The 18 year old woman who escaped captivity eight years after being kidnapped has been conclusively identified through DNA testing. It is, indeed, Natascha Kampusch, kidnapped on her way to school when she was ten years old. The man who kidnapped and held her for eight years killed himself after she escaped. They're waiting on a DNA test on him, too, since he threw himself under a commuter train.
As investigators interviewed the 18-year-old about her harrowing ordeal, some neighbors questioned Friday whether they could have done more to end it earlier.
Stefan Freiberger, a retiree in his 60s, recalled his daughter and a friend telling him that the man now believed to have abducted Kampusch had exposed himself a few years ago as the two girls rode their bikes past the back of his house. Freiberger said he contemplated going to the police about the man, Wolfgang Priklopil — but didn't.
Priklopil's house in this semi-rural community — where children play freely in the streets and doors are left open — had a menacing aura, Freiberger said.
"Whenever I went by, everything was closed," he told The Associated Press, recalling a house characterized by shuttered windows, closed gates and a well-manicured lawn.
Priklopil, 44, killed himself Wednesday by jumping in front of a Vienna commuter train.
Police have said they are looking for a possible accomplice based on the testimony eight years ago of a 12-year-old girl who claimed to have seen two people in a white van stop and seize Natascha.
Priklopil's suicide came just a few hours after Kampusch escaped and frantically pleaded for help at a neighbor's door.
My earlier posts on Natascha here and here.
