Kampusch kidnapper acted alone

AUSTRIAN authorities yesterday closed the file on the Natascha Kampusch kidnapping, saying that her abductor had no accomplices.

Werner Pleischl, Vienna's top public prosecutor, cleared Ernst Holzapfel – the former business partner of kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil – of involvement in the taking of Natascha in 1998.

Ms Kampusch was ten when she was seized as she walked to school and bundled into a van. She spent the following eight and a half years as Priklopil's captive in a cellar. She always insisted her captor acted alone, but inconsistencies in her story fuelled rumours that she was the victim of a conspiracy involving others.

As the initial police investigation into her disappearance was botched, a new inquiry was begun last year, which involved re-interviewing witnesses and taking DNA samples from the dungeon house where Ms Kampusch was held – and which she now owns.

The public prosecutor's office says it now hopes it has laid rumours about her to rest.

The police investigation was flawed from the start, and many people felt that because she was an only child being being brought up on a sink estate outside Vienna, she had been forgotten by the authorities.

After she managed to escape from Priklopil on 23 August, 2006, the confused feelings she held for her abductor became clear. Priklopil killed himself hours later beneath the wheels of a train.