Running away from home was nothing new for Tanya Kach. Not returning was.

	KDKA

The girl who disappeared in McKeesport a decade ago and then abruptly re-emerged this week in the same town had been a runaway several times over as a teenager, her stepmother Jo-Ann Kach said yesterday.

Upset about her parents being in the throes of splitting up, the young Tanya would spend several days away from home. Then she would call her father, Jerry Kach, cry, and ask if she could return.

But Feb. 10, 1996, was different. Jo-Ann Kach said she remembers waking up early for work that Saturday morning and seeing Tanya sitting on the edge of her bed, stuffing something into a bag.

By the time she got out of the shower, Tanya was gone.

The family had no idea where she had gone, but could only imagine the worst as the days stretched to weeks, then months, and then the unthinkable time span of years.

But Allegheny County police believe they know. Tanya Kach, investigators say, was held prisoner in a battered, two-story 104-year-old home that belonged to the parents of Tanya's middle school security guard, Thomas John Hose.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Jo-Ann Kach talks about her stepdaughter, Tanya: "Now she knows she was really loved and was brainwashed by him telling her nobody loves you." Click photo for larger image.

For 10 years, police said, Ms. Kach lived in her own parallel universe on that narrow street with its chockablock houses. She stayed hidden from neighbors, from her family, and even, police said, from Mr. Hose's parents, who lived in the house.

Police have described Mr. Hose, 48, as a Svengali who brainwashed Tanya Kach, taking advantage of her vulnerability to engage in a long-term sexual relationship and keeping her as a veritable prisoner. They said he gave her a new identity -- Nikki Allen -- and kept her hidden from the public until the past 10 months when he occasionally took her out.

"That's what we're looking at -- psychological control," county police Sgt. Richard Mullen said. "There is no evidence he physically forced her to stay there."

Sgt. Mullen likened Ms. Kach's situation to that of a battered woman who can't bring herself to leave her abuser.

"You take a 14-year-old," Sgt. Mullen said, "how much more vulnerable is she?"

Jerry Kach said last night his daughter has been through a rush of emotions since she returned home yesterday. Mr. Kach said she can be completely content one minute then begin crying uncontrollably the next.

He said hearing Mr. Hose's name or being reminded of her 10 years of captivity in any way seemed to trigger her mood swings.

"She became absolutely hysterical after finding out he [Mr. Hose] might be released from jail," Mr. Kach said last night in the dining room of his home in Elizabeth Township. He said Ms. Kach was in an upstairs bedroom resting and that the family was being harassed by curiosity seekers who have been driving in front of their house.

Mr. Kach said his daughter would not talk to the news media anymore and that the family has hired a lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, of Canonsburg, to be the family's spokesman. He also said the family is making arrangements for Ms. Kach's grandparents to fly down from Anchorage, Alaska, to see her.

In an interview Wednesday with KDKA-TV, Ms. Kach said she hates Mr. Hose and what he did to her.

"He took away 10 years of my life," she said. "I didn't finish high school -- dropped out in the 8th grade, no sweet 16, no prom. All those years I could have met a real man who would've appreciated me and loved me."

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette This is the house on Soles Street, McKeesport, where Thomas Hose allegedly kept Tanya Kach, who'd been missing for 10 years. Click photo for larger image.

Mr. Hose's attorney, James Ecker, has said Ms. Kach was not held against her will.

However, in an affidavit, investigators tell a different story, one that they learned after Ms. Kach came clean Tuesday to Joe Sparico, a McKeesport deli owner whose store is a short distance from the house where she had been living for the last 10 years. Her bizarre story prompted Mr. Sparico to contact authorities.

Ms. Kach told police she met Mr. Hose in September 1995 while in eighth-grade at Cornell Middle School. The next month, when she skipped class, Mr. Hose caught her in a stairwell. The encounter ended with a kiss, police said.

By February 1996, she made arrangements with Mr. Hose to run away from home, police said. They had help, according to the affidavit, from Judy Sokol, a McKeesport hair stylist.

Police said Ms. Sokol lent her home as a spot for sexual liaisons and also cut and dyed Ms. Kach's hair to change her appearance. The affidavit said Ms. Sokol admitted to police Wednesday that she had worked on Ms. Kach's hair and knew of an inappropriate relationship with Mr. Hose.

After secretly moving in with Mr. Hose, "he instructed her not to leave his second-floor bedroom and had threatened to kill her if she left or attempted to leave," the affidavit said.

All the while, Mr. Hose's parents lived in the house, apparently unaware until recently that their son had a live-in girlfriend, police said. Also in the house was Mr. Hose's son, who is two years Ms. Kach's junior. Investigators are still trying to determine what he knew.

Sgt. Mullen said Ms. Kach would hide in a closet and only come out of her room at night.

During that time, Jo-Ann Kach said, her step-daughter read the "Goose Bumps" series of children's books and the Bible. She watched television, but at a low volume.

There were no bars, barriers, ropes or chains in the house. Ms. Kach was not physically restrained. Instead, police said, she was a psychological captive.

"He would tell her, 'I'm the only one who cares about you. No one's even looking for you anymore'," Sgt. Mullen said.

That was not true. Police did not close the books on the case and in 1998 or 1999, they came remarkably close to finding her. While investigating the unsolved death of Kimberlie Krimm, 14, whose decomposed remains were found in July 1998 on a cemetery hillside in McKeesport, county homicide Detective Lee Yingling -- who is now the squad's sergeant -- interviewed Mr. Hose.

Sgt. Yingling was alerted by McKeesport police that another young woman had disappeared from the same area as Kimberlie. He contacted Tanya Kach's father, who referred him to Ms. Sokol. County police Assistant Superintendent James Morton said Ms. Sokol's home was described as a gathering spot for young people.

Ms. Sokol -- who, if police are right, helped Mr. Hose several years earlier in sheltering Tanya -- sent Sgt. Yingling to see Mr. Hose.

"He said, 'I know who she is,' " Assistant Superintendent Morton said, " 'but I don't know what happened to her.' "

There was nothing at the time that aroused suspicion about Mr. Hose, and investigators had no reason to probe any deeper.

Police arrested Mr. Hose Wednesday and charged him with statutory sexual assault and three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Mr. Hose's bond was set at $2,000 and he was ordered to be seen by the jail's behavior clinic.

Yesterday, the district attorney's office said it considered the bond to be "on the low end." District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. ordered a review of the case to see if a higher bond should be requested.

Police are still looking into Ms. Sokol's role in the case and must confer with prosecutors about possible charges and statutes of limitations.

Police said they have fielded calls from news media around the world, from as far away as India and Russia. Tanya Kach has concerns closer to home. Jo-Ann Kach said she wants to go back to school, get a job and do "girl things."

"Now she knows she was really loved and was brainwashed by him telling her nobody loves you," Jo-Ann Kach said.