Katie Beers and Other Harrowing Survivals in Secret Lairs Twenty years after Katie Beers was rescued from a catacomb beneath the home of her captor, she is telling her story. Her 17-day ordeal when she was only 10 years old, isolated and abused in the dungeon of John Esposito, a family acquaintance, is chronicled in her new book, "Buried Memories: Katie Beers' Story." In a shocking quote, Beers said, "[It was] the best thing that happened to me," she told the Associated Press. Beers' rescue saved her from the abuse, sexual and emotional, she suffered at home, she said. Placed with a loving foster family in East Hampton. N.Y., she had a stable upbringing out of the spotlight. She went to college, got married and had two children. Now living in Pennsylvania and working in insurance sales, Beers said she's happy with her life. But Beers' rescue was a close call. The dungeon beneath John Esposito's home was so thoroughly concealed it went undetected by authorities until he confessed. Click through to see the secret compounds that went unnoticed, and the victims who had to find another way out. Katie Beers Katie Beers' captor created a torture chamber so hidden that it wasn't detected by police until he broke down and led them to it. While detectives staked out the Bay Shore, N.Y., home of John Esposito, the handyman would venture down to his torture chamber every night to feed his 10-year-old victim junk food, avoiding detection of the men outside who could have saved her. To get to the chamber and his captive, Esposito went through an elaborate process. First, he removed four screws from a bookcase in his office and wheeled it aside. Pulling up a piece of carpet, another layer of matting and linoleum, Esposito was then faced with a slab of concrete. Esposito used a block and tackle to move the 200-pound concrete barrier out of the way. After that, he opened a trapdoor and went down a 6-foot shaft where he then made his way to the tomb where Katie was kept. On Jan. 13, 1993, Esposito broke down and led detectives to the dungeon where Katie was hidden for 17 days. Esposito pleaded guilty to kidnapping and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. In a letter to Carolyn Gusoff, co-author of Beers' new book, Esposito said he believes he deserves to be released. "I think Katie knows I will always wish her well," Esposito writes. I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm sorry I even thought it up. It was a mistake. Jaycee Dugard Jaycee Dugard, then 11, was kidnapped while walking to her Tahoe, Calif., school in June 1991 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. Dugard spent the next 18 years of her life in a backyard shed, the place where she was sexually abused, and the place where she gave birth to her two daughters. Undersheriff Fred Kollar described the location in 2009 as a "hidden back yard" within a larger yard that was arranged in such a way "to isolate the victims from outside contact." Entrance to the secret yard was guarded by a 6-foot-tall fence, tall trees and a tarp, he said. Despite the residential area and Phillip Garrido's status as a sex offender, authorities never searched the shed. Dozens of home visits by the California Department of Corrections over the years turned out to be missed opportunities at freedom for Dugard and her daughters. In 2009, two female police officers at the University of California, Berkeley, used their "mothers' intuition" when they noticed something was not right with Garrido, who had brought along his two daughters as he preached. Further questioning led authorities to Jaycee, ending the 18 year nightmare. Elisabeth Fritzl Elisabeth Fritzl was kidnapped and confined to a secret basement below her family home, in Amstetten, Austria, where she endured sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Josef Fritzl, for 24 years. The incestuous relationship resulted in seven children, one of which was a miscarriage. In 1994, Fritzl expanded the multi-room lair to 600 square feet. Three of the children lived with Elisabeth Fritzl in the house of horrors, while three were allowed to move upstairs and live with their grandmother. Fritzl told his wife that they were caring for their three young grandchildren who turned up on their doorstep. Each of the basement's eight rooms was separated by a locked door. The final room in which Elisabeth was mainly confined was accessible only through a three-foot solid steel door hidden by rows of shelves. The ordeal ended in 2008 when one of Elisabeth's children, gravely ill, was taken to a hospital. Suspicious doctors then alerted police. John Jamelske's House of Horrors From 1988 until 2003, John Jamelske kidnapped and raped women, holding them captive in a concrete bunker below his Dewitt, N.Y., home. Police found a steel door in his basement, which led to an 8-foot-long crawlspace, leading to another steel door. In order to enter the torture chamber, a person would have to open the door and step down into the room using a small ladder. The only furnishings in the bunker were a mattress, a microwave, a small tub, and a bucket for a toilet. As Jamelske became more comfortable with his captives, he would take them out on the town. A 16-year-old girl used the opportunity to make two secret phone calls to her sister, leading to the apprehension of Jamelske. Natascha Kampusch Natascha Kampusch was kept in a carefully concealed room beneath her kidnapper's garage in Austria for nearly nine years. "I suffered from claustrophobia and I thought I was going crazy in there," Kampusch said after her escape. I was very distraught and very angry. Kampusch, who was 10 years old when she was abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil, said she threw water bottles at the wall in frustration and despair in the beginning of her captivity. On Aug. 23, 2006, Kampusch was vacuuming her captor's car when he received a cell phone call. Distracted by the noise, he walked away. Kampusch seized the opportunity and fled. Later that afternoon, Priklopil threw himself in front of a train.