Katie Beers Breaks Her Silence, Releases Book Sunday

Katie Beers, who grew up in East Hampton after her kidnapping ordeal in Bay Shore captured national attention 20 years ago, has broken her silence.

"Buried Memories: Katie Beers' Story," which she wrote with CBS reporter Carolyn Gusoff, was released on Sunday.

Beers, now a 30-year-old married mother of two, details her abuse, kidnap, and recovery. At 10 years old, she was kidnapped by John Esposito, a family friend, who imprisoned her in an underground bunker for 17 days. Already suffering neglect and sexual abuse at another predator's hands, Beers was put into foster care, and lived the rest of her childhood in East Hampton, with a family in Springs.

In her first interview with Newsday, Beers said that she was "angry and unapproachable" during the first few years spent in East Hampton:

She said before her first day at Springs Elementary School, teachers held an assembly warning students not to question her about what she had been through. They did anyway, but Beers said she answered all questions matter-of-factly, if tersely, and in time she became just another kid at the school.

Her foster family declined to be interviewed for the Newsday story.

A chapter in "Buried Memories" is called "Mary," for East Hampton psychotherapist Mary Bromley, who has remained Beers' therapist since she was rescued.

According to an article in The New York Times, Bromley was by Beers' side in 1994, when at 11, she testified against Salvatore Inghilleri, her godmother's husband, who was convicted of sexually abusing her.

To read Beers' interview with Newsday, click here.