Posted on 03/22/2006 6:33:18 PM PST by aculeus
A woman who disappeared as a teen 10 years ago had been living with a middle school security guard who didn't allow her to leave his home for several years, police said Wednesday.
Tanya Nicole Kach, now 24, was reunited with her family this week. She had been living at the man's home, located about two miles from her father's house in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, police said.
The two met when Thomas Hose, 48, worked as a security guard at a school where Kach was a student. It was not immediately clear how she ended up at the home.
She was discovered Tuesday when she approached a convenience store owner and told him that she wasn't Nikki Evans, the name the owner knew her by. She said she was being kept locked in a bedroom, said the owner, Joseph Sparico.
When she told him her real name, he said, she was upset and shaking.
"I was so scared that nobody would believe me," Kach told WTAE-TV from her father's home Wednesday.
Sparico's son, a retired McKeesport police officer, recognized Kach's name, and Sparico contacted authorities.
Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Kach had been staying at the home Hose shared with his parents since 1996, and was not allowed to leave for the first four years she was there.
When others came over, Kach had to stay in a bedroom, Moffatt said.
"She had no contact with people, other than the people that were in the home," Moffatt said.
Moffatt said Hose would tell her what to eat and what to wear, but there was no indication that Kach had been physically restrained. He said charges were pending but would not elaborate.
James Ecker, Hose's attorney, said police planned to charge his client with sex crimes involving a minor. The attorney said there was no indication that Kach had been abducted or kidnapped.
"As far as I know no one has ever said she was held against her will," Ecker said.
Kach disappeared Feb. 10, 1996, said Police Chief Joseph Pero. She was initially listed as a runaway, but her status was changed to a missing person. He wouldn't say why.
The woman's father, Jerry Kach, was grateful for her return: "I just say thank you. There is a God and he brought my little girl back home."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.
Unfortunate moniker.
Strange story... Hang the bastard...
Well I am glad she is reunited. I hope she gets the psychological counseling she needs. And of course now she will have to go thru the trial of the guy that abducted and held her for 10 years.
Prayers go out for this woman and her family!
ping
"The attorney said there was no indication that Kach had been abducted or kidnapped. "
Baghdad Bob redux.
I think there's plenty more to this story although we may never hear about it. If she wasn't forcibly confined, if she was in a bedroom (I've never seen a BR w/o windows), something doesn't smell right in this story.
I wonder what Tanya Brawley is doing these days.
Zactly what I am thinking.
And yet today we have judges who think it's perfectly alright for those in authority to have criminal conduct with minors.
The attorney said there was no indication that Kach had been abducted or kidnapped. ""
PLLLLEEEEAAASSSE!!!! Sure- and as I write this, aliens are landing in my horse pasture.
Saw this one on the local news tonight.
The stupid girl had many chances to escape, but didn't.
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You have to have the permission of a court to do that (and presumably the family services people will "supervise" you.
This guy is going down hard.
Yeah, the Hoser's attorney says that.
I'm reading this strange story and thinking, gee, it doesn't sound like she's quite all there. Which could explain why she was compliant, and did exactly what she was told by people who had no right to tell her to do anything.
Damn it, quit remote-mining my brain and then posting faster than me! :D
The girl was out of the house unsupervised by her captor for three or four hours each day. She had plenty of opportunities to get away, but chose to stay with the guy.
I'm not saying the guy did anything right, I'm saying I'm baffled by the girls reaction. She could have solved the problem herself years ago, but didn't.
She claims she was brainwashed.
This is a big local story around here. McKeesport again.
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