News

By Gudrun Schultz

NORTH YARMOUTH, Maine, September 20, 2006, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pregnant, 19-year-old woman was kidnapped by her parents on Friday, bound with a rope and forced into their car for a trip to an abortion clinic in New York state, the Portland Press Herald reported Monday.

Police said her parents were angry that their unmarried daughter was pregnant by a man now in jail. Katelyn Kampf eventually managed to persuade her parents to untie her for a stop at a mall restroom in New Hampshire, where she called 911 from a family cell phone she had taken during the abduction.

“Somehow, in the vehicle, she got access to the phone….She was provided an opportunity (for escape). She took it,” Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion told the Herald Sunday.

Police found the young woman behind the shopping center where she had placed the call. Her parents, Nicholas Kampf, 54, and Lola Kampf, 53, were found shortly afterward driving around the shopping center parking lot, presumably in search of their daughter.

According to a court affidavit obtained by Reuters, the Kampfs chased their daughter into the yard of their house, bound her wrists and ankles with rope and duct tape, gagged her and forced her into the back seat of their Lexus, after an argument between the three family members that morning at the parents house in North Yarmouth.

After the parents were arrested, police said they found rope, duct tape, scissors and a .22-caliber rifle in the vehicle, as well as an ammunition clip for the rifle in Nicholas Kampf’s pants pocket, according to a report by the Union Leader.

Katelyn Kampf told Maine police that her parents kidnapped her when they discovered she was pregnant and were taking her to New York state for an abortion. The parents chose New York for the abortion, believing the state’s law permitting abortions up 24 weeks gestation would best suit their daughter’s stage of pregnancy.

“The case facts are somewhat bizarre,” Sheriff Dion told Reuters. “It’s a pretty dramatic response to her being pregnant, some would say outrageous response”

The Kampfs are scheduled for an arraignment today on felony charges of kidnapping in Salem District Court, New Hampshire. If convicted they face prison time of up to 15 years. The couple may face further charges in the state of Maine.

Katelyn Kampf lived with her boyfriend in Portland, Maine, and attended Boston College.
  Her parents are well-known businesspeople, according to the Leader, living in an prosperous neighborhood outside of Portland.

Read additional coverage by the Union Leader:
https://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=7a7c391c-78fc-4d6d-ad08-70818a37c897&headline=Kidnap+tied+to+forced+abortion