After 18 years in captivity....Follow

Yeah, he and his wife are both clearly nutty as fruitcakes.

Nexa

I can't imagine how screwed up that woman is, not mention her kids. Such a horribly sad story.

Well, his brother certainly speaks highly of him. "Crazy... fruitcake... just like Manson."

Probably once you have kids, even through rape, you would do anything to stay alive and protect them. Im assuming here, but they were probably her lifeline.

And yeah, no one can really imagine that type of horror. Im happy she has been found safe, but she is going to be one fucked up person for the rest of her life.

He aint got nothing on josef fritzl

I'm not condoning anything here, but she lived in a "crude compound" which I assume is effectively trailer worthy. She was only found because the man (if you can call him that) brought her and her children with him to the police station to deal with a separate issue.

So she was not "trapped in a shed". She was probably given a good deal of freedom actually, but would have been so brainwashed by the time that freedom came that she wouldn't dare run, or even want to. She was probably outside playing with her kids like any other mother most days. I don't think she, or her children, will be AS scarred as people are suggesting, there'll definitely be issues, but we're not talking total loss.

Google maps/street view is awesome

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/31/did-google-street-vi.html

I wasn't inferring that she is not a victim at all. Victim is a yes/no kind of word, it doesn't have degrees. She's definitely a victim and I can't begin to imagine the ordeal she's been through, but "trapped in a shed" (for 18 years) is not the case here. The reality of the situation, based on the information available, is not as severe as that.

What I am suggesting is that being trapped in a shed for 18 years would leave your psychological state nearly unsalvageable. In this situation with therapy she may have a chance at a decent life (what's left of it) because she will have had an amount of positive stimulus in her life (playing with her children, working at the printing house, seeing the sun, birthday parties for her kids etc). The lady that was trapped in a dungeon in Austria (?) with her children for most of her life didn't have those things, for example.

I would almost equivocate this to old style arranged marriages as far as her quality of life. Horrible, yes, but it could have been much, much worse.

What gets me is the guy is a known drug abuser and rapist, and the police/parole officers never thought to check the compound he'd built in his back yard during their visits?

Didn't the neighbours ever notice something odd going on? They are only a few metres away from each other.

I'm not familiar with this case. If they had a warrant to search for drugs, my impression from years ago was that they could basically look anywhere.

Generally they can't check anything without probable cause.

I cant imagine the culture shock her and her children are facing today. The embarrassment, the humiliation of the conflicting emotions she has and what others must be telling her she should have. She eventually "loved" this man in a sick twisted way. She would have been 14 when she had the first child. That could mean she endured 3 years of rape and molestation before she had the life line that a child would provide.