Abducted and Held Captive 10 Years - 'I HAD TO TAKE BACK MY LIFE'

TANYA KACH WAS 14 WHEN A SCHOOL GUARD ABUSED HER IN HIS HOME FOR A DECADE. THOUGH SHE ESCAPED IN 2006, IT'S TAKEN HER YEARS TO FINALLY FEEL FREE

- K.C. BAKER

Walking through the halls of her new middle school in McKeesport, Pa., in the fall of 1995, 14-year-old Tanya Kach tried to avoid the bullies. "Girls picked fights with me for no reason," says Tanya, now 41. After her parents divorced, the teen moved from her beloved hometown of Monongahela, Pa., where she had close friends and familiar hangouts, to live with her father, Jerry Kach, and his then fiancée, Jo-Ann Kach, both now 62. "She and I didn't get along," says Tanya. Tanya says her mom was violent and abusive and barely in contact, and the teenager felt isolated and alone. She started drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana—and forged a friendship with her then-38-year-old school security guard Tom Hose. Hose bought her cigarettes and candy. “He listened to my problems,” she recalls, “and he made me laugh.”