Haunting look at childlike bedroom where woman, 42, ‘was imprisoned for 27 YEARS by parents who claimed she’d vanished’

CHILLING photos have revealed the hauntingly childlike room where a woman spent three decades kept captive by her parents.

Mirrella was only 15 when her parents decided to keep her locked up permanently inside their southern Polish home.

Neighbours thought she had vanished without a trace in 1998 from the Polish city Świętochłowice, believing the teenager had been kidnapped.

After being discovered in July when concerned neighbours overheard an argument and called policeMirrella has since spent two months in hospital.

Her story has since captivated Poland.

She has now returned to the home where she spent most of her life, and where her captors remain.

This week, Fakt reporters were welcomed inside the two room apartment – turned prison.

Inside one of the rooms Mirrella remained on her couch, still disturbingly controlled by her mother.

“We’ve had enough of all this, we don’t need anything from anyone,” her mother told reporters, rarely allowing Mirrella to speak for herself.

“We used to go out with her and visit friends at the garden,” she insisted.

The elderly woman could not recall when those visits took place.

When directly asked, Mirrella said: “Oh, a while ago, I don’t remember…”

“It’s been a while since I went out, I can’t remember,” she added.

Above her bed, Mirrella still had toys from her childhood, among them were stuffed animals and books.

Her mother said she had planned to “throw those toys away”, but hadn’t “gotten to that point yet”, despite her daughter being 42 years old.

Her mother claimed Mirrella was “crazy now because they kept her in that hospital.”

Answering all questions directed at her previously imprisoned daughter, Mirrella’s mother said she “had gotten stuck”.

“I wanted to arrange [an ID card] for her, fill out the application… I write beautifully, but she got stuck and that was it,” she claimed.

“I don’t know why.”

An application was only lodged after Mirrella was discovered.

She was previously non-existent to Polish authorities.

Fact reported she had no social security pension and no means of support.

Surrounding neighbours were still in shock at Mirrella’s discovery, saying they remembered her as a “beautiful 15-year-old girl”.

“She was polite and pretty,” Urszula Knapczyk said.

The 83-year-old and a longtime neighbour of the familylives in the same apartment building.

“Years ago when Mirrella was still in high school, her parents asked if my daughter would give her tutoring, but then everything quieted down,” she said.

“I still remember her mother telling me almost 30 years ago that Mirrella was missing.

“Supposedly someone had kidnapped her – it was a shock, but what were we supposed to do?” Ursula added.

The elderly woman remembered a moment when she had asked Mirrella’s father where his daughter was.

In a strange reply, he said “Your daughter is nowhere to be see either”.

“I never brought it up again,” Ursula said.

“Now it turns out that Mirrella has been in that house all those years and we never saw her once,

Mirrella attended Kochanowski High School No. 1, which confirmed she had spent less than half a semester in class the year she disappeared.

“We found an entry in the student registry that such a person did indeed attend our school,” Principal Jolanta Daniluk said.

“There weren’t the same restrictions as there are today.

“In 1997, compulsory schooling in Poland consisted of completing eight years of primary school. “

Daniluk admitted her parents would have collected her papers, and nobody and questioned whether Mirrella had continued her education.

A joint investigation between Świętochłowice Social Welfare Center and the police has been launched into the “particularly delicate matter”.

“Its full resolution requires time and the cooperation of many institutions,” Monika Szpoczek, director of the Świętochłowice Social Welfare Center, told Fact.

On Tuesday, police said there was no evidence Mirrella had been held against her will and had simply “appeared” in the apartment when police were called after a neighbour heard her parents arguing.

“The [mother] denied any argument or violence in the apartment, merely a verbal altercation between her and her husband,” a police statement said.

“During the investigation, a 42-year-old woman emerged from one of the rooms in the apartment… she also stated there had been no argument.”

Despite the women’s claims, police called an ambulance, concerned for Mirrella’s health after seeing her “visibly swelling legs”.

Łukasz Pach, director of the Emergency Medical Service in Katowice, said Mirrella had told paramedics she “hadn’t been outside for 20 years”.

Despite these findings, police have continued the investigation.

Information has been shared with the local prosecutor’s office, who will also handle the case.

Kind strangers have rallied to help Mirrella adjust into her new life.

One such stranger called Aleksandra Salbert said her story was “unbelievable”.

“We have to help her get back to normal, get back to the life she lost,” she said in an online fundraiser.

“Meanwhile, she’s back in the same place. Doctors recommended she walk, but now she’s lying down again.”