Austria: Mother of kidnap victim releases book
The mother of a young woman who survived more than eight years years of captivity in an underground cell released a book today detailing what she went through during her daughter’s absence.
Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on her way to school in Vienna on March 2, 1998, when she was 10.
Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, largely confined her to the windowless cell in his home in a rural and quiet town on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.
The book, titled Desperate Years: My life Without Natascha, is being released just weeks before the one-year anniversary of Kampusch’s escape on August 23, 2006.
Kampusch fled to freedom when Priklopil was distracted by a phone call while she was vacuuming his car.
Priklopil killed himself by jumping in front of a commuter train later that day.
Sirny, speaking to a crowd of journalists, said writing the book helped her come to terms with what happened to her daughter. “I won’t ever be able to forget these eight and a half years, but it’s easier to deal with it,” Sirny said, adding that financial rewards played “absolutely no role” in putting pen to paper.
