Fritzl case

The town of Amstetten in Lower Austria

The Fritzl incest case came to light in late April 2008 when a 42-year-old Austrian woman, Elisabeth Fritzl, told police that she had been sexually abused, raped, and physically assaulted by her father, Josef Fritzl, since 1977, and had been imprisoned by him since 1984. Austrian police say her father kept her for 24 years in a small soundproofed cellar with four beds and a bathroom. It extended beneath the family house and garden in a village near the town of Amstetten in Lower Austria. In that cellar, she gave birth to a total of seven children (including twins, one of whom died) all of whom had been fathered by Fritzl. Three of them had been imprisoned with their mother their whole lives when they were found—daughter Kerstin and sons Stefan and Felix, who were aged 19, 18, and 5, respectively. The other three (Lisa, Monika, and Alexander) were adopted by Josef and his wife Rosemarie, and lived in the house upstairs.

Background

Josef Fritzl

File:Josef Fritzl.jpg

Josef Fritzl

Josef Fritzl (born 9 April 1935 in Amstetten) trained as an electrical engineer. He had seven children with his wife, Rosemarie. Between 1973 and 1996, the couple owned a guest house which Rosemarie managed. Fritzl often worked away from the couple's home, but would return home at night. He owned land around the area in other towns and villages, which he occasionally needed to tend.

Criminal record

Police files show that Fritzl was first recorded as a criminal sex offender in 1967. His record includes a conviction for raping a young woman in the Austrian city of Linz, a crime for which he received an 18 month prison sentence, another attempted rape and an arrest for exposing himself in public in front of women. The revelation of his criminal record led to renewed criticism of the Austrian Police and Social Services systems as critics demanded to know how a man with a sexual conviction criminal record was able to adopt legally three of the children he had with his daughter, Elisabeth.

Martina Posch

It was reported on April 30, 2008 that the Austrian police were investigating whether Fritzl might be connected to an unsolved murder case from more than twenty years earlier. The body of Martina Posch, a 17-year-old girl, was discovered in 1986 near a lake where Fritzl owned a local hotel and restaurant. Having vanished 10 days earlier, her corpse was found on the shore of Mondsee lake near Salzburg, and she was believed to have been raped. On May 1, Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer denied media reports that authorities were looking into Fritzl's ties to the unsolved murder, and said although they may investigate possible links in the future, at this time there was no investigation.

Case history

Amstetten Hospital, where 19 year old Kerstin Fritzlar arrived ill, and from which the authorities learned of the case

Fritzl is believed to have begun abusing his daughter Elisabeth when she was eleven years old in 1977. On 24 August 1984, he allegedly lured her into the cellar of the family home at 40 Ybbsstrasse, where he drugged and handcuffed her, and then kept her imprisoned, and repeatedly raped her, until April 2008. He told Elisabeth that she would be gassed if anything happened to him. Technicians have not yet found out if this was more than a threat.

In September 1984, a letter in Elisabeth's handwriting appeared, telling her parents and the police to stop looking for her. In either 1988 or 1989 the first of Elisabeth's seven children, Kerstin, was born in the cellar. Her second child, Stefan, was born around a year later. In May 1993, a nine-month-old baby, Lisa, allegedly left there by Elisabeth, appeared outside the family home along with a note from her asking for the child to be cared for. In December 1994, another baby, Monika, appeared.

According to Germany's Bild newspaper, Elisabeth succeeded in escaping from the cellar on 24 December, 1994. Shortly thereafter, she was found by Josef and forced back into captivity.

Elisabeth's parents became Lisa's and Monika's adoptive or foster caretakers, with the knowledge of the local Social Services department. Officials said that there appeared to be nothing suspicious about the family, and that Fritzl managed to explain "very plausibly" how three of his infant grandchildren had turned up on his doorstep. Amstetten's local governor, Hans-Heinz Lenze, later commented that the children had received regular visits from social workers, who never heard any complaints or noticed anything to arouse their suspicions.

In May 1996, Elisabeth gave birth to twins. One died after three days and Fritzl allegedly burnt the body in an incinerator. The surviving twin, Alexander, was taken upstairs in 1997. A new note from Elisabeth in 2003 stated she had given birth to a son, Felix, a year earlier. He remained with Kerstin and Stefan in the cellar.

The cellar

Fritzl began developing his cellar as living quarters in 1978 under the guise of a nuclear bunker to protect his family. He obtained planning permission from the local authorities, and was granted further official permission to extend it and install running water in 1983. After installing a 300 kg door, Fritzl extended beyond the approved developments, and insulated the whole cellar with expanding foam. He rented out eight flats in the property, and warned tenants that the cellar was empty, protected by an electronic alarm system, and strictly off-limits – anyone going near it would be thrown out.

Local petrol station attendant Alfred Dubanovsky, who stayed in one of the flats for twelve years, has said he heard noises from the cellar in 1995. Dubanovsky later commented that he was once introduced to a plumber who was allowed to go down to the cellar, and that Fritzl's son—Josef Fritzl Jnr—was allowed to enter the area in which the cellar entrance was found. Christine R, Rosemarie's sister, told the Oberösterreichische Rundschau newspaper that Fritzl would go into the cellar every morning at 9 a.m. "apparently to draw plans for machines, which he sold to firms. Often he even stayed down there for the night - Rosi (his wife) wasn't even allowed to bring him a coffee."

Investigation

On 19 April 2008, Elisabeth's daughter Kerstin fell unconscious, and was taken by ambulance from the Fritzl residence to the Amstetten Community Hospital (Landesklinikum Amstetten) and admitted with life-threatening kidney failure. In Kerstin's pocket was a note written by her mother asking for help. Fritzl arrived at the hospital and discussed Kerstin's condition and the mother's note with Dr. Albert Reiter. Medical staff found aspects of the story to be peculiar and alerted the Austrian Police on 21 April. Using the resources of Interpol, Austrian police started an appeal via a public media campaign to find the missing mother to gather additional information about Kerstin's medical history.

Elisabeth pleaded with her father to be taken to the hospital. On 25 April, Fritzl then released Elisabeth from the cellar along with her sons Stefan and Felix, bringing them upstairs. Fritzl told his wife that Elisabeth had decided to come back after a 24-year absence. Governor Lenze told ORF that Fritzl had telephoned and thanked him and the social services for looking after his family during his granddaughter, Kerstin's illness.

On 26 April 2008, Elisabeth and her father went to the hospital where Kerstin was being treated. An anonymous caller informed the police of their actual whereabouts, which led the police to stop her father and mother in front of the medical building. They were taken to a police station for further interrogation.

Elisabeth did not provide police with more details until they assured her that she would not be forced to see her father again. She then revealed the details of her father's alleged crimes. Fritzl was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse, incest and abduction. The following day, Elisabeth and her children were taken into care.

On 28 April Fritzl confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. Police said Fritzl, an electrical engineering technician, had told investigators how to enter the basement prison through a small hidden door, opened by a secret keyless entry code. Concerned by information from Elisabeth and her children that her father had told them that the concrete door was wired to explode, and that poisonous gas canisters were also part of the security system, the police took Fritzl to the cellar door when they first entered the cellar.

Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, had apparently been unaware of what had been happening to Elisabeth. It is believed she assumed, due to the letters in her handwriting, that her daughter had run away from home to join a religious cult.

On 29 April, it was announced that DNA evidence confirmed that Fritzl is indeed the father of all of his daughter's children.

Fritzl's defence lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said that, although the DNA test proved incest, evidence was needed for other allegations. "The DNA traces are clear and this would prove the incest but the rape has not been proven at all, let alone the enslavement and the murder that have been talked about. Nothing has been proven there... From now on he is not speaking to the police. He will not say a single word... We need to reassess the confessions made so far."

In their daily press conference, Austrian police said on 1 May that Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter, the previous year, indicating he may have been planning to release her and their children. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home but "it's not possible yet". Police believe Fritzl intended to pretend he had rescued his daughter from her fictional sect. In the same press conference, police spokesman Franz Polzer said the investigation would probably last a couple of months, as police plan to interview at least 100 people who lived in the same apartment building as the Fritzls over the past 24 years.

It has emerged that in 1994 Rosemarie filed a police report over a phone call from Elisabeth. In reality, Fritzl made a phone call to his wife impersonating their daughter as part of the effort to convince her that she had joined a cult. Rosemarie later questioned how their daughter had obtained their new phone number.

Investigators are only allowed to work in the cellar for an hour at a time due to the lack of oxygen.

Aftermath

Elisabeth and her children

After being taken into care, Elisabeth and her children were housed in a treatment facility that could be locked from the inside to shield them from the outside world. The authorities proposed changing the names not only of Elisabeth and her six children, but also Elisabeth’s adult brothers and sisters.

Due to their lack of exposure to sunlight, the detainees are extremely pale and cannot endure natural light. The captives all have vitamin D deficiencies and are anaemic. They are likely to have underdeveloped immune systems, although it is yet to be determined whether their immune systems have suffered permanent damage. Due to the low ceilings, Stefan walks with a permanent hunch and Kerstin is described as having a "cramped physical posture". The youngest child prefers to crawl, although he can walk. The children communicate with each other through a combination of speech and animal sounds, including growling and cooing, while the concentration required to make themselves intelligible to others appears to have an exhausting effect. Elisabeth is reported to appear far older than her 42 years. The oldest, Kerstin, currently hospitalized, has lost most of her teeth. Doctors report that she has suffered from multiple organ failure and is unlikely to recover.

Government response

Describing the "abominable events" as linked to one individual case, Austria's Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said he planned to launch an image campaign to restore the country's reputation abroad.

Similar cases

• Natascha Kampusch was imprisoned in a cellar for eight years in Strasshof, Austria. She was kidnapped at the age of 10.
• John Jamelske is an American serial rapist- kidnapper who, from 1988 to his apprehension in 2003, kidnapped a series of women and held them captive in a concrete bunker beneath the yard of his home in De Witt, a suburb of Syracuse, New York, United States.
• Maria K. A 23-year old mentally disabled woman, was locked up for nine years in a coffin-like wooden chest by her parents in Vienna, Austria. She was released in 1996.
• In 2007, it was revealed that a middle-aged middle-class lawyer in Linz, Austria had suffered a nervous breakdown after her divorce, and imprisoned her daughters Viktoria, Katherina and Elisabeth in a squalid cellar in almost total darkness from the ages of seven, 11, and 13 for seven years up to 2005. The girls' symptoms after their release bear some similarity to the Fritzl children's.
• Lydia Gouardo, a French woman who was beaten, raped and burned (with both acid and scalding water) by her parents for 28 years and has six children by her stepfather. Although not imprisoned in a fashion similar to the Fritzl case, she was tied down during her first pregnancy to prevent her from seeking an abortion.
• Kaspar Hauser, a mysterious foundling in 19th century Germany, is believed to have spent the first 16 years of his life imprisoned and in isolation, before he appeared on the streets of Nuremberg, Germany on May 26, 1828 following his apparent release from captivity.
• Lena and Katya, two Russian girls kept in un underground cell by Viktor Mokhov in Skopin, Russia. [1][2]

External links

• "CNN - House of Horror Children Never Saw Daylight"
• Spiegel Online - "Austrian Incest Nightmare"
• BBC Profile of Josef Fritzl
• Original Austrian News Broadcast, 19 April 2008, first asking for Elisabeth Fitzl to contact the hospital looking after Kerstin. Requires Windows Media Player. (In German).