Reme Johnson came from South Africa, attended public schools and was known as a local rap artist. Katelyn Kampf was the daughter of wealthy real estate developers and graduated with honors from a prep school that cost nearly $20,000 a year.

Johnson is now in jail.

Kampf dropped out of college and is pregnant.

And Kampf's parents are charged with kidnapping.

The public hasn't learned much about what went on in the Kampf household, but a family dynamics expert says the trouble that erupted a week ago and led to the parents' arrest on charges of kidnapping their daughter was likely the culmination of years of problems.

"It's a pretty extreme reaction to kidnap your child. It's an incredible, violent act," said Susan Bartell, a psychologist and author in Port Washington, N.Y. who specializes in teens and their parents.

Nicholas and Lola Kampf of North Yarmouth, Maine, are accused of forcing 19-year-old Katelyn into their car on Sept. 15, tying her hands and feet, and heading for New York with the goal of persuading or forcing her to have an abortion.

Katelyn escaped in Salem, when the family stopped at a Kmart so Nicholas Kampf could buy a cell phone, the police said.

Katelyn convinced her parents to let her out to go to the bathroom, and she darted into a nearby Staples and called for help on her father's cell phone, which she'd hidden from him, according to an affidavit. She was hysterical when the police found her.

Acquaintances say Katelyn had a difficult relationship with her parents and sometimes stayed at the homes of friends instead of at her parent's upscale, 11-room home in North Yarmouth. The home is on the market with an asking price of $850,000.

The mother of one of Katelyn's best friends, Desiree Lester, who like Katelyn graduated from Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, said she felt like she'd "practically raised Katelyn."

Many questions remain, and it's unclear how Katelyn met Johnson, a self-styled rapper who sometimes performed in Portland as Young Merk.

Johnson, 22, had previous felony convictions for burglary and receiving stolen property in Cumberland County, Maine, when he began serving a 6-month sentence for theft at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Maine, two weeks ago.

Katelyn, who graduated with honors from Waynflete in 2005, dropped out of Boston College after a semester. Her parents then enrolled her at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in part, the police said, to break up her relationship with Johnson.

The move apparently backfired because Johnson visited her often. On his webpage on MySpace.com, Johnson listed among his interests "the DC Party Scene."

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