Austrian Teen Shares Her Nightmare

Kidnap Victim Tells Of Over 8 Years Growing Up In Underground Cell

(AP)  Kampusch said she celebrated her birthday, Christmas and Easter with her captor, whom she referred to during the interview as "Mr. Priklopil". He gave her gifts, she said.

"I think he had a very guilty conscience but he tried to repress it," she said.

Earlier Wednesday, the weekly magazine News and the mass-circulation daily Kronen Zeitung published separate interviews in which Kampusch said she "thought only of escape" during her entire ordeal and once tried to jump out of Priklopil's car.

The 44-year-old communications technician killed himself within hours of her escape by jumping in front of a commuter train.

When Priklopil took her out on errands, "he always wanted me to walk in front of him, not behind him," apparently to minimize the chances of her escaping, she said.

"I couldn't confide in anyone because he always threatened he would do something to that person if I said something, that he would kill them ... I couldn't risk that," she said.

Kampusch told the newspaper how she attempted to leap from the car, but Priklopil "held me back and then sped away." She did not specify when that escape attempt occurred, saying only that she felt "it was much too risky" to try to get away because she feared Priklopil would kill her if she failed.

That, she said, didn't stop her from dreaming about beheading him with an ax.

"I always had the thought: Surely I didn't come into the world so I could be locked up and my life completely ruined," Kampusch was quoted as saying by News. "I always felt like a poor chicken in a henhouse. You saw on TV how small my cell was — it was a place to despair."

Looking forward, Kampusch said she wanted to finish her education and maybe become an actress. She said she had a "certain responsibility" and that she planned to set up a foundation that would sponsor aid projects, including one focusing on the fate of women who have disappeared in Mexico.

News printed a large color photograph of a pensive-looking Kampusch on its cover, showing her with piercing blue eyes and a pink scarf covering part of her strawberry blonde hair. In the TV interview, she wore a loose, glittery purple blouse and the scarf.

The magazine said it interviewed Kampusch at Vienna's General Hospital, where a cardiologist examined her for possible heart trouble. She said she had suffered throughout her captivity from heart palpitations that at times made her dizzy and blurred her vision. It was unclear whether she has been diagnosed with any chronic problems.

Kampusch also said she often did not get enough to eat. Another Austrian magazine, Profil, had reported that at the time of her escape she weighed just 92 pounds — exactly her weight when she was taken on March 2, 1998, while walking to school.

Kampusch called her escape from her captor's house in suburban Strasshof "completely spontaneous."

"I was there behind the gate to the garden and I felt dizzy. I realized for the first time how weak I really was," she said.

But Kampusch added that she felt well enough — "physically, mentally and no heart problems" — to make a run for it.

Once out on the street, "I saw a window open and someone busy in a kitchen, and I asked the woman to call the police," she said. At first, she said, the woman refused to let her inside: "She didn't want me to step on her lawn."

ORF said Kampusch had decided which questions to answer and had refused to be asked anything intimate. Police have said she may have had sexual contact with her captor, but have refused to elaborate.

Kampusch told News she regretted that Priklopil committed suicide, "because he could have explained so much more to me and to the police," but added that she no longer wished to talk about him.

Kampusch also told the magazine she loved her parents, who divorced after she was taken, and denied there was any controversy. Psychologists treating her have said she has been in touch with her mother, but has not asked for her father since they were briefly reunited after her escape.

"It was worse for them than it was for me. They thought I was dead," she said.

Last week, Kampusch defended her captor as "part of my life" and also denied ever calling Priklopil her master, even though she said he wanted her to.

[hermit22]

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Corinthians 3:17

[brett504-2009]

she was very brave and keep her faith in God. Now it over and that man will never see the light of day again, I Hope. I do not at all under stand how some one could do something like that to a person.

[glnnglnn-2009]

Miss Kumpusch is a very brave woman. She's going to have problems that will last the rest of her life. I hope she uses her fame in a postive manner to heal. My heart goes out to her. God be with you Miss Kumpusch.

[bunionbabe]

Yea! Good for her! We should all spend 8 years as a prisoner of a *** maniac...jeesh...what a lunatic.

[photosbyshan]

She truly does seem like a fascinating, strong women. I don't think this experience will hold her back in life. I feel she has learned from it, and will go on to do great things. Good for her!