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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think the Natascha Kampusch story is somewhat strange?

41 replies

iwanttolearn · 04/08/2011 19:48

I have just started reading her autobiography, but I just find the whole thing so weird.

Why did he do it and how did nobody know about it? And what happened to her abuser in the end? Did he end up in prison?

I still find the whole story really bizarre.

OP posts:

GwendolineMaryLacey · 05/08/2011 00:00

Just finished it. It is a compelling story although possibly I've read it too soon after reading Room. She is obviously very angry about the Stockholm Syndrome thing.

nineyearoldsarerude · 05/08/2011 00:11

I don't think she bought the house-didn't she 'inherit' it or get it as compensation?

sassyminder · 05/08/2011 00:53

and what happend to the kidnapper's wife?

LolaRennt · 05/08/2011 01:07

I havent read the book, I thought she bought it so it wasn't available to the public?

I do think the story is facinating, not in a misery-porn sort of way but in a damn that girl has some balls. I remeber reading on The Daily Mail some oneline newspaper a whole load of comments about people bitching that she "was making money" off the situation. I don't know how they got it in their heads that they were in a position to judge her, a girl with no formal education and probably not the best people skills, I think she has done really well.. a genuine inspiration. I can imagine most people in her situation would have taken the easy way out and killed themselves, I am sure I would have. But to escape after all that and not have any real idea about what would happen to her, she's amazing.

LolaRennt · 05/08/2011 01:08

I dont think he had a wife, think that was fritzel

orienteerer · 05/08/2011 06:44

She bought the house.

Longtalljosie · 05/08/2011 07:00

What with her, though, and Joseph Fritzl, you do wonder how many other women didn't escape, and were just "missing", and never found.

savoycabbage · 05/08/2011 07:18

He didn't have a wife.

They didn't find her as she was so well hidden. The entrance to the cellar was under the garage floor, down some stairs, behind a chest of drawers, through a thick concrete door, and along a passage.

She was too frightened to run away earlier as he told her he had put explosives at all of the windows in the house and that there were other people involved so she wouldn't get away.

She was terrified that if she tried to get away he would catch her and she would be hurt. She was nine when he took her.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 05/08/2011 07:51

'how did nobody know about it?'

Because we don't go around assuming there are kidnap victims being hidden in homes. We take people on face value, by and large, and respect others' privacy. If things seem normal we don't ask questions. If things seem a little unusual but the explanation seems plausible, we accept the explanation. Do you know your neighbours intimately? Or just to nod to over the fence occasionally? The usual response from neighbours when someone is arrested for a particularly nasty crime is along the lines of 'He always seemed like a nice bloke. Kept himself to himself'.

HPonEverything · 05/08/2011 10:05

It's scary to think there could be people out there right now who are in the same position she was in and nobody has any idea about it.

When I read about these cases I always put it into context of my own life "what was I doing and what was happening between 1998 and 2006?" type thing, and think of all the stuff that happened in that time that the 'kidnappee' missed out on :( I'm a little morbid like that.

moffat · 05/08/2011 10:13

HP I think exactly the same thing..there are similar stories from all over the world so it clearly is a thing that some extremely disturbed people do and therefore it is (unbearably sadly) very likely that there are people right now being held against their will.

Collision · 05/08/2011 10:17

There's the other girl that was kidnapped and found recently. The kidnapper had a wife and they are in jail now.

The stepfather was under suspicion for a while and it destroyed the whole family

The girl had 2 daughters with the kidnapper.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 05/08/2011 10:20

Just looked at a video of the room on youtube. Really wish I hadn't now. Even the entrance to it makes me shiver.

HPonEverything · 05/08/2011 10:21

Collision That was Jaycee Dugard. There was also Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped by mormons (another strange tale), not to mention the Fritzl case.

The people who commit these crimes all seem to have different motivations but they're all incredibly disturbed.

FreudianSlipper · 05/08/2011 12:16

this is on my to read list

i am not sure why you find it strange. another good book with a similar story is girl in a box (the film was terrible). colleen stan was kidnapped and kept in a box for up to 23 hours a day, then she became the family slave. she was so controlled they even allowed her to visit her family she did not inform them of what had happened, they did not force her to stay because they feared never seeing her again he kidnapper posed as her boyfriend with the family taking pictures of the couple. he then kept her in a box for a further year before allowing her some freedom again. i think it was wife that went to the police over the murder of another girl. it is such a sad story but worth reading

bubblesincoffee · 05/08/2011 12:24

I was thinking about this for some holiday reading, but I'm not usually into mis lit. Is this a bit different then?

And can it be downloaded onto Kindle? I have one but I hardly ever use it and I know not very much about ebooks.

Sorry for the slight hijack!

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