Kidnapping of Tanya Nicole Kach

Last updated
Tanya Nicole Kach-McCrum
Born
Tanya Nicole Kach

(1981-10-14) October 14, 1981 (age 42)
U.S.
Known forBeing held captive for ten years

Tanya Nicole Kach-McCrum (born October 14, 1981) [1] is an American woman who was held captive for ten years by a security guard who worked at the school she attended. [2] Her captor, Thomas Hose, eventually pleaded guilty to involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and other related offenses and was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison. [3] Ultimately, he served the full 15 years.

Contents

Captivity

Thomas Hose was a security guard at Cornell Middle School in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where Kach was an eighth-grade student. Hose befriended Kach, often taking her out of classes to talk to her, and one day when he caught her skipping class, he kissed her. Over time, Hose convinced Kach to run away from her family and move in with him, which she did in February 1996. She was 14 years old at the time. [4]

For the first four years, she was not allowed out of the house. Hose lived with his parents and son, [2] and went to great lengths to keep Kach hidden from them. She was confined entirely to his second-story bedroom, and had to go to the toilet in a bucket. In 2000, Hose created a new identity for Kach, "Nikki Allen", and introduced her to his parents as his girlfriend who would be moving in with them. After this, she was occasionally allowed to leave the house but had a strict curfew. Six years later, she escaped. [5] [6]

Escape and later life

After being allowed some time outside of the house, Kach began to realize that her relationship with Hose was not normal. She escaped from captivity on March 21, 2006, with the help of Joe Sparico, a grocery store owner in her neighborhood whom she had befriended, by revealing her true identity to him and asking him to send police to the house. [7] In 2007, Hose pleaded guilty to three counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault, interfering with the custody of a child, corruption of a minor and child endangerment. [8] Hose was sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison [9] and was released in 2022, subsequently registering as a sex offender. [10]

Kach was happy to be reunited with her family, but has since become estranged from her father and stepmother, who consider that she is partly responsible for what happened to her. [11] Through her marriage in September 2018, [12] she has a stepdaughter and stepson and is grandmother to her stepson’s young children.

Since her escape, Kach attempted to sue numerous government organizations for failing her, including the police and school board. All were dismissed. [1] She has also written a New York Times bestselling book titled Memoir of a Milk Carton Kid: The Tanya Nicole Kach Story. [13]

Adaptation

On Saturday June 8, 2024 Lifetime (TV network) aired a TV movie called The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Kach Story starring Jordyn Ashley Olson as Tanya Kach and Robert Baker as Tom Hose. Elizabeth Smart serves as an executive producer. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Smart</span> American kidnapping victim and child welfare activist

Elizabeth Ann Gilmour is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News. She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Smart captive for nine months until she was rescued by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missionary position</span> Sex position

The missionary position or man-on-top position is a sex position in which, generally, a woman lies on her back and spreads her legs and a man lies on top of her while they face each other and engage in vaginal intercourse. The position may also be used for other sexual activity, such as anal sex. It is commonly associated with heterosexual sexual activity, but is also used by same-sex couples. It may involve sexual penetration or non-penetrative sex, and its penile-vaginal aspect is an example of ventro-ventral (front-to-front) reproductive activity. Variations of the position allow varying degrees of clitoral stimulation, depth of penetration, participation on the part of the woman, and the likelihood and speed of orgasm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stepmother</span> Female stepparent

A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a female non-biological parent married to one's preexisting parent. Children from her spouse's previous unions are known as her stepchildren. A stepmother-in-law is a stepmother of one's spouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Megan Kanka</span> Murder of a young American girl

The murder of Megan Nicole Kanka occurred in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Seven-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by her neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas, after he lured her into his house; Timmendequas had previously been convicted of child molestation. The murder attracted national attention and subsequently led to the introduction of "Megan's Law", which requires law enforcement to disclose details relating to the location of registered sex offenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary M. Heidnik</span> American kidnapper, rapist, and murderer (1943–1999)

Gary Michael Heidnik was an American murderer and serial rapist who kidnapped, tortured, and raped six women, murdering two of them, while holding them captive in a self-dug pit in his basement floor, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in July 1999, currently the last person to be executed in the state. Heidnik was one of the inspirations for the Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb character in The Silence of the Lambs.

In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but may or may not have actually occurred.

Scott Hamilton Bairstow is a Canadian former actor known for his roles as Newt Call on the syndicated western television drama Lonesome Dove: The Series and as Ned Grayson on the American television drama series Party of Five. He was born in Steinbach, Manitoba, to Douglas and Diane Bairstow, professional classical musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Jamelske</span> American rapist and kidnapper (born 1935)

John Jamelske is an American serial rapist-kidnapper who, from 1988 to his apprehension in 2003, kidnapped a series of girls and women and held them captive in a concrete bunker beneath the yard of his home in DeWitt, a suburb of Syracuse, New York, United States.

James Barbour is an American singer and theatre actor who played the title role in the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera from February 2015 until December 2017. Among his other credits are the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

Guin "Richie" Phillips was a gay man in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Phillips disappeared on June 17, 2003. His body was found on June 25, 2003, in a suitcase in Rough River Lake.

Michele LeAnn Morgan was an American child abuse victim who was murdered by her stepmother at the age of four. Her story was documented on an episode of Cold Case Files.

The Megan Williams case involves a 20-year-old African American woman from West Virginia, who was kidnapped, raped and tortured by six people, including several members of one family in a racist attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ages of consent in the United States</span> U.S. law on age of consent to sexual activity

In the United States, each state and territory sets the age of consent either by statute or the common law applies, and there are several federal statutes related to protecting minors from sexual predators. Depending on the jurisdiction, the legal age of consent is between 16 and 18. In some places, civil and criminal laws within the same state conflict with each other.

Robert Baker is an American actor known for his roles in Valentine, Grey's Anatomy, Out of Time, and a supporting role in the film Special.

<i>DPP v Morgan</i>

DPP v Morgan[1975] UKHL 3 was a decision of the House of Lords which decided that an honest belief by a man that a woman with whom he was engaged with sexual intercourse was consenting was a defence to rape, irrespective of whether that belief was based on reasonable grounds. This case was superseded by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which came into force on 1 May 2004.

In May 2014, Isidro Medrano Garcia, who had been living under the name Tomas Medrano or Tomas Madrano, was arrested and accused by police of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl in 2004 and repeatedly raping her and continuing to hold her captive until 2014. Garcia was accused of forcing the alleged victim to marry him in 2007. As time moved on, the woman had a child with Garcia on October 27, 2010, or in 2012, and they continued to live openly together as a family in Bell Gardens, California, until the woman contacted her sister through Facebook and met with her mother in April 2014. She filed a domestic violence complaint with Bell Gardens police on May 19, 2014. As a married couple, Garcia and the woman had an apparently active social life in the community, including hosting large parties and the woman spending time and running errands by herself, having her own car, and working outside the home. However, police said the woman had tried to escape twice and been severely beaten. Through his attorney, Garcia claimed that the woman made up the story of abuse because the couple was breaking up.

Anne Alice Andrée Cluysenaar was a Belgian-born poet and writer, who was a citizen of Ireland. She lived for much of her life in the UK, latterly in Wales, and published and edited several volumes of verse. She was a member of the Cluysenaar family, and was murdered by her stepson during a family argument.

<i>McNally v R</i> 2013 English criminal case

McNally v R [Crim 1051 (2013)], is a 2013 court decision in which the English and Wales Court of Appeals (EWCA) ruled that Scottish student Justine McNally's prior conviction of six counts of sexual assault by penetration would be upheld. McNally's sentence, however, was reduced. The convictions were made under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Various other cases were explored to maintain the conviction, expanding the previously slim "rape by deception" laws. McNally v R was one of the first cases to display gender fraud or gender deception arguments.

Gannon Stauch was an American boy who was murdered by his stepmother, Letecia Hardin, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His disappearance and death received national attention and sparked a massive search effort involving multiple law enforcement agencies and volunteers. His stepmother was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

References

  1. 1 2 Captive: The Sex Slave Girl, Channel 4, 29 November 2012
  2. 1 2 Ian Urbina, "Woman, 24, Says Neighbor Held Her Captive for 10 Years Archived 2015-06-24 at the Wayback Machine ", New York Times , Mar 24, 2006.
  3. ↑ "Man pleads guilty in runaway case Archived 2022-03-09 at the Wayback Machine " (Associated Press), Reading Eagle , June 25, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Ex-guard sentenced in 10-year abduction". Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  5. ↑ "Woman Missing for Ten Years Reunited with Family. She had Stockholm Syndrome. Archived 2006-04-27 at the Wayback Machine ", USA Today, March 23, 2006.
  6. ↑ "Woman tells details of 10 years in captivity Archived 2023-02-28 at the Wayback Machine ", NBC News, March 24, 2006.
  7. ↑ Katherine Ramsland, "Sex Slaves: The Psychology of Mastery Archived 2012-07-01 at the Wayback Machine ", Crime Library .
  8. ↑ "Story hits close to home for Tanya Nicole Kach, held captive in McKeesport Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine ", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 8, 2013
  9. ↑ "Man Pleads Guilty to Holding Girl Captive for 10 Years Archived 2022-02-09 at the Wayback Machine ", ABCNews, June 26, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Man who held teenage girl captive in McKeesport home for 10 years released from prison Archived 2022-02-09 at the Wayback Machine ", WTAE, February 9, 2022
  11. ↑ "Tanya Kach sued by father, stepmother". 26 July 2012. Archived from the original on 17 October 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  12. ↑ "The Case of the Missing Girl Locked in a Room". PEOPLE.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  13. ↑ Memoir of a milk carton kid. WorldCat. OCLC   754718762.
  14. ↑ Baker, KC (April 12, 2024). "Lifetime Teams Up with Elizabeth Smart for New Movie on Tanya Kach, Who Was Held Captive by School Security Guard". People. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.