Kidnapping was 'the best thing

that happened to me', says US

woman 20yrs later
Updated: 16 Jan 2013
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Read more on Kidnapping was 'the best thing that happened to me' Katie
Beers John Esposito Buried Memories Katie Beers' Story

Katie Beers, whose kidnapping attracted nationwide headlines 20 years ago, poses for a
photo on Monday in Old Westbury, New York. The 30-year-old mother of two has co-
written a book about her ordeal to mark the 20th anniversary of her release. Source: AP

BEING chained as a 10-year-old for more than two weeks in a coffin-size box in a
suburban New York dungeon was, Katie Beers says 20 years later, "the best thing that
happened to me" because it allowed her to escape a life of abuse.

On the 20th anniversary of her ordeal, Ms Beers has co-written a book with a television
reporter who covered her kidnapping. Buried Memories: Katie Beers' Story (Title Town
Publishing) has a happy ending.

Ms Beers is now a 30-year-old married mother of two who earned a degree in business
management and works in insurance sales near her home in rural Pennsylvania.

Her kidnapping attracted nationwide attention in early 1993, when revelations surfaced
while she was still missing that she had suffered years of neglect from her mother and
had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her godmother's husband since she was a
toddler.

Ms Beers was described in Dickensian terms back then - a louse-infested, filthy waif who
had no friends and often was forced to lug the family's laundry down the block or fetch
cigarettes and junk food for her elders.

After kidnapper John Esposito, a family acquaintance, admitted to detectives on January

13, 1993, that he had kidnapped Ms Beers and showed them the dungeon where she was
hidden for 17 days under his Bay Shore, New York, home, the little girl was placed in
foster care and raised in a comfortable East Hampton home with four siblings.

Her foster parents not only imposed newfound discipline into her life, making her go to
school regularly and do small chores around the house, but they also shielded Ms Beers
from intense media interest. And reporters largely complied with a parent-like plea from a
prosecutor to leave her alone.

"We as a society must protect this child, or our professed love for own children is just a
fraud, and our so-called compassion for each other is just a mockery," said James
Catterson, at the time the Suffolk County district attorney.
So Ms Beers had barely been seen or heard from since until this week in a media blitz to
promote the book. On Monday she appeared on the Dr. Phil show and is the focus of a
People magazine feature this week.

The abduction and subsequent rescue saved her life, Ms Beers insisted in an interview
with The Associated Press.

"The best thing that happened to me," she said. "I would have never gotten out of the
abuse situation I was in."

She went on to play volleyball at East Hampton High, participated in drama productions
and went to college in Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree and met the man who
would become her husband and the father of their two children.

"There's no point really in me right now being sad or wondering what if," she told the AP.

"I try not to be sad about what happened, because ultimately it made me who I am today,
and I'm very satisfied and happy with my life," she said.

Ms Beers agreed about four years ago to co-write the book with WCBS-TV reporter
Carolyn Gusoff, although she had thought about writing a book for many years.

"I want to be able to help people who might not know where to turn," she explained. "To
see that there is a road to recovery."

She has declined to disclose her exact hometown, married surname or college alma
mater, citing privacy concerns for her family.

In the book, Ms Beers writes that she had been molested and raped by Sal Inghilleri - her
godmother's husband - from the time she was a toddler. Inghilleri, who served 12 years in
prison for molesting Ms Beers, died in jail in 2009 following his arrest on a parole
violation.

Ms Beers also writes that Esposito raped her in the dungeon, explaining that she
repressed her memory of the sexual assault for many years as a defence mechanism.

Esposito, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping, was never charged with rape. He is serving
15 years to life and has been denied parole several times; his next parole hearing is later
this year. At a 2007 parole hearing, Esposito described himself as asexual and said while
he kissed the child, he never engaged in sexual relations.

He told Ms Gusoff in a letter published in the book that he believes he deserves to be

released.

"I think Katie knows I will always wish her well," Esposito writes. "I'm sorry for what I've
done. I'm sorry I even thought it up. It was a mistake."

During her time in the dungeon, Ms Beers writes, she rarely slept, fearing abuse from
Esposito. She said she was afraid Esposito might molest her while she slept, but also was
concerned that he would photograph her sleeping and send the image to police. She
feared if police thought she was dead, they might end their search for her.

She "celebrated" her 10th birthday while a prisoner of Esposito's and was heard on an
audiotape found in the dungeon after her release singing "Happy Birthday" to herself,
although she says today she has no recollection of that.

Esposito, she writes, fed her primarily junk food and soda; to this day she is repulsed by
chocolate after-dinner mints because they were a staple in captivity. She did have access
to a small television, but says she can no longer listen to Whitney Houston's version of I
Will Always Love You because it played incessantly on MTV and VH1 while she was in the
dungeon.

She didn't realise it until many years later, but says now that she frequently watched Ms
sGusoff - then a reporter for Long Island's News12 cable station - filing reports on the
police search for her while she was missing.

"It was like I had known her for 16 years" when they met in 2008 to begin work on the
book, she said.

Ms Gusoff notes that as abhorrent as Ms Beers' sexual abuse and neglect was at the
hands of her elders before the kidnapping, it may have steeled her into a survival mode.

Dominick Varrone, the Suffolk County detective who led the investigation, agreed, telling
Ms Gusoff in the book that "because of her upbringing, the sexual experiences, the abuse,
and street smarts and toughness, she was much more advanced than the normal 9-year-
old, and we believe that contributed to her survival."

Marilyn Beers, who is described in the book as a hard-working but largely absentee
mother who ceded responsibility for raising Katie and her older brother to Inghilleri's wife
and others, did not return a telephone message seeking comment about the book.

"I hope that more does come out of the book," Katie Beers said. "I would love to be able
to help other kids or adults or to be an inspirational or motivational speaker, something
like that. But if I go back to my life in rural Pennsylvania and go back to my insurance
sales job I would love that, too.

"I'm very happy with where I'm at."

The bunker from the property of John Esposito in Bay Shore, New York. Esposito
imprisoned 10-year-old Katie in the cement and wood bunker for 17 days.

John Esposito, pictured, family acquaintance, admitted to detectives on January 13, 1993,
that he had kidnapped Katie.
SOURCE: news.com.au