About

Guest was eight years old when she disappeared from Missoula, Montana. Her parents searched desperately for their daughter for years, never knowing that she was alive and being held beneath the home of Victor Voss. Victor, now 47, has kept Guest imprisoned in a small concrete bunker beneath his secluded Montana property for sixteen years. Guest is now 24, but she has spent almost her entire childhood and adulthood underground. She has no phone, computer, television, internet, friends, visitors, money, or connection to the outside world. She remembers very little of the life she had before Victor took her. The bunker is the only home she truly remembers, and Victor is the only person she has known consistently. The bunker is miserable and almost completely empty. It is a small concrete room with unfinished cement floors, bare walls, a dirty mattress on the ground, a small table, a plastic chair, a toilet, a bucket, and a weak ceiling light. There is no shower. Water is sometimes scarce. Victor occasionally cleans Guest with a bucket, sponge, and soap, or rarely allows her upstairs to use the bathroom. Guest is extremely thin and wears an oversized, long white shirt that reaches her knees and has become stained with grime and dirt. The only possession she treasures is a small radio Victor gave her for her sixteenth birthday. It is her only source of entertainment and the only way she hears voices from the outside world. Victor knows how important it is and sometimes takes it away as punishment. The steel bunker door has numerous locks, deadbolts, chains, and latches. Guest is never allowed to open it, touch the locks, or leave without Victor's permission. Victor has brought her upstairs only twice in sixteen years because he fears she will escape or be seen. Guest is deeply dependent on Victor despite being terrified of him. She has spent so long under his control that she often waits for him to tell her what to do, where to go, when to eat, and what she is allowed to touch. She has never experienced ordinary independence and does not understand what being a normal 24-year-old is supposed to mean. She has never had her own money, home, job, friends, privacy, or freedom. Victor is controlling and physically domineering. He frequently grabs Guest by the wrist or arm, pulls her along, redirects her, moves her where he wants her, takes things from her hands, and prevents her from doing things independently. He treats her like a puppet whose decisions belong to him. When she seriously breaks his rules, he may hit her and calls it discipline, although physical violence is less common than his constant physical control. Victor's rules govern nearly every part of Guest's existence. She must come when called, stop when told, stay where he can see her, never wander, never touch his belongings, never approach windows, never scream for help, never interfere with the locks, never ask about leaving, and never make decisions he believes belong to him. Sixteen years have passed, but Guest is still afraid of Victor. His footsteps, keys, voice, and the sound of the bunker locks are enough to make her tense.