Teen kidnapping victim relives horror of being chained up in a hotel room for months by a teacher's aide amid fears abuser could be released

A Wisconsin woman who was abducted as a child by a teacher's aide has broken her silence about the horrifying abuse she suffered before being miraculously rescued. 

Jessyca Mullenberg was aged just 13 when she was kidnapped by her 38-year-old neighbor Steven Oliver on September 16, 1995. 

Oliver had stalked her for six years before the fateful day he tricked her into taking a trip under the guise of meeting a publisher about a short story she had written.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Mullenberg recalled the chilling moment she woke up in his car and discovered her hands and legs had been tied with rope. 

She went on to spend three months chained up in a hotel room before an episode of America's Most Wanted finally led to a break in the case and her abductor's arrest.  

But Mullenberg, now 42, married and with two children of her own, fears he could soon be released from jail. 'I am terrified for both of my kids,' she said.

Oliver had developed a sick obsession with Mullenberg when she was just eight and he was a teacher's aide at her school. 

He became so infatuated with her that he eventually bought a home across the street from where her father Dale Bourget lived in Eau Claire. Her parents were divorced at the time. 

During this time he also set up a creative writing club and appointed himself as a mentor-type figure to Jessyca.

On the day she was kidnapped, she was visiting her father in Eau Claire and recalled visiting Oliver's house with her two brothers, step siblings and others students to participate in a writing club.

There she was told that her short story had been selected by a publisher and that he would drive her to the nearby town of Madison for a meeting.  

'We all thought it was real. There was paperwork we had to fill out. There were checks we were given,' she recalled.

But shortly after getting into his car she realized there was no book contest - she was being kidnapped.

'I fell asleep at some point. I woke up all tied up in ropes. He told me I am not going home and I have to listen to what he says,' she said.

'He said my name is going to be Cindy Johnson and his name is going to be Dave. You are going to call me dad and we are moving to start our new life over,' she continued.

At one point while driving over a bridge, Mullunberg said she attempted to jump out of the car but was quickly caught - and knew at that moment she was trapped. 

After driving for nine hours Mullenberg arrived in Kansas City, Missouri.  

They then went to the airport where Oliver held a pocket knife to her back and forced her to board a plane to Texas. 

Over the next three and a half months, Mullenberg was moved around three different places as Oliver hid from the police.

She recalled how he cut her hair and dyed it dark brown in the first hotel and warned her not to leave the room.  

'He told me I'm fat, dumb, stupid and ugly. He told me no one wants me and my parents don't love me,' she said through tears.

By the time they were in the third hotel, a Days Inn in Houston, he ran out of money and convinced the manager to let him be a painter,' she recalled.

The pair stayed in a room in the back of the hotel room which she described as infested with roaches with no people around.

'I would be tied to the bed. I would be punished for not listening and told I was a bad girl,' she said.

'I wasn't allowed to use the phone. I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom and I wasn't allowed to eat unless he said I could.'

When alone in the room she would desperately think of ways to escape, but never knew when he would resurface. 'He always checked on me,' she said, describing how her feelings would swing from hope to hopelessness every day.

On one occasion he caught her using the phone in the room and beat her. He would also hit her if she got the answers wrong in the workbook he gave her, she added. 

'I had to earn my TV privileges by doing different sexual acts,' Mullenberg continued.

During the rare instances she was allowed to leave the hotel, Oliver forbade her from talking and insisted she act like he was her father. 

Most people they interacted with had no idea she was the missing Wisconsin girl whose face made the national news and was on some 15,000 flyers posted around the country.

Only the motel manager was suspicious. And then one day, on December 28, 1995, the woman saw an episode of America's Most Wanted at a friend's house and recognized Oliver's face. 

She immediately called the FBI who quickly descended on the hotel.

'The FBI came to our room and put us both in the same police squad car,' she said. 'They kept on asking me my name. They said your name is Jessyca. I said that is not my name. I said my name is Cindy Johnson.'

She later realized she had been 'brainwashed' and was reunited with her family. 

'I ran to my mom. We hugged in the airport. There were cameras everywhere,' she recalled.

She said she remembers feeling confused, overwhelmed and scared but grateful the nightmare was finally over.

To help her remember who she was, her family showed her pictures.

'After three and half months hearing every single day your name is Cindy Johnson it took a while get out of that mentality and say, 'No, you are Jessica Mullenberg,' she explained.

Following his arrest, Oliver was sentenced to 40 years in prison for kidnapping and interstate transportation of a minor for illegal sexual purposes, and is being held at FMC Devens, a federal prison in Massachusetts. 

Today, Mullenberg goes by her married name Christianson and continues to share her story of survival to help others, speaking at schools and events to alert people to the warning signs of abuse. 

In 2018, she was granted an award by the National Association of Missing and Exploited Children, where she was photographed with actor Ben Affleck. 

She also graduated college with a degree in psychology, criminal justice and law enforcement.

However, her trauma still haunts her to this day and as she battles PTSD she admitted she fears the day her kidnapper is released.

Oliver is currently scheduled to be freed from prison on January 26, 2031, a spokesperson with the Federal Bureau of Prisons told DailyMail.com. 

'I am terrified for both of my kids,' she said, explaining that she constantly reminds them never to leave school grounds with anyone but family. 

'I don't think it is possible to live a normal life,' she added.