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8-year kidnap: Accomplices hunted
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSVIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- Austrian police were on Saturday hunting possible accomplices of a kidnapper who held a young girl in a basement "dungeon" and is believed to have sexually assaulted her over an eight-year period until her escape this week. Natascha Kampusch, who was 10 years old when kidnapped, fled while her abductor made a phone call as she was cleaning his car. Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, committed suicide after she escaped on Wednesday. "We are not chasing a particular suspect but we are chasing the theory that several people were involved," Gerhard Lang, a senior officer at Austria's Federal Police Agency, told Reuters. Kampusch was abducted while walking to school in Vienna in 1998. A friend said she saw two men pulling her into a white van. This sparked an investigation of almost 1,000 owners of similar vans -- including Priklopil. Priklopil told police he needed the van for building work at his home in the village of Strasshof, near Vienna. With no criminal record, he was eliminated as a suspect. One neighbor said Priklopil built the prison where he kept Kampusch under a garage behind his house a long time before he kidnapped her. "He started building the workshop pit maybe a year or half a year before the kidnapping," the neighbor, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "It really looks like he planned this well in advance." Family members told CNN Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance that Kampusch, now 18, was held in "absolutely appalling conditions." "She was kept in a cramped dungeon built by a suspected pedophile," Chance said. Photos released by police showed a small, cluttered room with narrow stairs leading to a small entrance. They showed a bed, sink and a toilet, as well as children books. (Watch how kidnap case gripped Austria) Family members "do believe that sexual molestation did take place on numerous occasions over several years," Chance said. "They also say that for several months, if not several years, Natascha was gagged in that cellar so you couldn't scream to alert neighbors." Chance added: "For most of the time she was held securely under lock and key. But over the years the man who she came to call her master became increasingly careless. And eventually she saw an opportunity to escape." Family members said Kampusch "was apparently absolutely filthy dirty ... and really smelled," he said. In remarks broadcast on Austrian television Kampusch's sister said her mother almost had a breakdown when police notified her Wednesday afternoon. She added that her mother always held onto the hope that her daughter would come back one day. "She always said she was still alive," said the sister, identified by the broadcaster as Sabina Sirny. (Full story) Kampusch's father, who split from her mother before the kidnapping, said he was "incredibly relieved" after her shock return. She met her mother on Thursday for the first time since 1998. Her disappearance on March 2, 1998 triggered a massive, fruitless search that extended into neighboring Hungary. But on Wednesday afternoon, police said they found the young woman in a yard in a residential area north of Vienna. "Asked why the woman had not tried to flee until now, BKA investigator Erich Zwettler said she seemed to have had "Stockholm Syndrome," a psychological condition in which captives identify with their captors. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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