Secrets in the Cellar: A True Story of the Austrian Incest Case That Shocked the World

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A tenant, Alfred Dubanovsky, who rented a ground floor room for over a decade, claimed to have heard noises coming from the basement. When he approached Josef about the sounds, Josef explained it away as sounds from the gas heating system. Still, Dubanovsky wondered about the many bags he saw Josef carrying intothe basement. Gerturd Ramharter Josef Fritzl was born on April 9, 1934, in Amstetten, Austria, a small town of 14,000 located halfway between Vienna and Salzburg. At the age of twenty-one, he married 17-year-old Rosemarie and together they had seven children: two sons and five daughters. Elisabeth Fritzl was born in 1966 when Josef was 31 years old. When Elisabeth turned 11 years old, Josef began sexually abusing her.

House where Josef Fritzl held daughter captive is sold". The Irish Times. 6 December 2016. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016 . Retrieved 6 December 2016.Chancellor of Austria Alfred Gusenbauer said he planned to launch a foreign public image campaign for his country, in light of the "abominable events." [65] Aftermath [ edit ]

On 29 April, it was announced that DNA evidence confirmed Fritzl as the biological father of his daughter's children. [41] His defence lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said that although the DNA test proved incest, evidence was still needed for the allegations of rape and enslavement. [42] In their 1 May daily press conference, Austrian police said that Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter the previous year indicating that he may have been planning to release her and the children. The letter said that she wanted to come home but "it's not possible yet." [43] Police believe Fritzl was planning to pretend to have rescued his daughter from her fictitious cult. [44] Police spokesman Franz Polzer said police planned to interview at least 100 people who had lived as tenants in the Fritzl apartment building in the previous 24 years. [45] Cell [ edit ] Lisa was born in May 1993. At 9 months old, for reasons unknown, she was removed from the cellar to live with Josef and Rosemarie in the upstairs home. According to Josef, she was ‘found in a box” on the doorsteps of their home. Inside the box was a note that read:

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Boyes, Roger (21 March 2009). "Elisabeth Fritzl seeks refuge with children in a fortress". Times Online. London. Archived from the original on 9 May 2009 . Retrieved 22 March 2009. April 19, 2008 Fritzl arranges for critically ill 19-year-old Kerstin to be taken to a local hospital. Second man' at Austrian cellar". BBC News. 1 May 2008. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008 . Retrieved 6 May 2008.

Hospital workers found the note puzzling. They questioned Kerstin’s uncommon physical condition too. She was in fair shape, but was malnourished, unkempt, with rotten teeth and very pale skin. Three days after Kerstin was admitted, on April 21, 2008, they notified the police that a mysterious “female person” had arrived, brought in by Josef Fritzl of Ybbsstrasse 40.Josef Fritzl kommt in ein "normales" Gefängnis". Kurier. 20 April 2022. Archived from the original on 27 May 2022 . Retrieved 27 May 2022.

After Elisabeth's disappearance, Rosemarie filed a missing persons report. Almost a month later, Fritzl handed over a letter to the police, the first of several that he had forced Elisabeth to write while she was in captivity. The letter, postmarked Braunau, stated that she was tired of living with her family and was staying with a friend; she warned her parents not to look for her or she would leave the country. Fritzl told police that she had most likely joined a cult. [3] According to classmates, Elisabeth found the atmosphere at home oppressive, causing her to run away. Inside the room, they had a television, radio, and a VCR. Food, passed to them through a hatch, was stored in a small refrigerator and cooked on hot plates. If the food was brought directly into the room, Elisabeth knew she was going to be raped. According to Elisabeth, “Light off. Mold. Light on. Rape. Light off. Mold. Light on. Rape.”Authorities were sufficiently impressed to allow Josef and Rosemarie to keep the child in their home. Monika When the second baby arrived, the Austrian press took note. Mark perry covered the case for a local newspaper.