04 Apr 2025 16:00:00 GMT?.css-1txiau5-AnswerContainer{color:var(--GlobalColorScheme-Text-secondaryText2);}Ried vs Amstetten on Fri
Predicted lineups are available for the match a few days in advance while the actual lineup will be available about an hour ahead of the match
The current head to head record for the teams are Ried 6 win(s)
Have kept the most clean sheets in the competition (14)
Have scored 4 goals in their last 5 matches
04 Apr 2025 16:00:00 GMT?Ried vs Amstetten on Fri
04 Apr 2025 16:00:00 GMT ended in a 1–1 tie.InsightsHave scored 9 goals in their last 5 matches
Ried is playing home against Amstetten at Innviertel Arena on Fri
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The court in Krems ruled that Fritzl, 88, can be moved but stipulated that he must attend regular psychotherapy and undergo psychiatric evaluations during a 10-year probation period. A request to release him from detention was rejected.
His crime came to light in 2008. He was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment for committing incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
Over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died.
The Krems court ruled that Fritzl, who now reportedly has dementia, could be moved to a regular prison based on a psychiatric assessment that he no longer poses a danger to society.
Throughout Austria, several cities are investigating to check if Adolf Hitler is still on their list of honored citizens.
In 1938, during an official visit to Austria, Hitler passed through Amstetten.
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The children rescued from the bunker below Josef Fritzl's house in Amstetten have created colourful posters to thank local people for their support since they were freed.
"We, the whole family, would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for sympathy at our fate," they said in a written message. "Your compassion is helping us greatly to overcome these difficult times, and it shows us there also are good and honest people here who really care for us. We hope that soon there will be a time where we can find our way back into a normal life."
The victims, who signed their works by drawing around the outlines of their hands, also shared some of their hopes for the future now they have found each other, and freedom. Elisabeth wrote that she wishes for a quick "recovery of my daughter Kerstin, the love of my children, protection of our family" and "people with a lot of heart and understanding".
Kerstin, who is seriously ill with a weakened immune system caused by her incarceration, was taken to hospital in the last week of April, which led police to the secret cellar and the exposure of 73-year-old Josef Fritzl's crimes.
Stefan, 18, writes that he misses his sister Kerstin, and is happy about his new-found freedom and family. "I like the sun, the fresh air and nature," he adds. Lisa, 16, who was not locked in the dungeon but allowed to live above ground as part of the "upstairs family", wishes for "love, happiness, health" and "that everything turns out well again".
Six-year-old Felix said he is dreaming of travelling by car again – his first trip was in a police car after being rescued from the cellar – and wants to "run across a meadow".
The family are being looked after at the Amstetten-Mauer clinic. "What is now clear is that the family will need to remain here for several more months," said the clinic head, Berthold Kepplinger. "To give them a good start in their new life they all need to be very carefully protected and very slowly reintroduced to the real world, and to each other.
"In particular, Elisabeth and her two children from the cellar need to have further therapy to help them adjust to the light after years in semi-darkness. They also needed treatment to help them cope with all the extra space that they now have in which to move about."
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Now 88 years old, he could be released because according to the psychiatric report he is no longer dangerous
Now 88 years old, Fritzl could be released because, according to the forensic psychiatrist's report Heidi Kastner, it is no longer dangerous. The same specialist had described the Amstetten monster 15 years ago as "highly abnormal on a psychological level" and "emotionally illiterate".
However, according to Kastner, Fritzl is now "so physically fragile and demented" that he can no longer commit any crimes. The prisoner's lawyer Astrid Wagner, supported Kastner's expert opinion at the Vienna court. Interviewed by the newspaper "Bild", the lawyer defined her client as "completely harmless". Wagner added that she "wouldn't be afraid" to live with Fritzl, highlighting that the Monster of Amstetten "no longer has any sexual desire."
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The girl got worse. The fits continued, she lapsed in and out of consciousness, and her immune system did not seem to be working. Doctors issued an appeal for her mother to come forward and tell the medical history of this mysterious patient, but there was no response. A week went by. Kerstin deteriorated. By now she was on a ventilator, and in a medically induced coma, with her kidneys functioning artificially. But still no mother came.
Then, last Saturday, 26 April, Elisabeth Fritzl appeared on the streets of Amstetten for the first time since her disappearance. She was with her father and heading towards the hospital. When they reached the grounds, the police, tipped off that they were on their way, detained them. So poor was Kerstin's condition (she had lost nearly all her teeth, was excessively pale and severely malnourished) that they wanted to question her mother with a view to bringing charges of child neglect.
After that he was a travelling salesman for a German company, and, in 1973, he and his wife bought an inn and summer campground in the mountains, which they ran until 1996. And at some point the man who already owned a large greying townhouse in Amstetten (and which he eventually filled with eight tenants) got into property, buying further houses.
All the while, his family was growing. Rosemarie was born in 1961, then Ulrike, Doris, Harald, Elisabeth in 1966, and twins Josef Jnr and Gabriele in 1971. Outwardly, all was well. Josef Fritzl was the smartly dressed engineer who drove a Mercedes and had such well-behaved children. But now we know that even before he dragged his daughter off to spawn the subterranean brood, he was showing signs of a freakish criminality. Its details are clouded by a seeming lack of official curiosity.
There is, for instance, his reported conviction for rape: either of a woman in Linz in 1967, or, around the same time, of a nurse in her flat. Officials earlier said they knew of no record of such a conviction, and that one of such age would have been expunged long ago by laws designed to rehabilitate criminals but which are also part of an informal masonry that has sped "good chaps" with murky pasts back into respectability.
But it is possible that he was, all along, planning the newly secured quarters as Elisabeth's underworld prison. For the victim of his assaults was now showing a wilful desire to break free. Twice as a teenager she ran away. Twice she was found and brought her back. Twice no one inquired if there were some reason for her wanting to get away from home so badly. As with Fritzl's criminal record, best, perhaps, not to ask.
For the next five years, Elisabeth lived here alone, her entire universe consisting, at its largest, of 60sq yards, defined by 5ft 6in-high ceilings and guarded by an electronically operated steel door. She was as trapped as an insect in a jar. No windows, no books, no sun, fresh air or rain; just a few bare rooms in a bunker and a bed upon which to be raped.
Then, in 1988, she fell pregnant. The world her father had built for her not only lacked pity, it lacked doctors. And so, the following year, her first child was delivered in her dungeon by the man who was her father, her captor and her rapist. It was a girl and she called her Kerstin.
Over the next dozen or so years, childcare officials visited the Fritzls at least 21 times, and, despite his criminal record, his daughter running away twice, his incessant absence when they called, and the mysterious regularity with which babies appeared on his doorstep, they consented to the legal niceties on the grounds that Josef and Rosemarie were "family". Indeed they were. His own flesh and blood, in every appalling sense.
And, occasionally, a letter would arrive from what the rest of the family assumed was their errant daughter and sister, Elisabeth. "Do not search for me," began one, "it would be pointless and would only increase my and my children's suffering. Too many children and an education are not wanted there." Even without hindsight, it is odd that Elisabeth's mother, her adult sisters or brother seem never once to have mounted an effort to find the author of this distressing note.
But Kerstin's illness aborted that plan. As the 19-year-old grew increasingly sick in a cellar whose only medicines were aspirin and cough mixture, Elisabeth pleaded with her father to take her to a hospital. When the girl fell unconscious, the weary Fritzl agreed. Within a week, Elisabeth was making her revelations to the police.
The clinic's director, Berthold Kepplinger, said: "The two women fell into each other's arms and wept bitterly. They held each other and did not want to let go." The older just said: "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
All the while, beneath their feet, Elisabeth, Kerstin, Stefan and Felix Fritzl would have been slowly starving to death, their hammerings and shouts insulated. How long would it have been before their skeletons were found? Ten years? Twenty? Or maybe never.
Their imprisonment – in three cases their very existence – dying with the respectable old engineer who was, his town would have told you, a very good family man.
Kerstin Fritzl: Now feared to be losing her fight for life, as she lies in Amstetten hospital with multiple organ failure two weeks after her admission.
The investigation: Police now searching cellar for traces of DNA of any possible accomplice. After that, they will bring in sonar equipment to look for more hiding places. Officers can work only one hour at a time because of the severe lack of oxygen. Police will also question more than 100 people who lived in Fritzl's house during his daughter Elisabeth's captivity, and others who say they knew him.
Elisabeth and her children: Being cared for at clinic, which has provided them with a confined space similar to cellar into which they can retreat. Will require years of therapy, and the older children, and Elisabeth, may never lead normal lives. Authorities offered to give them, and other members of the clan, new identities.
Josef Fritzl: Held in custody facing charges of incest, rape and false imprisonment. Also a possible "murder through failure to act" charge in connection with baby who died in the basement – and, with Kerstin, too, if she dies. Links to other sex crimes being examined. So far has said little, save to admit fathering the children, and that he imprisoned his daughter to "save her from drugs".
Austria: The President has proposed, in order to restore the nation's image, that most modern of elixirs: a public relations campaign. Others have urged Austrians "not to look the other way" in future.
Officials: Captive family in Austria reunitedThe Associated PressAMSTETTEN, 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 75 miles 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 offenses. 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 gray 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 5, — "never saw sunlight" until they were freed from the basement on 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 on 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 on 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 honored 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.
much to the relief of neighbors keen to forget one of Austria's most horrific crimes.Fritzl
was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment in a special unit for the criminally insane for incest
enslavement and for the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons."The dungeon will be filled with concrete and thus sealed at the family's request," estate liquidator Walter Anzboeck told Friday's edition of the Oesterreich newspaper.The construction work began on Thursday and is expected to take a week
costing a total of 100,000 euros ($131,800).The idea is then to sell the house in the town of Amstetten in the province of Lower Austria
Anzboeck told the paper.Neighbors welcomed the news
though some said the house should be demolished."Hopefully it will quiet down again and Amstetten will no longer be known as the Fritzl town," Katharina Sitz
told the Krone newspaper."There will always be crazy people who want to buy the house because of Fritzl
It should be torn down," said Oliver Michailov
45.Krone quoted an unnamed neighbor as saying: "They should cement Fritzl in there as well."Fritzl imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in the basement of the family home when she was 18
reported her missing but Fritzl ordered his daughter to write a letter saying she had run away.Three of the seven children he fathered with Elisabeth lived with her until they were freed in 2008
Fritzl and his wife fostered the other three surviving children after Fritzl claimed Elisabeth had given birth to them and then abandoned them to join a religious sect.The Fritzl case followed the uncovering in 2006 of the Natascha Kampusch saga
Kampusch was kidnapped at the age of 10 by Wolfgang Priklopil and held in a windowless cell under his house near Vienna for eight years before she escaped.Reporting by Michael Shields
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Monika Fritzl had a fairly normal existence
She lived in a nice house at Ybbsstrasse 40 in Amstetten
Monika didn’t know — not until the spring of 2008 — that her grandfather had imprisoned her mother Elisabeth in the home’s basement
raping her and forcing her to bear seven of his children
Three of Monika’s siblings — Kerstin
and Felix — lived in the basement with Elisabeth
These “downstairs” children grew up with no sunlight or fresh air
while Monika and her “upstairs” siblings went to school
and made friends with other children their age
there was one other sibling who had died shortly after birth
But Josef’s heinous crimes were exposed when Elisabeth’s eldest child
became seriously ill and needed to be taken to a hospital
Monika Fritzl realized that everything she’d ever known was a lie
SID Lower Austria/Getty ImagesThe Fritzls’ former house at Ybbsstrasse 40 in Amstetten
By the time that Monika Fritzl was born on Feb
she was living in a home that was shrouded in secrecy
Ten years earlier, Monika’s grandfather Josef Fritzl had lured her mother, Elisabeth Fritzl
Josef had abused Elisabeth from a young age
After knocking out his 18-year-old daughter with ether
Josef tied her to a bed in his nearly soundproof dungeon that he had secretly created in the basement
he would keep Elisabeth as his captive: beating her
Though the outside world believed Josef’s lie that Elisabeth had run off to join a cult
she was actually a prisoner in her own home
Totally alone, and with little more than a pregnancy book, scissors, and a blanket, Elisabeth gave birth to her first child Kerstin in 1988. Her next child, Stefan
YouTubeElisabeth Fritzl was 18 when her father kidnapped her and made her into his sex slave
With the basement growing more crowded, Josef Fritzl developed a ruse. In May 1993, he left baby Lisa in a cardboard box on the doorstep of the family home, with a letter that he’d forced Elisabeth to write. According to Der Spiegel
Elisabeth’s letter read: “You will probably be shocked to hear from me after all these years
no less… I breast-fed her for about 6 1/2 months
and now she drinks her milk from the bottle
and she eats everything else from the spoon.”
In the coerced letter, Elisabeth asked her parents to take in the baby, but to not try and find her. Josef and his wife Rosemarie thus began to raise Lisa as one of their own
and Elisabeth’s real location remained a secret
Josef brought the baby upstairs and left her outside of the house (this time in Lisa’s stroller)
Using a recording of Elisabeth’s voice
and was stunned to hear her missing daughter say: “I just left her at your door.”
Rosemarie was all the more shocked because she and Josef had recently obtained an unlisted number
and she told the police that it was “completely inexplicable” that Elisabeth would somehow know it
XNot only did Josef Fritzl imprison his daughter for over two decades
but he also forced her to bear seven of his children
The police noted Rosemarie’s comment
she was completely unaware that her mother and two of her siblings were imprisoned just beneath her feet
Monika Fritzl lived a relatively normal life
who appeared on the Fritzl doorstep in 1997
Josef burned his body in an incinerator.) Rosemarie largely oversaw their care and Monika attended school and music lessons
Rosemarie largely oversaw the children’s care and education
a local social welfare agency wrote glowing reports about the conditions inside the Fritzl home
It found that the couple “encourage the children in many ways,” and that Lisa
and Alexander enjoyed “gymnastics” and “books and cassettes from the city library.” Rosemarie and Josef Fritzl
“are very loving with their children.”
life for Monika’s other siblings was very different
Felix — Josef decided that Rosemarie could not handle another child after Felix was born in 2002 — spent the entirety of their young lives underground
and they were vulnerable to Josef’s mercurial temper
Josef would sometimes cut off their electricity or withhold food
Elisabeth tried to make life tolerable for the “downstairs” children
and Alexander made their way to and from school
made up stories to keep the “downstairs” children entertained
SID Lower Austria/Getty ImagesA look inside the prison that Josef Fritzl constructed in the basement of his family’s home
But she could not save them from their environment
who grew taller than the basement’s ceiling
Felix often struggled to communicate and spoke to his brother in “grunts.” Kerstin dealt with the stress of captivity by having “fits,” shredding her clothing
And they were present when their father/grandfather descended to brutally rape their mother
which he did some 3,000 times over 24 years
who had never felt sunlight or touched grass
her condition had become so terrible that Elisabeth begged Josef to take the 19-year-old to the hospital
But Kerstin’s doctors were suspicious about her lack of documents
They alerted the police — and they demanded to speak to her mother
Josef agreed to the doctors’ demands
And once Elisabeth was finally alone with the authorities
she told them everything that had happened at Ybbsstrasse 40 over the past 24 years
AP Photo/Police NiederoesterreichJosef Fritzl
But things remained complicated for Elisabeth Fritzl and her children. Though Time reported that Elisabeth and the “downstairs” children had an “astonishing reunion” with the “upstairs” children
they didn’t feel like a full family right away
Monika and the other upstairs children reportedly found it difficult to call Elisabeth “Mutti” (“Mom”)
and it was challenging for the two sets of children to relate to each other
and Alexander felt enormous guilt because they had been spared the horrors of the cellar
That said, things are very different for Elisabeth Fritzl and her children now
They live together in an undisclosed location known only as “Village X,” purportedly in a brightly colored home with plenty of space and light
who are protective and suspicious of strangers
Elisabeth has even found love — she married one of her bodyguards
She was just 14 years old when she learned that her entire world was a lie — that her father was living a violent double life
and that some of her siblings were being held captive alongside her mother just below her feet
she has lived in Village X longer than she ever lived at Ybbsstrasse 40
she’s found peace and privacy in a place where she can grow — and heal
After reading about Monika Fritzl, one of the “upstairs” children born to Elisabeth Fritzl during her 24 years of captivity, discover the story of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian kidnapping victim who spent eight years in her abductor’s basement — but survived. Or, read about Alois Hitler, the Austrian civil servant who was Adolf Hitler’s father.
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Austria — An Austrian man who had kept his daughter captive for 24 years and raped her thousands of times
can be moved from psychiatric detention to a regular prison
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We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Play VideoArticle contentThe decision, however, stipulates that Josef Fritzl, 88, will have to attend regular psychotherapy and undergo psychiatric evaluations during a 10-year probation period at the prison, Austria Press Agency reported.
A request to release him from detention was rejected but the decision is still a win for Fritzl’s legal team as conditions in a regular prison are considered an improvement, compared to strict controls in a psychiatric institution.
His atrocious crime was revealed in 2008 and he was sentenced in 2009 to life imprisonment for committing incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide of one of his infant sons.
Fritzl became known as the “monster of Amstetten” after the northern Austrian town where he in 1984 locked up his then 18-year-old daughter in a sound-proofed basement of his house.
Fritzl’s wife, who lived on the second floor of the home with the rest of the family, was allegedly unaware of what was going on in the basement, according to Austrian authorities.
Fritzl’s daughter disappeared in 1984 at age 18, re-emerging in 2008 from the dungeon-like basement chamber in Amstetten. When the case came to light, it made headlines around the world.
A three-judge regional court in the town of Krems ruled on Thursday that Fritzl, who now reportedly has dementia, could be moved to a regular prison based on a psychiatric assessment that he no longer poses a danger. The ruling overturned an earlier decision from 2022 when Fritzl’s request to be moved to a regular prison was rejected.
“In summary, the court has come to the conclusion that it is indeed the case that he is no longer dangerous,” Fritzl’s lawyer Astrid Wagner told The Associated Press.
She told APA that she would continue to work for Fritzl’s release.
“He was close to tears during the hearing,” Wagner said. “He said he is unbelievably sorry for his victims, he would love to undo everything he did.”
The verdict is not yet legally binding and prosecutors have 14 days to lodge an appeal, APA reported.
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Austria | A toy elephant sat atop the medicine cabinet
Stickers of a chubby butterfly and smiling octopus decorated a wall
But the door to those rooms was sinister - a soundproof slab with a keyless
electronic lock requiring a secret code that hid what police called a windowless house of horrors
investigators say retired electrician Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her
Three of the children "never saw sunlight" for years until they were freed this past weekend
confessed Monday to crimes that have chilled Austria and raised uncomfortable questions about how he could have deceived his neighbors and police
as well as social workers who had made repeated visits to the gray stone apartment building he owned
One of the children died in infancy and was tossed into the furnace of the building where Fritzl lived with his family and rented the other units to relatives
Austria is still scandalized by a 2006 case involving a girl who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement outside Vienna for more than eight years
and residents of this working-class town west of the capital were puzzled as to how the latest instance could go undetected for so long
"How is it possible that no one knew anything for 24 years?" asked Anita Fabian
"This was not possible without accomplices."
Fritzl was placed in pretrial detention and faces up to 15 years in prison if charged
the most grave of his suspected offenses under Austrian law
Police released Fritzl's full name and photograph at a news conference Monday
after his identity was widely reported by media in Austria and elsewhere in Europe
Fritzl was born in 1935 and was a young child when the Nazis annexed Austria before World War II
was 18 when she was imprisoned in the cell constructed deep beneath the family's apartment in the building
head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs
"He admitted that he locked his daughter … in the cellar
and that he is the father of her seven children," Polzer told The Associated Press
Elisabeth said she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later
Police said the surviving children are three boys and three girls
DNA tests were expected to determine whether Fritzl is the father of the children
Investigators said they were trying to determine how the victims could have been hidden away for so long from other families in the building and everyone else in the town of 23,000 people
Fritzl "managed to deceive everyone," including his wife
who apparently was unaware of the existence of the children in the cellar
Fritzl had seven other children with Rosemarie
Officials said three of the secret children - ages 19
18 and 5 - "never saw sunlight" until they were freed a few days ago
Polzer told reporters that Fritzl was an authoritarian who took care never to allow anyone near the cellar
said experts were trying to figure out whether anything could have been heard beyond the cell's padded
Polzer said investigators think Fritzl acted alone
but appealed to the public to come forward with information
and authorities said her father had concocted a cover story that she had joined a cult and disappeared
She was found by police in Amstetten on Saturday evening after police received a tip
Police released several photos showing parts of the cramped basement cell
with the gaily decorated small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom
Investigators said the keyless-entry system apparently kept the daughter from escaping
Three of the children lived with the grandparents and were registered with authorities
Fritzl and his wife registered those children with authorities
saying that they had found them outside their home in 1993
at least one with a note from Elisabeth saying she could not care for the child
Authorities said the victims and Fritzl's wife were under psychiatric care in an undisclosed location
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1 Apr 2018RELAXING on the sofa in his new apartment
Sacha van de Graaf tries to block out what once went on under his roof
Just ten years ago, his living room was the bedroom of monstrous Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter and her three children captive in his basement for more than two decades
Now Sacha — one of ten new tenants in flats installed in Fritzl’s former house of horrors — has told how he struggles to comprehend the evil acts carried out in his home
The croupier pays £600 a month for his two-bedroom home on the top two floors of the Austrian townhouse
He says: “It’s a beautiful house with a horrible past but I try not to think about the horrors that happened here
“Every time I walk past the stairs to the basement where the children were kept
“Fritzl’s bedroom was probably our living room but I block it out
It’s very sad what happened but life has to move on
“I’m mostly reminded when I give my address to taxi drivers and they say
Ten years after the world learned about Fritzl’s horrifying crimes
The Sun on Sunday was given a chilling tour of the rapist’s former lair
We can reveal that Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth
has changed his name to Josef Mayrhoff in a cynical bid for anonymity
Police raided the basement of Fritzl’s home in Amstetten
in April 2008 after doctors raised concerns about a seriously ill 19-year-old girl taken to hospital while in his care
Behind eight locked doors they found a rat-infested
sewage-flooded prison where he had kept captive Elisabeth
It later emerged that Fritzl had fathered SEVEN children with his daughter
three living in the cellar and three living with him and his wife upstairs
A year later he was jailed for life for rape
after changing his plea to guilty just days into the trial
Ten years on, a new coat of paint covers the once-grey walls. The house has been turned into apartments by developer Herbert Houska, who bought the property for just £110,000 in 2016.
It is now home to five different nationalities.
Herbert says: “Nobody took care of the house for eight years. I thought, ‘It has to come to an end. New life has to come inside the house’.
“It was a risk. My wife and me didn’t know how the locals would react. Back then, it was a trauma for the citizens. They felt guilty. After I renovated the house, people felt relieved and were thankful.”
Iranian welder Mosen Oskooei, 37, lives alone on the ground floor after moving in last year. His rent is roughly half the average for flats in the area.
He says: “A few weeks after I moved in, someone told me it was Fritzl’s home. I went back and looked it up on YouTube. I remembered the story — I was shocked. I only pay around £400 a month rent. I guess that is why it’s so affordable.”
Nicoletta Pascu, 39, took another of the flats after moving from Romania last year. She says: “I try not to think about what this house used to be. I knew what I was moving into but it is in the past.”
There are still chilling reminders of what happened here.
The stairs used by Fritzl on his daily 9am descent to the basement still exist. And while most of the cellar is boarded up, two rooms are kept open for the block’s heating system. The barred windows of the makeshift prison still look out over the garden, which has been turned into a children’s football pitch.
Now Fritzl — Prisoner 4546765 — is serving life with no possibility of release. He is suffering from the onset of dementia but is allowed to work as a cleaner in Austria’s Stein prison for mentally abnormal criminals.
Christine Ramsauer, the sister of Fritzl’s ex-wife Rosemarie, saw him at Christmas and said he spends his days watching shopping channels.
A friend of Christine’s told The Sun on Sunday: “He keeps on pleading for his daughter Elisabeth to forgive him and for Rosemarie to visit him in jail — neither of which will happen. He is not recognisable as the man who went into prison ten years ago. His hair has virtually all gone, his eyes are recessed deeper into his skull and he has lost weight, as well as some teeth.
“He got in touch with family members when he first went inside. Now all those numbers have changed. His world shrinks daily and he is getting frustrated that he has been forgotten. He thinks in his warped mind he will be free in two years, that he can visit Elisabeth and that she will thank him for the family. What can you say?”
Fritzl is allocated two 30-minute visits a month. They are rarely taken up. When they are, it is usually by lawyers. Last year he spent £460 changing his name to Josef Mayrhoff to avoid trouble in prison.
Rosemarie, who was taken into care after the basement horror was exposed, is thought to live in Linz, around 30 miles from her former home. She has always remained silent about the horrors.
But life for Elisabeth and her six surviving children is looking up. They have new identities and live in a big house in a secret farming settlement referred to only as Village X.
Authorities paid £700,000 to provide them with a home guarded by fences and security cameras.
It has large windows to provide extra light — and no basement.
Fewer than 2,000 people live in Village X, which is less than an hour from Amstetten.
It has just one shop and a restaurant. Locals said Elisabeth has found love and is now married. A local restaurateur says: “The family is doing more than fine. They come often to my venue and we treat them like any other guests. Everybody in the village knows them. The family are successful in their lives.
“One of Elisabeth’s children works for the local council and three of them went to the local school.
The three children who lived with Fritzl in his flat above ground — Monika
21 — have bonded well with the trio imprisoned below ground
The older children still get private tutoring
One resident said: “Given what they have been through
You would never know what they went through
Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/
Walter Anzboeck says the move is to ensure the space can never be entered again
He said in a statement that concrete would be pumped into the basement early next year
was sentenced to life in prison two years ago after being convicted of holding his daughter captive in a windowless cellar
fathering her seven children and for responsibility in the death of one of them
No decision has yet been made about whether the house should be torn down
2008 questioned a man identified in a police statement as Josef Fritzl
they say held his daughter captive for 24 years and sexually abused her in what stunned Austrians dubbed a house
The children locked in the basement never saw the light of day for years
A retired electrician has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering seven children with her in a windowless cell sealed by an electronic keyless-entry system
One of the children died in infancy and was tossed into the furnace of what stunned Austrians have labeled a “house of horrors,” officials said
The suspect owned the gray stone apartment building
and residents of this working class town west of the capital were puzzled as to how the latest instance could go undetected for so long
Questions were being raised as to how the suspect – identified as Josef Fritzl
“How is it possible that no one knew anything for 24 years?” asked Anita Fabian
“This was not possible without accomplices.”
the most grave of his alleged offenses under Austrian law
Police released Fritzl’s full name and photograph at a news conference Monday
was 18 when she was imprisoned in the cell constructed deep beneath the family’s apartment in the building
“He admitted that he locked his daughter … in the cellar
and that he is the father of her seven children,” Polzer told The Associated Press
Fritzl “managed to deceive everyone,” including his wife
Officials said three of the secret children – aged 19
18 and 5 – “never saw sunlight” until they were freed a few days ago
said experts were trying to figure out if anything could have been heard beyond the cell’s padded
Polzer said investigators believe Fritzl acted alone
with a gaily decorated small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom
Authorities said the victims and Fritzl’s wife were under psychiatric care in an undisclosed location
The shocking discoveries recalled the case from summer 2006
when Natascha Kampusch escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a Vienna suburb for more than eight years
Kampusch was 10 when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in 1998
threw himself in front of a train hours after her escape
issued a statement Monday saying she wanted to contact Elisabeth to offer emotional and financial help
Questions were being raised in Austria about how another similar case could have happened
“The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong,” the newspaper Der Standard said in a commentary
who owns a bakery just down the street from Fritzl and his wife
said the couple would regularly buy bread and rolls
just like any other family,” he said
The case unfolded after the eldest of the secret children
was found unconscious and gravely ill on April 19 in the building and was taken to a hospital
Authorities publicly appealed for her mother to come forward to help diagnose her condition
police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday near the hospital
Fritzl freed the three captive children that same day
Police said Elisabeth appeared “greatly disturbed” during questioning
She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be cared for
Investigators said the area where she and three of the children were held included rooms whose height did not exceed 5 1/2 feet
The area had a TV and small hot plates for cooking
Authorities said Elisabeth told them her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11
handcuffed her and locked her in the cellar
Police said a letter written by Elisabeth had apparently surfaced a month after her disappearance
Lenze said that because the couple had custody of the children
social workers made a “considerable” number of visits to the family
the father was seldom present during such visits,” he said
The social workers found nothing out of the ordinary
reporting that Fritzl’s wife was attentive
the three children were doing well in school and clubs
and that all of them played musical instruments
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She lives in a brightly painted house in a tiny hamlet which the Austrian media, when they mention it at all, refer to as "Village X". The two-storey family home is kept under constant CCTV surveillance, and any strangers caught lurking nearby can expect to be picked up by the police within minutes.
Last month, the near perpetual news blackout imposed by Elisabeth on herself and her family was broken by Josef Fritzl's sister-in-law, a woman who chooses to identify herself only as Christine R. Her description of Elisabeth's everyday life two years on from her escape revealed that it was astonishingly normal.
Such a life was unimaginable in the spring of 2008 when Elisabeth escaped from her underground prison, her skin ashen coloured because of decades without sunlight and a diet of cheap supermarket food. She was placed with her three "cellar children" under the care of a battery of social workers, therapists and psychiatrists at a clinic outside Amstetten where she lived in hospital rooms overlooking trees and a wide lawn.
Felix was reported to have spent much of his time stroking the grass on the lawn in sheer wonderment. "For them a passing cloud is a phenomenon," remarked Berthold Kepplinger, the clinic's chief physician at the time.
Soon after her release she started to develop an obsession with cleanliness, showering up to 10 times a day. Her children were traumatised in different ways. The cellar children found it hard to relate to their siblings who had led normal lives. What, they asked, was the reason? The upstairs children felt guilty for having been spared.
Yet, only two years on, the family's recovery is palpable. Perhaps most remarkable is that Elisabeth has become friends with her mother.
According to Christine R, Rosemarie fled the home she shared with Fritzl more than 18 months ago, and tries to augment a meagre pension by selling homemade bags and her paintings of flowers. But nowadays she visits Elisabeth and her family at least once a week. "Whatever suspicion there was has gone," says Christine R.
the regional police officer leading the investigation
said that those who had rented accommodation from Fritzl in his imposing grey house on Ybb street were vital to piecing together clues of the worst known incident of its kind
"In the past 24 years around 100 people have lived in the house," Polzer said
"We want to talk to all of them - possibly one of them observed something that at the time didn't seem so important but could be of relevance knowing what we do today."
came forward yesterday to talk of how he had seen another man enter the dungeon
a petrol pump attendant who lodged in the house for 12 years
said he believed the man had been a plumber who came to help Fritzl install a toilet
He added that Fritzl had once told him: "One day my house will go down in history."
A sister-in-law of the 74-year-old yesterday became the first family member to break their silence
told the Austrian newspaper Österreich that her brother-in-law was a "despot"
"He drilled his kids and when he entered a room
silence fell over everyone immediately - even when they were in the middle of playing a game
You could sense their constant fear of being punished."
She said she saw his tyrannical behaviour towards his seven elder children - now aged between 37 and 51 - as the main reason why most of them had married young
"The only chance for the children to escape this atmosphere was to marry," she said
"And that's what they all did as soon as they were old enough."
She described how he expected his wife to play a subservient role to him from the start of their married life
"When Rosemarie married Sepp she was 17
so she was always dependent on him - and for 51 years he exploited that."
He frequently "put her down" and told perverse jokes in her presence
The most difficult time for the family came in 1967 when Fritzl was convicted of raping a young woman in Linz
a crime for which he received an 18-month prison sentence
"I was 16 at the time and I found the offence simply disgusting - all the more so seeing as he already had four children with my sister," she said
Christine said that all the family knew that Fritzl withdrew for hours to his "cellar" at the back of the garden - the site of his workshop and office
and of the well-hidden entrance to the dungeon
"Every day at 9am Sepp would go to the cellar
supposedly to produce blueprints for machines he had been commissioned to build." Often he even stayed there overnight
telling his wife under no circumstances was he to be disturbed
"Rosi was not even allowed to bring him a cup of coffee."
The woman who was raped by Fritzl in 1967 also came forward yesterday
saying she had received a shock on seeing his picture
"I recognised him immediately," she said
"I will never forget those eyes." Fritzl had raped her in her bed at knifepoint after climbing through the kitchen window of her flat while her husband
Police technical experts were yesterday investigating a claim made by Fritzl's 42-year-old daughter
that her father had threatened to pump her prison with poisonous gas if she and three of her children by him tried to escape
"He apparently told his daughter that in case they tried anything on
which might possibly be an explanation for why the prisoners never ventured to overpower him," said a criminal investigator
Rosemarie Fritzl also revealed to the police how she believed she had received a call from her daughter in 1994
10 years after she had believed Elisabeth had fled the family home to join a sect
Police now believe the call in which Elisabeth supposedly asked her parents to look after a baby that she had just left on their doorstep was made from a telephone box by Fritzl who tried to imitate his daughter's voice
Rosemarie later asked how it was that Elisabeth had known their new telephone number
Three babies were eventually raised by Rosemarie
dictated by Fritzl and written under duress by Elisabeth late last year
indicated that he was considering ending her captivity by staging her return
In the letter she said she was thinking of coming home
But it now appears that any plans he might have had were overtaken by events
out of the dungeon and to the local hospital two weeks ago
Police were called when Fritzl visited the hospital accompanied by Elisabeth
He was subsequently arrested after Elisabeth told officers of her ordeal
Police said it was only possible to speculate why Fritzl wanted to stage her return
"Perhaps he was aware that he couldn't keep the thing going forever," Polzer said
"Maybe he sensed that his strength was waning."
grandmother and the three other children who lived "upstairs" were continuing to be cared for by medical professionals in a psychiatric clinic yesterday
to be "devouring" the media coverage of their release on television and in newspapers
Some Austrian commentators criticised the Austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer's concerns that the dungeon drama would damage the country's image
"It would make sense to start looking for answers - many of which are slumbering deep within ourselves - instead of reacting in a patriotic knee-jerk way," said an editorial in the Kurier
As the family underwent intensive therapy at a psychiatric clinic
authorities said they were looking at the possibility of assisting 42-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl and her children
three of whom do not have birth certificates
Psychologists say it would help them find a way back into normal society away from the glare of the media
and would also help them to find their own identity
Police confirmed they were now looking at charging the pensioner for "murder through failure to act" after he did nothing to save the life of a twin who died in 1996 at just three days old
and disposed of its body in an incinerator on the grounds of his property
As Fritzl appeared in a court in the regional centre of St Pölten yesterday and was remanded in custody for 14 days
more details of his initially reluctant confession to police emerged
The pensioner admitted to investigators that he had locked up his daughter
She was a difficult child." While admitting repeatedly raping her
he rejected his daughter's claims that he had chained her to the cellar wall and kept her "like an animal"
Asked on what grounds he had decided that three of the children
should live with him and his wife and go to school
he reportedly told police he had feared the noise of their cries might lead to their discovery
He said: "They were sickly and cried too much in the cellar for my liking."
Investigators said Josef Fritzl had not shown remorse
He was under psychiatric care but had not been deemed to be suicidal
saying he was "emotionally broken"
As doubts continued to hover over Fritzl's claim that he had acted without an accomplice
the public was asked to come forward with any information about the man whose face was plastered across newspapers and television screens
"We still find it hard to believe that no one - no neighbour
family member or acquaintance - noticed anything," said the chief of police
They continued to rule out any possibility that Rosemarie
knew anything about her husband's double life
did he ensure his cellar family was provided for when he took lengthy summer holidays with male friends
Who fed them and disposed of their rubbish and what happened to them when he was ill
Technical experts from the interior ministry were sent to Amstetten yesterday to clear up some of the puzzling questions that the saga has thrown up
Central to their enquiry is how it was possible for Fritzl to build the dungeon himself
a complex which was enlarged over the years as the family expanded
they were asking how he would have been able to install its 300kg steel remote-controlled door without help
Amstetten authorities confirmed that Fritzl had received planning permission for an extension to the family home
Building inspectors examined the project again in 1983
it became his 18-year-old daughter's prison
Authorities said it was not unusual for homes in Lower Austria to have bunker-like cellars with steel doors because for years the region had been situated on the edge of the iron curtain and the threat of nuclear war was considered to be a genuine threat
Fritzl is even believed to have been a beneficiary of the generous state subsidies paid out for such projects
Police have also combed other properties belonging to Fritzl
"It is hard to believe he would have had the opportunity to keep another dungeon
because the one beneath his home must have kept him so busy," Polzer said
Details were also emerging yesterday of Fritzl's possible previous criminal convictions
including for insurance fraud after he allegedly set fire to a guesthouse he had run with his wife
and another alleged conviction in the late 1960s for the attempted rape of a woman unrelated to him
said authorities were unable to give further details of the crimes
It's beyond the statute of limitations and it's therefore no longer of relevance to the authorities," he said
But it is being repeatedly asked why a man who allegedly had two previous convictions was allowed with his wife to adopt and foster the children authorities assumed to be their grandchildren
A social worker told investigators she had visited or had contact with the family around 21 times and had "considered nothing suspicious" about them
except for the fact that Fritzl was rarely present
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The cramped, windowless dungeon was purpose built by Fritzl, now 78, beneath the family home in Amstetten, about 60 miles west of Vienna.
When she turned 18, Fritzl locked his daughter Elisabeth in the basement and used her as a sex slave for almost a quarter of a century.
He told his wife Rosemary, now 69, that she had run away and joined a cult.
Their former home "will be filled with concrete and thus sealed at the family's request," estate liquidator Walter Anzboeck told Friday's edition of the Oesterreich newspaper.
Josef Fritzl, seen in a 2008 photograph, used his daughter as a sex slave in the basement of his house for nearly quarter of a century.Austrian Police via AP, fileHe added that the work was expected to take a week and cost a total of 100,000 euros (about $130,00). The idea is then to sell the house, Reuters reported.
Neighbors welcomed the news, though some said the house should be demolished.
“Hopefully it will quiet down again and Amstetten will no longer be known as the Fritzl town,” Katharina Sitz, 34, told the Krone newspaper.
Oliver Michailov, 45, said: "There will always be crazy people who want to buy the house because of Fritzl. It should be torn down.”
Pleading guilty at his 2009 trial, Fritzl admitted to raping Elisabeth “at least 3,000 times” resulting in the birth of seven children, six of whom survived.
Three of them, daughter Kerstin, now 24, and sons Stefan, 23, and Felix, nine, were raised by Elisabeth in the basement.
He told her they would be gassed if they tried to escape.
They did not see daylight until their release in April 2008 and were often forced to watch as Fritzl sexually assaulted their mother.
The three other children - Lisa, now 21, Monika 19, and Alexander, 17 - were taken upstairs for Rosemary to raise.
He told his wife of more than 50 years that they were foundlings Elisabeth had dropped on the doorstep.
The seventh child, Michael, died of respiratory problems three days after his birth in 1996.
At the trial, prosecutors maintained that Michael would have survived if he had received medical help. Fritzl incinerated the baby’s body on the property.
Police discovered what was going on after Kerstin became seriously ill and was admitted to hospital.
In 2009 Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and for the negligent homicide of Michael.
He was sentenced to life in prison and will serve a minimum of 15 years. Psychiatric experts would have to agree for him to be freed.
At the trial, prosecutors described Elisabeth as a “broken woman.” The six surviving children spent months recovering in a psychiatric clinic at a secret location.
All of them were reportedly given new identities by the Austrian government.
A 2008 artist’s impression of Elisabeth Fritzl on the cover of the magazine 'Osterreich'
Pope Francis donated a popemobile for a children's clinic in Gaza
Austria - DNA tests showed that Austrian Josef Fritzl
who raped his daughter and kept her prisoner in a windowless cellar for 24 years
was the father of her six surviving children
Fritzl has confessed to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar beneath their two-storey home and fathering seven children by her
Prosecutors said they were investigating Fritzl over the death of the seventh child and that he could face a charge of killing the child through neglect
which the unfortunate Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to in the basement
have all been undoubtedly fathered by her own father
the now 73-year-old Josef Fritzl," Franz Polzer
head of the criminal investigation unit in Lower Austria
Police have said Fritzl has admitted to burning the body of the seventh child when it died soon after birth
is being investigated for murder by failing to render assistance," local chief public prosecutor Peter Ficenc said
Investigations were also being conducted for rape
Investigators were still searching the 60 square meter (645 sq ft) cellar beneath electrical engineer Fritzl's home
"Down there it is just chaos at the moment
We have to go over every detail very carefully," Prucher said
Fritzl appeared before a judge in St Poelten
who ordered that police could keep him in detention while inquiries continue
Officials said Fritzl said nothing on the advice of his lawyer
He was calm when he arrived on Monday and had been put in a cell where he can be monitored in case he tries to commit suicide
says her father lured her into the cellar of their home in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her
had been locked in the cellar with her since birth and had never seen sunlight
Three other children -- two girls and one boy -- were adopted and brought up by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie
The case unfolded when the 19-year-old daughter became ill and was taken to hospital
Doctors appealed for her mother to come forward to give details of her medical history
said on Tuesday her condition was critical and her artificially induced coma would continue for several more days
"Our patient is in a severely life-threatening condition which resulted from a lack of oxygen caused sometime between Wednesday and Friday when she was admitted," Reiter told German broadcaster N24
less than two years after an Austrian teenager
escaped from the basement where she had been locked up by an abductor for eight years
"There are a million unanswered questions," investigator Polzer said
"How could he manage to live with what he had done
He said he did not blame authorities for missing the case
"I have not been made aware of any error on their part."
Fritzl brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the cellar after the young woman was hospitalized
telling his wife their "missing" daughter had chosen to return home
Fritzl kept his daughter and three of the children in a complex which was in some places no more than 1.7 meters (5 ft 6 in) high and contained a padded cell
Photographs of the cellar show a narrow passage leading to rooms that included a cooking area
a sleeping area and a small bathroom with a shower
Fritzl had hidden the entrance to the cell behind shelves and only he knew the code for the concrete door
Authorities have been asking how events in the house
in a busy street with shops in the small industrial town of Amstetten
Commentator Petra Stuiber wrote in Austrian daily Der Standard that what she termed a rich
self-satisfied society needed to examine why it was allowed to occur
"How is it possible that nobody heard or saw anything
How can it be that nobody asked questions?" said Stuiber
Nick Abbot is Leading Britain's Conversation
Josef Fritzl has threatened to move to Britain if he is ever released from jail and "roam free on the Highlands of Scotland"
has been incarcerated since 2009 after holding his daughter Elisabeth captive in his cellar in the Austrian town of Amstetten for 24 years between 1984 and 2008
raping her thousands of times and fathering her seven children
He is now able to apply for release and said he dreamed of moving to the UK after seeing a documentary about Shakespeare that revealed Britain's "spectacular scenery", the Sun reports
He recalled: “I was filled with this wonderful
this sense of inspiration for this fantastic culture
"And it was then I knew that when I get released
“Above all I want to roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland.”
Read More: Josef Fritzl claims he is a ‘good father’ in twisted apology letter after having seven children with daughter he raped
Read More: Josef Fritzl could be freed from jail soon 'and thinks he is a pop star' as psychiatrist insists he his now 'harmless'
He added in an interview: “For me the lush green fields of Wales are also very
But the main thing is — it’s to the United Kingdom that I am headed.”
Even in the unlikely event Fritzl was released he would be unable to move to the UK as the Home Office would refuse to grant him entry due to his long custodial sentence
Under British law anyone who has “received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more” is unable to move to the UK
A court in the town of Krems an der Donau had ordered in January that Fritzl be transferred to a regular prison from a prison psychiatric unit after being told he was "no longer at threat of reoffending"
but this decision has since been overturned
who is now 56 and has been given a new identity
previously said she hopes her evil father will be punished for his crimes "until death"
Fritzl's trial heard he raped her 3,000 times in the rat-infested cellar and how he beat and kicked her and eventually had seven children with her
The mother lived downstairs in the flat with her children - Kerstin born in 1988
Monica (1994) and Alexander (1996) were raised upstairs in the home Fritzl shared with his wife Rosemarie in sleepy Amstetten in central Austria
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RELAXING on the sofa in his new apartment, Sacha van de Graaf tries to block out what once went on under his roof.
Just ten years ago, his living room was the bedroom of monstrous Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter and her three children captive in his basement for more than two decades.
Now Sacha — one of ten new tenants in flats installed in Fritzl’s former house of horrors — has told how he struggles to comprehend the evil acts carried out in his home.
The croupier pays £600 a month for his two-bedroom home on the top two floors of the Austrian townhouse.
He says: “It’s a beautiful house with a horrible past but I try not to think about the horrors that happened here.
“Every time I walk past the stairs to the basement where the children were kept, I feel a bit strange.
“Fritzl’s bedroom was probably our living room but I block it out. It’s very sad what happened but life has to move on.
“I’m mostly reminded when I give my address to taxi drivers and they say, ‘Ah, the Fritzl house’.”
Ten years after the world learned about Fritzl’s horrifying crimes, The Sun on Sunday was given a chilling tour of the rapist’s former lair.
We can reveal that Fritzl’s daughter Elisabeth, whom he kept captive for 24 years, has now married. And Fritzl, who will die in prison, has changed his name to Josef Mayrhoff in a cynical bid for anonymity.
Police raided the basement of Fritzl’s home in Amstetten, Austria, in April 2008 after doctors raised concerns about a seriously ill 19-year-old girl taken to hospital while in his care. Behind eight locked doors they found a rat-infested, sewage-flooded prison where he had kept captive Elisabeth, now 51, with three children fathered by him.
It later emerged that Fritzl had fathered SEVEN children with his daughter, three living in the cellar and three living with him and his wife upstairs. One died in the squalor of the basement.
A year later he was jailed for life for rape, incest and murder by negligence, after changing his plea to guilty just days into the trial.
Ten years on, a new coat of paint covers the once-grey walls. The house has been turned into apartments by developer Herbert Houska, who bought the property for just £110,000 in 2016.
By ALAN HALL FOR MAILONLINE Updated: 07:43 BST
The 24 years of suffering endured by Elisabeth Fritzl at the hands of her rapist father were described in harrowing detail to a jury yesterday
It was revealed that Josef Fritzl never even spoke to his daughter for the first nine years she was locked in a dungeon beneath their home
Austrian prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser spoke of the appalling conditions in which Elisabeth bore her father seven children - extreme cold in winter
Fritzl hid his face behind a blue binder when he arrived in court today
Mrs Burkheiser leaned in close to the 73-year-old tyrant and he appeared to squirm as she asked him: 'Mr Fritzl
how could you do this to your own flesh and blood?'
before three judges and a jury of four men and four women
was subjected to an ordeal medieval in its cruelty after being locked in the cellar in her late teens
three were allowed upstairs to live with her father and mother Rosemarie
The prosecutor even handed out items from the cellar for jurors to smell so they could sense the mould and decay of everyday life in the windowless
The jurors winced as they smelled a cuddly toy owned by Elisabeth's youngest son Felix
when it was removed from a plastic evidence bag
Fritzl is escorted to the courtroom by police officers prior to the start of his trial
The opening of the sensational case was Fritzl's first public appearance since his subterranean rape chamber was discovered last year in the town of Amstetten
As he was escorted into court by six armed policemen he shielded his face with a blue loose-leaf binder and ignored journalists' questions
Minutes later as the hearing began he pleaded guilty to incest and false imprisonment
but denied enslaving Elisabeth and murdering their newborn-son
He faces a life sentence if convicted of murder
and lengthy terms of imprisonment on the other charges
who is in her 30s and conducting her first major case as a prosecutor
who brought to life the crimes of a man who stole his daughter's life in an opening speech that was both eloquent and harrowing
with his polite demeanour,' she urged the jurors
But what really troubles me is that he has not shown a single sign of regret.'
She outlined how in 1984 building engineer Fritzl
apparently concerned that his youngest daughter was sliding into a life of debauchery
tricked her into helping him fix a door in the cellar that he had secretly built beneath the family home
A cloth soaked in ether was placed over her mouth and she was locked in the dungeon prepared for her
Josef Fritzl has pleaded guilty to the rape and imprisonment of his daughter Elizabeth
'he came down and chained her up and raped her
Mrs Burkheiser repeated several words over and over again in the space of her hour-long outline of the crimes of Josef Fritzl
He would rape Elisabeth in the darkness and leave
To give jurors an idea of the smallness of the cellar she pointed to the box they were seated in
She used a laser pen to outline how low the ceiling was
and to detail the dimensions of the last door leading into it
which could be accessed only by crawling through on hands and knees
and state prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser
'I have been to the cellar twice,' she told jurors as Fritzl stared ahead at Judge Andrea Humer
It has a morbid atmosphere that hits you as you crawl through the 83 square centimetre entrance hole
And he was the absolute ruler of this kingdom
In those first years the air came through gaps in the walls
'He decided what would be eaten and what medicines would be available
'Often the electricity would be switched off or there would be a power failure and she would be left in the dark
'Would he ever come back from his long holidays
'This uncertainty was the worst thing of all.'
She detailed how when the seven children were born Elisabeth was left alone with nothing but an old book on childbirth
Judge Andrea Humer at the start of Fritzl's trial at the provincial courthouse in St
Outlining the most serious of the six charges Fritzl faces - murder - she spoke of how baby Michael
began to turn blue and have trouble with his breathing shortly after birth
'By not offering any assistance as the father
that is murder under Austrian law,' she said
cowed them all by saying the cellar was fitted with booby traps which would lead to gassing and electrocution should they ever mutiny and try to escape
Defence lawyer Rudolf Mayer began outlining his case by saying he was perhaps
He read out some of the numerous death threats levelled against him for daring to defend a 'monster'
The cellar where Elisabeth Fritzl was kept prisoner
But he told the court: 'Leave everything you have heard aside
We are not dealing with a monster here but a man
You have to leave all the emotional stuff aside
'My client could have argued that he was insane
He could have claimed that he was not normal and try to fool the psychiatrists
'Instead he admits he always wanted a second family
'If he was just a rapist he would have used condoms
'If he wanted to harm his family he could have stopped caring for them and gone back to his life as a respectable businessman with the message on his tombstone eventually reading
'He could have got rid of his family if he didn't care for them
It was the illness of Elisabeth's 19-year-old incest daughter Kerstin in April last year which finally heralded the end of the secret cellar and its inhabitants
who warned that Kerstin would die unless she received medical attention
Mayer added: 'He could have left her to die but he didn't
touching on themes he has explored before in jailhouse interviews - the dominant mother
He said: 'I did not have a good relationship with my mother
But I had one she didn't know about and that friend bitterly let me down
So I decided that I would not have any friends after that.'
Fritzl said: 'I had a very difficult childhood
She simply didn't want a child and she treated me correspondingly
he had made it clear to his mother that he would not tolerate being beaten any longer and would defend himself
She never showed him any affection and his father appeared only 'rarely and sporadically'
perform in front of the court before Fritzl's trial
His relationship with his mother was never close
even though they shared the same house until her death in 1980
Fritzl attributed his mother's coldness to her own childhood
'She grew up on a farm and had to work from the age of eight.'
He said he decided to marry Rosemarie when she said she wanted ten children like him
The press were escorted from the court as Fritzl began delving into the more personal aspects of his life and the remainder of the trial will be conducted in secret until a verdict scheduled for Friday
This has provoked strong criticism in many quarters in Austria
One prominent lawyer in St Poelten said: 'I thought secret trials ended with Stalin
police and other officials who failed Elisabeth down the years will now give their testimony in secret and it will never be reported upon
Thirteen hours of videotaped testimony about Elisabeth's ordeal
began playing to the jury yesterday afternoon
The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group
The home of twisted Josef Fritzl has been turned into a set of flats for yuppies in the small town of Amstetten, Austria(Image: Getty Images)The home of sick rapist Josef Fritzl has been turned into flats after plans to turn it into a macabre horror museum were rejected
The dungeon itself where Fritzl kept his daughter locked up in for 24 years was filled with cement during the transformation
Landlord couple Herbert and Ingrid Houska bought the horror house
located near the edge of the quiet town of Amstetten
from Fritzl's bankruptcy estate for just £135,000 (160,000 euros) and renovated it
READ MORE: Nazi-loving 'born rapist' Josef Fritzl idolised Hitler and wanted to sleep with mum
The couple said: "All nine apartments are rented out
There are young people among them who have no connection to the Fritzl case."
which the Austrian used to quietly provide food and water to his captive family
raping her over 24 years and forcing her to bear seven of their incestuous kids
Of the seven children born from the abhorrent repeated abuse
three remained in captivity with their mother and one died shortly after birth
The others were brought up by Fritzl and his wife
after he claimed they had appeared on his doorstep
The house of horror is now kitted out with new furniture(Image: MDM)READ MORE: Bloke unleashed one-punch attack on neighbour after their dog killed his rabbitThe identities of the victim and her children are now protected
Fritzl’s horrific abuse of his daughter and their kids was only discovered after he took one of the children, suffering a life-threatening illness, to hospital
Following a massive investigation by police
he was sentenced to life behind bars after pleading guilty to rape
he said in a book that was co-written with his lawyer Astrid Wagner: "In reality
Former Amstetten mayor Herbert Katzengruber told local media: "Nobody wants to talk about it anymore
current mayor Christian Haberhauer said: "No comment
If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Victim Support for free, confidential advice on 08 08 16 89 111 or visit their website, www.victimsupport.org.uk.
Read 15 years of Mumbai Mirror's journalism here. Continue readingFor 24x7 updates on Mumbai and Maharashtra
For reprint rights:Times Syndication Service
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Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Oct 24
When watching the Netflix movie THE CHALK LINE
you’ll probably be reminded of a true crime
That’s because the movie is based on a very true story
the below will include many The Chalk Line spoilers
If you’re simply looking for a review of the Netflix movie, click here for our The Chalk Line movie review >
The true crime that inspired The Chalk Line is that of Josef Fritzl (aka The Monster of Amstetten)
which resulted in a total of seven children being born
One child was killed by Fritzl shortly after being born and burned in an incinerator
Three children lived with Elisabeth in the basement
three children lived upstairs in the house with Josef Fritzl as “foundlings”
He became a foster parent along with his wife Rosemarie
Since Rosemarie was also the biological mother of Elisabeth
they were both his children and his grandchildren
There are three core elements in The Chalk Line that line up almost perfectly with the true crimes of Josef Fritzl
These three elements are key to both Josef Fritzl’s true crime and the story in The Chalk Line
the location and all the names have been changed
the location still has to do with a basement
but in a different country and different setting
many of the brutal details are real – just like several of the very gruesome details of the real Josef Fritzl case have been omitted
as the real story is even more grotesque than the one shown in The Chalk Line
In the recently released Australian Netflix movie The Stranger we also got a true crime story where names and details about the crime had been altered
Our review of the Netflix movie The Stranger here >
The main differences between the real criminal Josef Fritzl aka “The Monster of Amstetten” and the criminal in The Chalk Line are these:
The element that inspired the title of this new Netflix movie The Chalk Line
does not seem to have been used by Josef Fritzl
the original title of this Spanish movie is Jaula which translates into cage or even jail
It appears the chalk lines in this movie were used to illustrate the brainwashing done by the criminal
When a kidnapper can have a hold on someone that is so strong that a simple chalk line will keep them in
some serious brainwashing and brutal conditioning have taken place
I am by no means an expert on “The Monster of Amstetten”
but I do remember when Josef Fritzl and the case hit the news in 2008
What I didn’t know were details such as the fact that the last thing Elisabeth did before being captured
She was just helping her father with a heavy door in the basement
A simple Google search of Josef Fritzl will lead to much more information
As for Elisabeth Fritzl and her six remaining children
they are trying their best to live real lives
Check out our TRUE CRIME tag for more movies, series, and documentaries >
I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror
it does happen that I find myself screaming
I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy
and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies
so I will immediately think less of any movie
where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors)
horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy
And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones
Austrian Josef Fritzl is known as the “Monster of Amstetten” after he was arrested for keeping his daughter Elisabeth Fritzl captive in their basement for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, and RadarOnline.com has learned he is a Charlie Sheen fan
SHOCKING PHOTOS: Inside The Home Of Phillip And Nancy Garrido
"My favorite show is Two and a Half Men with Charlie Sheen. The little boy who plays along reminds me of my son,” Fritzl told Austrian news publication Bild.de
Fritzl is being held at a high-security prison with 900 inmates
90 of which have been deemed “mentally-disturbed offenders.”
“Two officers are always with me for my protection,” Fritzl said
Being a sex offender makes him a target for inner-prison violence making management afraid for his life
was sentenced to life in prison in April 2008 for murder
incest and raping his daughter an estimated 3,000 times
JAYCEE’S OWN WORDS: What She Wrote While In Captivity
But I know she still loves me always,” Fritzl said of his wife of 55 years
His wife and 13 children have yet to visit him in jail
Jaycee Dugard’s Abductors Indicted By Grand Jury
State Admission: Garrido Undersupervised For Eight Years
Jaycee Dugard Lied To Protect Alleged Abductor
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Crime Scene Photos Of Jaycee Dugard Kidnapper’s Home
The Backyard Prison Jaycee Called Home
just one day before news broke that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are allegedly headed toward a divorce
the singer was spotted house-hunting on her own in Beverly Hills
Tom Cruise is living up to his Top Gun image by splashing a fortune choppering his new female “best pal” around Britain – after he “fell in love” with the way she's overcome her disability
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