One-on-one with Tanya Kach
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — In 1996, a 14-year-old girl went missing from McKeesport. Ten years later, Tanya Kach was found, after being held captive by a security guard from her middle school. The story received national attention, and now it’s the focus of a new film to be released this weekend.
After a decade of abuse in captivity, Kach escaped, leaving behind the horrors that happened in this McKeesport home. But the trauma, the mental anguish would stay with her. She says it was faith that got her through.
KDKA-TV’s Kym Gable met Kach all those years ago and just sat down with her again ahead of the Lifetime movie premier on Saturday, “The Girl Locked Upstairs.”
Kach wants to turn her harrowing ordeal into hope and healing for others. Her captor, the school security guard Thomas Hose, who used gifts and manipulation to lure in 1996, and then, threats and fear, to keep her confined, forcing her to document the daily encounters of sexual abuse.
In 2000, Hose started to let her go outside to run errands. But she never considered it freedom. Kach started working a few hours a day at a local convenience store, where she began planning her escape. She gained trust in the store owner and finally, broke her silence. Police showed up that night and rescued her from the house.
“The Girl Locked Upstairs,” airs Saturday night at 8.