Wondering

[shepgirl]

If anyone watched the news and saw the father who kept his daughter a captive in a sounproof room in the basement of his home and fathered kids with her, don't remember how many -around 7 I think. That poor girl has been locked up since 18 yrs old and her father abused her during all this time, I think he's around 70 now. The story struck such horror in me that I didn't get all the details straight. This happened in Austria. It was discovered because one of the children got sick and was taken to hospital where the DNA proved the man was the father. Not a pretty story, the poor girl is now 42, but is finally free.

[NicoleLJ]

http://news.theage.com.au/austrian-admits-to-imprisoning-daughter/20080428-28y1.html

I think this is the story you are talking about. I saw it also online.

"A 73-year-old Austrian man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children, police say.

A 42-year-old woman had told police on Sunday that her father, Josef Fritzl, lured her into the basement of the block where they lived in the town of Amstetten in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her."

full story at the link provided.
Nicole

[Catty1]

The 19 year old daughter was taken to hospital as an emergency - and her mom managed to slip an SOS note into the daughter's clothing.

It wasn't until the mom was told that she would not have to deal with that man any more and her kids would be safe, that she finally told the whole story. :(

I pray that, somehow, they can recover.

That man...there are no words for that... :mad: :( :mad: :mad: :( :mad:

And if his wife really did not know, she must be living in a total h*** right now...

[IRescue452]

The wife had to know, unless she is mentally handicapped, brainwashed, or just as sick as the man. Over 20 years and she never wondered what he did in the basement everyday? She never wondered who he was feeding (4 people down there)? Not one person wondered about the 3 kids his grandparents were taking care of? How does a grown man get hold of three random children with no story and ask his parents to care for them?

[momoffuzzyfaces]

The wife had to know, unless she is mentally handicapped, brainwashed, or just as sick as the man. Over 20 years and she never wondered what he did in the basement everyday? She never wondered who he was feeding (4 people down there)? Not one person wondered about the 3 kids his grandparents were taking care of? How does a grown man get hold of three random children with no story and ask his parents to care for them?
Yea, and didn't she wonder where her daughter went? :(

[Catty1]

Maybe not when hubby is such a dictator and she learned to not question anything.

[Catty1]

This quote from an article...there is NO space between the lines on this one...
Etz said he could not confirm Austrian media reports that Fritzl took several "men's vacations" to Thailand with unidentified German friends in the 1990s.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080429/world/austria_captive_daughter

Tue Apr 29, 5:30 PM

By Veronika Oleksyn And Bradley Klapper, The Associated Press

AMSTETTEN, Austria - In an "astonishing" scene, members of an Austrian family terrorized by decades of incest and imprisonment met for the first time at a clinic where psychiatrists are helping them recover, authorities said Tuesday.

Details of the emotional gathering emerged as police said DNA tests confirmed Josef Fritzl is the biological father of his daughter's six children.

The retired electrician confessed Monday to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years in a warren of soundproofed cellar rooms, sexually abusing her, fathering seven children with her and discarding the body of one, who died in infancy, in a furnace.

Three of the children were locked in the underground labyrinth with their mother for years and had never met their other siblings or grandmother, who lived upstairs.

Hospital officials said Elisabeth, five of the children and Fritzl's wife Rosemarie spent their first moments together Sunday.

"It is astonishing how easy it worked that the children came together, and also it was astonishing how easy it happened that the grandmother and the mother came together," clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said.

Now 42, Elisabeth was 18 when she was imprisoned in the secret annex her father built beneath his apartment in Amstetten, a working-class town 120 kilometres west of Vienna.

Under the circumstances, she and the children were doing "quite well" in the care of a team of specialists, Kepplinger said.

One of the children, a 19-year-old girl, was in critical condition and undergoing dialysis at another hospital, and was not part of the reunion, hospital officials said.

Forensics experts carted boxes of belongings Tuesday out of the Fritzl home and investigators said they were combing through his other properties but had found no other hidden rooms.

Fritzl, 73, led his wife to believe that Elisabeth had run away to join a religious cult when she disappeared and authorities said there was no evidence the suspect's wife knew what was going on or was involved.

Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said Rosemarie's other children told authorities they noticed "absolutely" nothing about their father's double life.

Fritzl faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offences. However, prosecutors said Tuesday they were investigating whether he can be charged with "murder through failure to act" in connection with the infant's death, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client was under psychiatric care. Asked whether he showed any remorse, Mayer said: "I cannot say at this point."

Fritzl "is really hit by this. He is very serious, but he is emotionally broken," Mayer told The Associated Press.

However, prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Fritzl was "calm, completely without emotion" when he was placed in pretrial detention Tuesday.

Residents of Amstetten questioned how the abuse could go undetected for so long.

Town authorities authorized the construction of a basement addition to the grey stone apartment building Fritzl owned and lived in, in 1978, city spokesman Hermann Gruber told the Austria Press Agency. He said inspectors examined the project in 1983 - the year before Elisabeth was imprisoned - and found nothing suspicious.

Officials said three of the children - the hospitalized 19-year-old, and two boys, aged 18 and five, - "never saw sunlight" until they were freed from the basement Saturday.

The other three children lived with Fritzl and his wife. The couple registered those children with authorities, saying they found them outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997, at least one with a note from Elisabeth saying she could not care for the child.

Kepplinger said the 18-year-old could read and write in a "reduced form."

He said Elisabeth has spoken "quite a lot" about what she went through in captivity, but he declined to provide details. "It was definitely dreadful for her and for her children," Kepplinger said.

Leopold Etz, a regional police official, told the Austrian Press Agency that Fritzl apparently chose which children would live upstairs with him and his wife according to whether they were "crybabies."

Etz said he could not confirm Austrian media reports that Fritzl took several "men's vacations" to Thailand with unidentified German friends in the 1990s.

Fritzl was a dues-paying member of Amstetten's fishing club, and club official Reinhard Kern said "there was never a problem with him."

"Whether he actually went fishing or not, how am I to know? Maybe it was an alibi," Kern said.

The case started unfolding April 19 when the imprisoned 19-year-old woman was found unconscious and was taken to a hospital. After receiving a tip, police picked up Elisabeth and her father Saturday. Fritzl freed the captive children the same day, Polzer said.

Amstetten Mayor Herbert Katzengrueber told The AP in an interview that Fritzl was personable and well-liked, and that the town had honoured the suspect and his wife on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2006.

Katzengrueber said he was at a loss to explain how such an atrocity could happen.

"No one can really explain it," he said. "I am appalled and saddened that such a thing could happen in my hometown. ... These have been awful and sad days."

About 200 people, many holding candles, gathered for a vigil in Amstetten's main square late Tuesday. In steady rain, they sang hymns and prayed for the victims.

"This is tragic," said 19-year-old Jaqueline Vogel, as tears trickled down her face.

Austria is still scandalized by a 2006 case involving Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped at age 10 and imprisoned in a basement outside Vienna for more than eight years.

In an interview with Puls4 private television, Kampusch, now 20, expressed empathy for the Fritzl family's ordeal and offered to help them financially.

But she also questioned the wisdom of moving the victims to a clinic for care.

"Those are the surroundings that they are used to. Just to rip them out of there without a transition cannot be good," she said.

[Catty1]

Below is an excerpt. Click link for whole story.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/29/austria-abuse.html

Wife and daughter reunite

Also Tuesday, it was revealed that Rosemarie Fritzl and her daughter had an emotional reunion and Elisabeth also met the three children who had been raised upstairs by her parents, freelance journalist David Hill told CBC News from Amstetten.

Hill said psychologists observed the reunions on Sunday and determined that Rosemarie had indeed been unaware of her daughter's presence in the house, and her ordeal.

"It was astonishing how easily it happened — how the mother and grandmother came together," clinic director Berthold Kepplinger told reporters Tuesday.

Elisabeth's other three surviving children, now aged 19, 18 and 5, were confined in the basement with their mother. None of the three had ever been outside of the tiny cramped cellar where they were born. Hill told CBC News that one of the boys had seen the moon for the first time when he was taken from his home by police.

Hospital officials said two of the three children who had grown up in the basement cell met their siblings, who were raised by their grandparents, on Sunday. The other child raised in captivity has been hospitalized due to an illness.

"The children just kind of had this connection, they just got on straight away," Hill said. "Quite emotional scenes."

Officials said Elisabeth and her children are receiving psychiatric treatment in an undisclosed location.

She is "greatly disturbed," officials said, and only agreed to tell police about her father's crimes when she was promised that he would have no further contact with her, or the children.

[IRescue452]

He holds her captive for 24 years and he's only getting 15 in jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jackie]

This story is so sick. What is it with the Austrians lately, Remember the young girl who was held prisoner by her neighbor for all those years? Natascha Kampusch.


He holds her captive for 24 years and he's only getting 15 in jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, that is the sentencing if he is convicted of rape, there are also the incest charges, disposing of a dead body, kidnap, imprisonment, etc etc.

[shepgirl]

If the young 19 yr old doesn't survive it will be murder charges. Says she wasn't doing too well. 15 yrs in jail for something like this sounds like a slap on the wrist. He should be getting nothing less than life, wish I was the judge who sentences him. Why not throw him in the basement where his daughter was imprisoned for the rest of his life...isn't that just punishment.

I am so sick and tired of reading about kids being abused by their parents. It seems the father is mostly the guilty one of beating their daughters too often, corporal punishment is supposed to be abolished yet some parents don't hesitate to discipline their kids this way. No way would I ever let my husband use corporal punishment on my daughters or son, I would be the one having him put in jail. Neglecting children on the other hand is just as bad.

How could the mother of this poor girl have missed the signs that must have been present before the fact? Unless she did observe something and was glad the daughter had escaped, or so she thought.World is going to the dogs.

[Catty1]

The accused is 73. 15 years will make him 88 years old. If he lives that long.

As someone mentioned, there are more charges than just the one.

I do think the mom was brainwashed...more of this will come out in the next few months.

I mean - the doorway was behind a bookcase, and had a keyless electronic entry...yet the accused ordered everyone else to never go down there.

Yep...there's a bit more info to come out of this yet...

[lvpets2002]

:mad: This story just sickens me to no end.. That sorry piece of crap for a father.. This poor daughter & her children will forever have physical & mental damage for the rest of their lives.. This is all just so so Sad..

[Daisy and Delilah]

This story is beyond sickening. When I first read it, I felt myself getting physically sick. I am also sick and tired of fathers abusing their daughters. God forbid how many there are that we don't know about.

Does anyone remember seeing a news show a few years ago that talked about something like this? I'm pretty sure it was a true story but I can't remember. It was a town in another country where incest was common. Many people in the town participated in incestuous activity, men and women(mothers and fathers). They were molesting their own children and other people's children. It was unreal. I really hope that this was a movie and not a real story. I can't help but think it was either Austria or a country nearby.

[shepgirl]

The accused is 73. 15 years will make him 88 years old. If he lives that long.
...


Guess you're right Catty. The injustice of it all, he's liable to drop dead before his trial even starts.

[Catty1]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23625488-661,00.html

Excerpts here - click link for whole article (long)

May 01, 2008 11:15am

THE children born to an Austrian woman impregnated by her father and kept prisoner for 24 years are now playing in the spring sunshine.

They have even celebrated a birthday together, the doctor in charge of their care said today.

Berthold Kepplinger, director of the psychiatric clinic in the Austrian town of Amstetten, told reporters the traumatised victims were happy to be united and helping each other recover from their ordeal.


"The children are able to play at the clinic, get some exercise, move about freely. They have their own toys and other belongings with them and they are being cared for by a team of minders," Kepplinger said.

"Yesterday we even threw a small, improvised birthday party for the 12-year-old with a birthday cake and everyone was delighted."

Josef['s]...wife Rosemarie, 67,...has told investigators she had no inkling of her daughter's fate.

Rosemarie made a heart-wrenching apology to her daughter during an emotional reunion with her 42-year-old daughter Elisabeth.

On seeing her frail, white-haired daughter for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, Rosemarie Fritzl said: "I'm so sorry - I had no idea".

"The two women fell into each other's arms and just wept bitterly," Mr Kepplinger said.

"They held each other and did not want to let go.

"They said they loved each other and pledged never to be separated again.

"Rosemarie clearly had no knowledge of Elisabeth's terrible fate."

Two of Elisabeth Fritzl's children who spent their entire lives hidden in the so-called "house of horrors" - Stefan, 18, and Felix, five - were also introduced for the first time to their three siblings who lived upstairs with Rosemarie and Josef Fritzl.

Lisa, 16, Monika, 14 and Alexander, 11, - who were taken from Elisabeth at birth and lived with her parents - never knew about their brothers' existence or their 19-year-old sister Kerstin who remains in hospital in a coma.

Elisabeth's other son, Alexander, who was also fathered by Josef Fritzl, died shortly after he was born, with his corpse allegedly burned by the 73-year-old in the backyard.

Police also revealed the excitement that Felix and Stefan expressed at meeting strangers for the first time and riding in a car to the clinic for their family reunion.

"They had never known anything like it - they had only ever seen cars on TV in the dungeon," chief inspector Leopold Etz said.

"They were just open-mouthed with awe and were nudging each other and pointing. They had never even seen the moon. Everything was new."

Doctors said Felix and Stefan were unable to speak properly due to the effects of being locked up their entire lives.

The brothers, who had never seen sunlight, also have defective immune systems, are suffering from vitamin D deficiencies and have problems with their posture.

Their sister Kerstin...has lost all of her teeth.

Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said there was "no evidence" indicating that Rosemarie Fritzl knew what was going on, or was involved.

Elisabeth Fritzl and her family are being counselled at a secret location while Austrian authorities consider providing her and her children with new identities.

Meanwhile, former tenants at the Fritzl house have spoken at their horror over what had happened to the family.

Alfred Dubanovsky said he had seen Josef Fritzl take wheelbarrows full of food into the cellar where Elisabeth and her children were imprisoned, but never thought people were hidden inside.

"I wish to God that I could turn the clock back," he said.

"The signs were all there but it was impossible for me to recognise them.

"Who would ever believe something so terrible was going on right under my feet. It is a regret I will have to live with for the rest of my life."

[shepgirl]

The more I read the sicker I get. What a tragedy for that poor family. Whatever time they have left together will never make up for those other precious years. That poor mother must be on the verge of a breakdown now that everything is sinking in -- very sad.

[Medusa]

There's got to be more to this story than we're hearing. I realize that abuse works on the mind even more so than the body and I could understand the mother's fear of her tyrant husband. But if she claims that she didn't know what was happening, I can't imagine that anyone would believe that. There are just too many unanswered questions and so far, the entire story rates a giant question mark.

[Catty1]

There were two entrances to the cellar - one was a "regular" one, the other had two heavy door operated by remote control behind a bookcase.

When the cellar (not inc 'apartment') was built, a building inspector came to see it, and it was passed. A year later Elisabeth was dragged down to the 'apartment'. (Fritzl was an electrician, so knew how to wire the place).

He also threatened the downstairs group by saying he would gas them if anything ever happened to him.

Other reports say he was a total tyrant at home. Both 'homes'. His wife had had seven children with him, and had likely long ago learned to not question anything he did.