Girl escapes after eight years locked in cellar - World - theage.com.au

Girl escapes after eight years locked in cellar - World - theage.com.au:

"A YOUNG Austrian woman has escaped a kidnapper after being held for eight years in a sealed cellar, resolving a missing child case that shook the nation.



Police said relatives identified the woman as Natascha Kampusch, who vanished in 1998 at age 10 while walking to school.

A 44-year old man suspected in the crime committed suicide after evading a police manhunt. The man, named as Wolfgang P, threw himself in front of an night express train in Vienna after running away from police, authorities said.

Police said Natascha was in good physical health, although she looked pale and shaken. She bore no indications of having suffered sexual abuse.

Natascha's captor would occasionally allow her to take walks with him through his neighbourhood and she had access to radio, television, newspapers and books, and the cellar was equipped with a bed and wardrobe, according to police and local media.

Mr Zwettler, when asked why she had not fled while on any of her outings, said she seemed to have had "Stockholm Syndrome", a psychological condition in which long-held captives identify with their captors.

???