I was groomed and kept in my abuser’s home for ten years, his parents were in the next room and never realised
HEARING a knock on the front door Tanya Kach tiptoed towards it.
Quietly opening it she was asked just one question by the people outside.
Her one-word answer changed her life forever and ended the decade of abuse she had been suffering at the hands of her abuser.
“The police came to the door and asked me if I was the missing schoolgirl Tanya Nichole Kach,” she remembers.
“I was terrified, but I told them ‘Yes.’ It was the simplest yet the hardest work to say. It ended my ten years of torture.”
It has been almost 20 years since Tanya was freed from her prison where she was held by Thomas Hose.
“I never thought I would escape the horror of my abduction,” she admits.
“I’m still telling my story nearly two decades on so that no other child has to suffer like I did.”
Tanya now lives outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband, logistics manager, Karl McCrum, 54, with her stepdaughter, 33, and stepson 28 and is a proud step-grandmother to a ten- and five-year-old.
“You never totally recover but I love my family,” Tanya says.
“I consider them a gift from God.”
Tanya Kach was 14 years old when she befriended a security guard at her school, Thomas “Tom” Hose.
“He was the head of security at Cornell Middle School in McKeesport, Pennsylvania,” she says.
“I was bullied at school, and I was struggling after my parents’ divorce, so I was thrilled to just have someone to talk to.
“The fact that he was 38 made me feel special.”
On 10 February 1996, Tanya ran away from home to move in with Hose.
She says: “He convinced me I would have a better life.
“He’d groomed me so well I thought he was offering me a fairy tale ending.”
Tom took Tanya to the house he shared with his two aging parents and his son sneaking her upstairs to his room.
“The first week felt like a bit of adventure,” Tanya admits.
“He let me smoke and treated me like an equal.
“We stayed up late and talked and watched TV. He brought takeaway and we planned a future.
“I was too young to realise I was being groomed, it was only a week later that his abuse started.”
Tanya says she prayed authorities would find her.
However, as Tanya had a history of running away for twenty-four hours staying out late or at a friend’s, her father Jerry assumed this was another instance of this.
It was only a few days later that he began to worry about his daughter’s whereabouts, filing a missing person’s report on February 14.
“I became known as the Girl on the Milk Carton because in the US pictures of missing children are put on milk cartons in the hope, they will be found by people seeing them,” Tanya says.
Tom told me if I fell pregnant, he would kill me. Every assault was like Russian roulette
Tanya Kach
“There was an extensive search, but no one found me.
“Police thought I was a simple teen runaway. There were no signs of a struggle or violence. There were no suspects and everyone at school even Tom told police they had seen nothing and heard nothing.
“I know I went willingly, but that doesn’t excuse what happened.”
What is perhaps most shocking about Tanya’s abduction was that it happened in plain sight of Hose’ family but they did not suspect a thing.
“It may sound ridiculous, but Tom’s parents were very old and frail and had no idea I was kidnapped under their roof,” she says.
“His son, who is two years younger than me, saw me a couple of times but he was told I was Tom’s girlfriend.
“Tom had as much control over his family as he did me.”
Tanya was forced to live inside Tom’s bedroom being subjected to daily sexual abuse.
“He raped or assaulted me multiple times a day,” she says.
“Tom made me document the specifics of each assault in a calendar so he could brag to his friends about his new girlfriend.”
“Tom told me if I fell pregnant, he would kill me. Every assault was like Russian roulette.”
When he was at work, Tanya was alone in the room, forced to use a bucket rather than being allowed access to the toilet.
“I was allowed to do quiet activities, like reading, watching TV at low volume and listening to music with headphones,” she says.
“I did as I was told, I was terrified of him.
“His coercion and grooming were so complete I lived in fear of upsetting him and being punished with rape or beatings.”
Tanya admits she did try to escape a few times by attempting to sneak out at night but was caught by Hose each time.
“He’d threaten to kill me in my sleep, throw me in a garbage bag and throw me away,” she says.
“He convinced me no one cared or was interested in me and therefore there was no reason to escape.”
Then in 2000, Tom gave Tanya the alias “Nikki Diane Allen” and told his family that she was his girlfriend.
“I was so brainwashed and terrified I did whatever he said,” she admits.
“After four years in captivity, Tom let me out for the first time to buy clothes, giving me directions and waiting for me to return.
“It felt like a test. I knew someone would die if I did not return.
“He trusted me to go out because he knew I was brainwashed,” she says.
I was overwhelmed at times. I had spent ten years pleasing one man and I had no confidence.
Tanya Kach
The only time Tanya was allowed downstairs was to shower while Hose’ parents slept, and for years, all she could only eat were his leftovers.
But in 2000 Hose began introducing Tanya as his girlfriend to his mum, dad, and son.
“I was told to tell anyone who saw me I was his girlfriend,” Tanya says.
“I behaved so well he eventually let me get hired at a local convenience store, JJ’s Deli Mart, in 2005 working under the pseudonym Nikki Allen and I gave the money to Tom. It was never mine.” Tanya says.
“The owners Joe Sparaco and his wife, Janet, had a wonderful marriage and I slowly realised I was brainwashed because of how loving they were, how kind Joe was to Janet and how their life was completely different to mine.”
On March 20, 2006, Tanya confessed to Joe that her real name was Tanya Kach, not Nikki Allen and that Tom Hose had been holding her captive.
Later that day, Joe called the police.
“Tom was upstairs reading the paper in the bedroom at the time while I was downstairs doing cleaning,” she says.
“I knew the police would come that day as I had told Joe that morning at work. At the time they knocked I was sitting in the living room shaking, praying, and hoping downstairs.
“I heard the knock and when I opened the door the police were there.”
When she and her father reunited at the police station, she ‘collapsed’ into his arms.
“We cried, we laughed but when we got home my dad, and his wife kept saying my story ‘didn’t add up’” Tanya says.
Her dad and girlfriend questioned why Tanya did not leave Hose’s house sooner.
“I felt like they blamed me for what happened,” she says.
Tanya’s mum Sherri, who had remarried, supported her daughter and helped her slowly start her recovery.
“She helped me get my driver’s license; she helped me with college,” Tanya says.
“My mum did not blame me. She helped me decorate my room, showed me old pictures, and answered my questions.
“She took me to therapy. She listened and she held me when I had nightmares.
“I was overwhelmed at times. I had spent ten years pleasing one man and I had no confidence.
“Learning the kidnapping and abuse was not my fault was the hardest thing to do.
“It was like being in a cult – being groomed is similar, you have to be deprogrammed.”
On the day Tanya was found Tom Hose was arrested and faced three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, one count of statutory sexual assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, one count of interference with custody of a child, one charge of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of corruption of a minor and one count of indecent assault.
However, Hose was not charged with kidnapping because Tanya went willingly with him, something which to this day Tanya finds shocking.
“He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but I wanted him to die in prison,” she says.
Tanya admits her faith in God kept her going through her decade long kidnapping.
“I knew one day my life would change. I spent many days praying to be rescued.”
In 2008 Tanya met her now husband Karl McCrum when the pair were working at K-Mart.
“We were friends then it became more,” she says.
Steps to Keep Your Child Safe From Grooming
By Emma Kenny, true crime psychologist and parenting expert
- Encourage your child to share their day-to-day experiences. Ask who they talked to on the way home, what happened at the bus stop, and if anything made them feel uncomfortable. The more openly you talk, the more confident they’ll be to speak up if something feels off.
- If possible, arrange for your child to walk or travel with friends. Identify safe spaces along the route, trusted neighbours or shops where they can go if they feel threatened.
- Groomers often switch to online contact once they’ve made initial in-person connections. Monitor your child’s digital devices in a respectful but proactive way. Agree on ground rules for social media use, and encourage them to show you anything that makes them feel uneasy.
- If your parental alarm bells are going off, do not dismiss those feelings. Challenge unusual behaviour or new relationships gently but firmly. Seek professional advice if you suspect your child is at risk.
- If you have any evidence or strong suspicions that someone is grooming your child, contact the police immediately. Support and guidance from organisations like the NSPCC or Barnardo’s can also be invaluable in helping you navigate this distressing situation.
“He did not judge me, and he showed me what true love was.”
The couple married in a beach wedding in South Carolina September 2018.
“It was beautiful. Karl is my rock. He is an amazing man. After what I went through, I am truly blessed,” she says.
Tanya has undergone decades of therapy and still has flashbacks, suffers PTSD and anxiety attacks.
She had ongoing physical and psychological trauma from her time in captivity.
She was forced to undergo a hysterectomy and temporarily used a colostomy bag because of the brutal sexual abuse she suffered. The sexual assaults had scarred and damaged my reproductive system.
Tanya also suffers from back pain because she did not grow properly due to being in captivity.
“I didn’t have access to the proper amount of Vitamin D and living in one room during my teen years limited development and exercise,” she explains.
“I was only eating food scraps for the many yeasts and not getting enough vitamins and this affected my growth.”
She suffers chronic migraines and frequent nightmares.
But Tanya has found solace thanks to her family.
“Being a wife, stepmom and playing with step grandkids brings me joy,” she says.
“It is peace I never thought I would find. The kind of life I thought would never happen.”
Tanya now regularly shares her story in schools and organisations to raise awareness.
“I am trying to raise awareness that grooming can happen anywhere and right under her nose,” she says.
You survive, you live, and you strive to live with the pain and accept the love others give you for being you
Tanya Kach
“Mums and dads must be aware it can happen in person, online anywhere. It happened to me.”
In 2011, Tanya released her book, Memoir of a Milk Carton Kid: The Tanya Nicole Kach Story, to give hope to others going through difficulties and trauma.
“After it came out, I became estranged from her father and his wife JoAnn, who felt that I had “blamed” them for the incident,” she says.
“I am hoping to reconcile with them, I was only trying to share my truth.”
Tom Hose was released from prison in February 2022 after serving his complete 15-year sentence.
Tanya says he still lives in the same house where he held her captive and is a registered sex offender.
“I live 15 minutes away from him and constantly fear running into him,” she admits.
“I don’t want to look into the eyes of the man who did such horrible, horrendous things to me.
“My job now is to live the best life I can, to recover, and to help other people learn about grooming and abuse.
“You will never recover from what I went through.
“You survive, you live, and you strive to live with the pain and accept the love others give you for being you.”