A New York woman has revealed the shocking reason her parents hired strangers to abduct her from her bedroom in the middle of the night when she was just 16 years old. Natasia Pelowski shared her story in an essay for Newsweek, explaining how her parents, following the advice of her high school principal, decided to send her to a residential treatment facility for troubled teens.
Pelowski, who was a depressed teenager at the time, recounted how on the night of November 23, 2014, a strange man and woman barged into her bedroom at her family’s home in northern California. They ordered her to leave with them, and when she resisted, the man grabbed her, telling her, “I wasn’t asking.” Despite her attempts to break free, she was handcuffed, dragged downstairs where her mother mouthed “Sorry,” and shoved into a car.
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Pelowski was then taken to an undisclosed wilderness camp where she spent 54 days without electricity or shoes, enduring strip searches, isolation, and forced labor in the fields. She described one particularly traumatizing experience when she was blindfolded, led to an open grave, and placed inside as part of a symbolic “rebirth” ceremony.
After her time at the wilderness camp, Pelowski was transferred to another residential facility in Utah, where she faced solitary confinement, witnessed suicide attempts, and was subjected to emotionally abusive “attack therapy.” Although she was released before her 18th birthday, Pelowski says she has struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ever since.
Pelowski’s story highlights the often brutal and controversial methods used in the troubled teen industry, which has faced increased scrutiny in recent years. The industry, which targets affluent families, remains largely unregulated, with few federal requirements for staff qualifications or evidence-based therapies. In her essay, Pelowski expressed frustration with lawmakers for failing to enact meaningful reforms to protect vulnerable children in these institutions.
Her story adds to the growing list of accounts exposing the abuses within the troubled teen industry, with advocates like Paris Hilton leading the charge for reform after sharing her own experiences in similar facilities. Despite public outrage and government investigations, change has been slow, and many survivors like Pelowski continue to call for better protections for teens in these programs.
