For a decade, a high school student named Tanya Kach was missing after mysteriously disappearing from her family’s home. However, after ten years, she managed to escape from her captor, Thomas Hose, who had kidnapped her.
Tanya Kach, born on October 14, 1981, is an American kidnapping survivor and author from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. She went missing while she was a student at Cornell Middle School after being befriended by school security guard Thomas Hose. Hose lured Tanya to his parents’ home on February 10, 1996, where he locked her in his bedroom and threatened to harm her if she tried to escape. For a decade, he kept her captive and sexually assaulted her.
Reflecting on her traumatic experience, Tanya mentioned, “My home life was a mess and I was very vulnerable. He was an authority figure, wearing a uniform and a badge. Someone you would trust and he befriended me, but now I know that he lured me in.”
After years in captivity, Tanya managed to escape with the help of her co-workers at a local convenience store where she secretly worked. She formed a bond with the store’s owners, Joe and Janet Sparico, who eventually helped her break free from Hose’s clutches.
Following her escape, Hose pleaded guilty to numerous charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released on February 9, 2022. Tanya, on the other hand, moved on to marry Karl McCrum and reunite with her father and stepmother. However, she revealed that she is now estranged from her parents.
Tanya’s story will be highlighted in Lifetime’s The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Kach Story on June 8, 2024, and she has also shared her ordeal in her book, Memoir of a Milk Carton Kid. Through her experiences, Tanya continues to raise awareness about kidnapping and sexual assault survivors.
