A new Lifetime movie produced by Elizabeth Smart is set to lay bare the horrific case of Tanya Kach who was kidnapped at aged 14 and sexually abused for a decade while being held captive by her lover-turned-tormenter.
Tanya was just a teenager when she vanished from her family’s home in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1996.
It would later transpire that she had been lured into the home of 38-year-old school security guard Tom Hose who locked her in his second-floor bedroom for 10 years.
She was eventually allowed to take a part-time job at a convenience store and seized the opportunity to make her escape in 2006 – but was left heartbroken after realizing her father blamed her for the kidnapping.
Tanya’s story is now set to be told in an upcoming documentary titled The Girl Locked Upstairs starring Robert Baker and Jordyn Ashley Olson.
A new Lifetime movie is set to lay bare the horrific case of Tanya Kach (pictured) who was kidnapped at aged 14 and sexually abused for a decade while being held captive
The movie, which will premiere this summer, will have public speaker, author and advocate Elizabeth Smart (pictured) as executive producer
The movie, which will premiere this summer, will have public speaker, author and advocate Elizabeth Smart as executive producer.
Smart recently celebrated the 21st anniversary milestone of her own rescue after being abducted at knifepoint from her bed at the family’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2002.
She was held captive by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, and repeatedly raped for nine months before she was rescued on March 12, 2003.
Mom-of-three Smart, 36, whose own story has been replayed on screen multiple times before, is now at the helm of the retelling Tanya’s story.
The duo will meet in the upcoming documentary film as Tanya opens up about the horrors of her captivity as well as the victim blaming she experienced in the aftermath.
Her harrowing story began back in 1995 when Tanya’s parents initiated a divorce.
She already had a troubled relationship with her mother who was rarely in contact – with Tanya claiming she was also violent and abusive.
The teen was forced to move in with her father and his then fiancée, but the upheaval proved to be disruptive.
The upcoming documentary titled The Girl Locked Upstairs will star Jordyn Ashley Olson (left) as Tanya (right)
Actor Robert Baker (left) will assume the role of 38-year-old school security guard Tom Hose (right) in the movie
School security guard Hose had lured the schoolgirl to the home (pictured) which he shared with his elderly parents
Tanya was bullied in her new school and she soon turned to alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana as a form of escape.
Her feelings of isolation grew and she ended up confiding in 38-year-old school security guard Tom Hose.
Speaking previously to KDKA-TV, Tanya said: ‘My mother wasn’t in my life at that point. My dad completely forgot he even had a daughter and we were living under the same roof, and I was hanging around with the wrong crowd.’
Tanya recalled: ‘[Hose] was an authority figure, wearing a uniform and a badge – somebody that you would trust – and he befriended me.’
Their illicit romance continued to develop and Tanya believed the pair were embarking on a serious relationship.
Hose served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a series of charges
Hose was eventually able to lure the schoolgirl – who was 24 years his junior – to the home which he shared with his elderly parents.
He kept her locked in an upstairs bedroom, and threatened to kill her and her family if she resisted or tried to escape.
While in captivity, Tanya was kept confined to one room, only allowed to shower once a week, forced to spend Christmas locked in the closet and ordered to use a bucket as a toilet.
She was sexually abused, told to change her name to Nikki and instructed to dye her hair.
Tanya, who later published a book about her ordeal titled Memoir Of A Milk Carton Kid, spoke for the first time about what she had to endure while she was in captivity in October 2011.
‘I was just so brainwashed. I feel humiliated now. Absolutely. Most of the time I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with a banana and a can of Faygo soda pop,’ she said.
‘About twice a week in the dead of night he led me down into a cellar with cold, concrete floors to take a shower.
‘I was fine at first. I thought I was in love and felt my sacrifices were a labor of my love for Tom Hose. Soon, however, the ordeal began to take its toll.’
By 2006, Hose began allowing her some freedom in the belief that she was too afraid and ‘brainwashed’ to escape.
The then 24-year-old picked up a part-time job at a local convenience store and she eventually confided in a coworker who called the police.
Hose went on to serve 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor, interfering with the custody of a child and child endangerment in 2007.
The now 65-year-old was released last year and is registered with Pennsylvania State Police as a sex offender under the state’s Megan’s Law.
The former hostage, now 41, has since claimed that father Jerry Kach (pictured together previously) does not believe her account of being kept under Hose’s control
But, despite Tanya being freed from captivity, she struggled to reform family bonds.
The former hostage, now 41, has since claimed that her father – Jerry Kach – does not believe her account of being kept under Hose’s mental and physical control.
In her book, she dramatically claimed that after she escaped her dad verbally abused Tanya and said he didn’t love her.
She also appeared on Dr. Phil where she claimed she had cut her father out of her because she ‘didn’t need the negativity.’
Jerry, now 62, is alleged to have gone as far as partially blaming her for the kidnapping, with Tanya telling People: ‘That broke my heart.’
However, in the immediate aftermath of the book’s release, he retaliated by arguing that he felt demonized by his estranged daughter, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
He said: ‘If you want to go out and tell your story, go on trash TV and have your 15 minutes, fine. But don’t drag me down with you and besmirch my good name.
‘I love my daughter. But her last words to me were «Have a nice life, Jerry.» Those words really hurt.’
