VIENNA, Austria – The kidnapped Austrian teen who spent more than eight years in a windowless cell said she asked for classic children's books during her first months in captivity, and later watched Star Trek and other videos, according to a newspaper.
Natascha Kampusch, now 18, told the mass-circulation daily Kronen Zeitung in an exclusive interview of how she had turned to books after being snatched off a Vienna street at age 10.
"At the beginning, I wanted children's classics like Karl May, 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and so on," Kampusch said, according to the paper, which ran excerpts from the interview over several days ending Monday.
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"I read and I read. It was so incredibly boring in that bare room," she was quoted as saying. "At first, I didn't have anything to do apart from counting the screws in the ceiling."
Kampusch said that because she read so much, she started thinking about becoming a novelist and jotted down her thoughts in various notebooks, including a diary.
"That diary and everything that I wrote, belonged only to me," she was quoted as saying by the paper.
Aside from Star Trek, Kampusch said she later got to see videos of other shows broadcast on Austrian television.
The videos and books Kampusch had access to were chosen by her captor, 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil , who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train shortly after she fled to freedom on Aug. 23.
In the same newspaper interview, Kampusch said Priklopil did not get too involved in what she did in her private sphere, and that he hardly ever came down to her cell.
Instead, Kampusch said, he meddled heavily when it came to everyday things — such as how she rinsed out her toothbrush.
Kampusch said she hardly ever cried during her captivity, and that at the age of 12 she promised herself that, one day, she would become "big and strong."
"And now I'm big enough and strong enough, and I freed the 12-year-old girl," she said.
Kampusch also revealed more details about what happened the morning of March 2, 1998, when she was kidnapped on her way to school.
Priklopil did not tie her up or sedate her, she said, adding that after the kidnapping they did not drive directly to his home in the Vienna suburb of Strasshof. She declined to be more specific.
On Monday, investigators analyzed notes found in the house in an attempt to piece together exactly what happened during Kampusch's captivity and what led to her kidnapping. They were also expected to dig up parts of the yard, Austrian radio reported, citing Maj. Gen. Gerhard Lang of Austria's Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau.
Lang, speaking on Austrian radio, said investigators had not found any other hidden, underground cells and noted that the purpose of digging up parts of the yard was to bring "100 percent" certainty.
It was unclear if and when investigators would continue questioning Kampusch, the radio reported, noting it was up to her.
Investigators were also still trying to determine if Priklopil had an accomplice.
"She only saw one offender, she knows nothing about a second offender, and we're taking that into account," Lang was quoted as saying.
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