austria: Relatives identify girl missing for eight years
Authorities are trying to determine if a young woman found yesterday is Natascha Kampusch, whose disappearance nearly a decade ago when she was 10 years old has gripped Austria.
Herwig Haidinger, head of Austria’s federal bureau of investigation, was quoted by the Austria Press Agency as saying relatives identified the woman as Kampusch.
Austrian television, citing police, reported that she was found in a garden north-east of Vienna, telling authorities she had been kidnapped and kept in a house by a man for years.
DNA testing is underway in the hopes that it will clear up one of the biggest police mysteries in recent Austrian history, Haidinger told Austrian television.
The station also reported that police had also tried to confirm the girl’s identity using computerised face analysis.
Kampusch vanished in Vienna on her way to school on March 2, 1998, triggering a massive search that extended into neighbouring Hungary. Her case has attracted intense attention in the Alpine nation ever since.
Austrian television, citing an investigator, said the alleged kidnapper killed himself late yesterday by jumping in front of a train in Vienna. The report couldn’t immediately be confirmed.
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