Claudia Nestelberger, who now largely looks after her sister Natascha Kampusch’s affairs, describes her condition to ORF as follows: “Everyone knows how Natascha used to speak in front of the camera. That doesn’t exist anymore at all. She’s mostly in a world of her own. She’s in a kind of captivity again. It’s heartbreaking and we feel helpless.”

That’s why the family wanted to make the collapse of their daughter, sister and aunt public in a sensitive way and to clarify the causes. How could it come to this?

It is the 20th anniversary of Kampusch’s self-liberation

On the 20th anniversary of their self-liberation there are again media inquiries from all over the world. The fear that the 38-year-old’s condition will become global headlines has weighed heavily on the family since Natascha Kampusch’s collapse.

Psychiatrist Ernst Berger said: “Just as we made the decision back then as a care team that we wanted to cooperate with you, that’s how I see the situation now. You have to assume that other media stations will pick up on it from a completely different perspective.”

the kidnapping case. After her self-liberation from Wolfgang Priklopil’s captivity in 2006, Christoph Feurstein was the first to speak to Natascha Kampusch – in an interview that went around the world. Many people couldn’t handle the strength that Natascha Kampusch showed. And so her story was questioned and she was labeled a liar by the highest officials of the state.

At their instigation, the case was investigated five times, most recently with the help of the German Federal Criminal Police Office and the US FBI. Always with the same result: Natascha Kampusch told the truth. But the kidnapping victim’s reputation remains badly damaged.

Moved by Natascha Kampusch’s current condition, investigators, prosecutors and companions take a ruthless stance for the first time. Christoph Feurstein shows how overwhelmed even medicine is by the 38-year-old.

The “Topic Special” documentary “Natascha Kampusch – Trapped in Freedom” will be broadcast on Monday (March 16, 2026) at 8:15 p.m. on ORF 2 and traces Kampusch’s fate from the day she disappeared on March 2, 1998 to the present day.