Fresh questions emerge over Austrian abduction

VIENNA, Austria – She dashed to freedom the moment she got a chance, but reportedly wept inconsolably when told her “master” was dead.

She had a tearful reunion with her parents, yet hasn’t asked for them since. New details – and fresh questions – emerged on Saturday about Natascha Kampusch’s welfare after her ordeal at the hands of a captor who yanked her off a suburban street when she was 10 and confined her to a squalid, windowless cell for more than eight years.For the first time, a lawyer offered a glimpse into how Kampusch is faring since her dramatic escape on Wednesday from captor Wolfgang Priklopil as he busied himself with a cell phone call at his house in the town of Strasshof, just north of Vienna.Kampusch, who was being kept in a secure and undisclosed location, was “for the moment well” and enjoying some private time reading newspapers and watching TV, said Monika Pinterits, an attorney who said she spent several hours at her side.Describing her as “very intelligent and very eloquent”, Pinterits told the Austria Press Agency that Kampusch objected to being pitied in news accounts about her.”She is not a ‘poor victim’ – she is an adult young woman” who wants her privacy respected, she said.As investigators examined the 18-year-old’s diaries for clues to what she endured, scores of ordinary Austrians offered prayer, support and admiration in a flurry of emotional ‘Dear Natascha’ messages posted online.Erich Zwettler of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau said the girl – who had a brief and emotional reunion with her family after her escape – had not expressed a desire to see them again.Zwettler said Kampusch would not be questioned again until today at the earliest.That pained her father, Ludwig Koch, desperate to have five minutes with the daughter he never expected to see alive again – and her mother, Brigitta Sirny, who issued a plaintive plea: “Why am I not allowed to see my daughter?” “Psychologists and doctors are all well and good, but a daughter needs her mother,” she told the newspaper Kurier in an interview for Sunday’s editions.But later on Saturday, Koch excitedly told reporters his daughter sent him a letter that read, in part: “We’ll have all the time in the world.”Priklopil jumped beneath a commuter train within hours of Kampusch’s escape.Zwettler said investigators continue to comb through the house and are questioning numerous people as they work to determine whether Priklopil had any accomplices.At the time of the kidnapping, another girl told police she saw two men drag Kampusch into a white van.Meanwhile, the nature of his relationship with the girl he abducted as she walked to school on March 2 1998, and how it might have evolved as she blossomed into womanhood still a prisoner, remained unclear.Police psychologists have suggested Kampusch may have suffered from so-called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, where victims adapt to what otherwise would be insufferable situations by identifying with their captors.Although authorities said Priklopil at least initially insisted that his captive call him “master”, Kurier cited an unidentified investigator as saying she burst into tears when told this week he was dead.Investigators have determined that Priklopil engaged in elaborate plans to build the hidden cell at least a year before the kidnapping, when he carried out extensive excavation work on his basement.Nampa-APNew details – and fresh questions – emerged on Saturday about Natascha Kampusch’s welfare after her ordeal at the hands of a captor who yanked her off a suburban street when she was 10 and confined her to a squalid, windowless cell for more than eight years.For the first time, a lawyer offered a glimpse into how Kampusch is faring since her dramatic escape on Wednesday from captor Wolfgang Priklopil as he busied himself with a cell phone call at his house in the town of Strasshof, just north of Vienna.Kampusch, who was being kept in a secure and undisclosed location, was “for the moment well” and enjoying some private time reading newspapers and watching TV, said Monika Pinterits, an attorney who said she spent several hours at her side.Describing her as “very intelligent and very eloquent”, Pinterits told the Austria Press Agency that Kampusch objected to being pitied in news accounts about her.”She is not a ‘poor victim’ – she is an adult young woman” who wants her privacy respected, she said.As investigators examined the 18-year-old’s diaries for clues to what she endured, scores of ordinary Austrians offered prayer, support and admiration in a flurry of emotional ‘Dear Natascha’ messages posted online.Erich Zwettler of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau said the girl – who had a brief and emotional reunion with her family after her escape – had not expressed a desire to see them again.Zwettler said Kampusch would not be questioned again until today at the earliest.That pained her father, Ludwig Koch, desperate to have five minutes with the daughter he never expected to see alive again – and her mother, Brigitta Sirny, who issued a plaintive plea: “Why am I not allowed to see my daughter?” “Psychologists and doctors are all well and good, but a daughter needs her mother,” she told the newspaper Kurier in an interview for Sunday’s editions.But later on Saturday, Koch excitedly told reporters his daughter sent him a letter that read, in part: “We’ll have all the time in the world.”Priklopil jumped beneath a commuter train within hours of Kampusch’s escape.Zwettler said investigators continue to comb through the house and are questioning numerous people as they work to determine whether Priklopil had any accomplices.At the time of the kidnapping, another girl told police she saw two men drag Kampusch into a white van.Meanwhile, the nature of his relationship with the girl he abducted as she walked to school on March 2 1998, and how it might have evolved as she blossomed into womanhood still a prisoner, remained unclear.Police psychologists have suggested Kampusch may have suffered from so-called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, where victims adapt to what otherwise would be insufferable situations by identifying with their captors.Although authorities said Priklopil at least initially insisted that his captive call him “master”, Kurier cited an unidentified investigator as saying she burst into tears when told this week he was dead.Investigators have determined that Priklopil engaged in elaborate plans to build the hidden cell at least a year before the kidnapping, when he carried out extensive excavation work on his basement.Nampa-AP