More details have emerged in the story coming out of Amstettin, Austria, of the father who now admits he locked his daughter in the dungeon like basement of his home for 24 years and that he committed “incest” with her.

The Sins of The Father

Josef Fritzl

Josef Fritzl admits he not only locked his 19-year-old daughter Elisabeth in a homemade dungeon, but that he also “fathered” seven children with her acting as midwife.

According to the Austrian Times, Josef warned his daughter and the three children sentenced to remain below, that the cellar-dungeon was booby trapped. Police took this threat seriously as Josef was a qualified electrician as well as a retired engineer in construction who had wired several electronic locks on his property.

Josef’s background as a retired engineer who worked in construction may explain how he was able to build a secret set of rooms in the basement of the family home, a gray concrete villa in Amstettin, Austria. The hidden entrance to the dungeon was so “secret” that supposedly even his own wife and Elisabeth’s mother had ‘no idea’ that downstairs in the cellar was her imprisoned daughter and three of her children.

A son-in-law who lived in the house for 3 years said he had been in the cellar on one occasion and that it was filled with junk, that he had “no idea that a few metres away this family were living”.

Elisabeth

According to the Austrian Times, at age 19, Elisabeth, working as a waitress at a local service station, was reported missing to the police by her mother on August 29, 1984. A few weeks later a “letter” arrived from the girl where she purportedly told her parents to “let her live her own life” and to “respect her wishes”. By this time Elisabeth had already been drugged, handcuffed by her father, and locked away in the homemade dungeon beneath the family villa. She had no idea the next time she would be allowed to leave would be seven children and 24 years later.

Josef’s cruelty knew no bounds as he chose to allow three of the children a “means” of escape from the basement by allegedly depositing the babies on the doorstep, papers in hand from Elisabeth, stating the children were hers but that she could not take care of them.

The first baby on the doorstep, Lisa, arrived in May of 1993 with a “note” from Elisabeth. The note stated that Elisabeth already had two children and could not take care of a third.

The second baby, a 10 month-old girl, Monica, arrived on the doorstep in December of 1994. The third baby arrived in August of 1997, a 15 month old boy, Alex.

Three of the children, Kerstin, age 19, Stefann, age 18, and Felix, age 5, remained locked below, never to have seen sunlight, their only source of the outside world, their grandfather and a television set. It was when the 19-year-old Kerstin became critically ill that Josef’s secret world began to collapse around him.

The Dungeon The Basement

Elisabeth was 19 when her father allegedly drugged, then handcuffed her and secreted her in the room in the basement. The secret door was behind shelves stacked with containers. Josef had devised a code known only to him that opened a door made of reinforced steel. The passages were narrow, only 5 1/2 ft. tall and lead to several rooms, a makeshift shower, cooking rings for Elisabeth and her children to heat their food, and one room “lined entirely in rubber”.

No word yet as to how Josef was able to bring in the amount of food and necessities needed to feed Elisabeth and the three children. The Times is reporting that Josef’s house was a sprawling concrete villa which may help to explain how he was able to pull off his heinous scheme.

Which makes us wonder, it wasn’t until the oldest of the children Josef allegedly fathered with his daughter became critically ill that Josef allowed Elisabeth and the other two children to leave the makeshift dungeon. But what if the girl had never gotten ill, how much longer would Elisabeth and her children remain hidden captives beneath Josef’s villa?

Josef is 73. What if he had died, taking the whole secret with him? Would anyone have discovered the secret trap door and the homemade basement prison before Elisabeth and the children had to succumbed to starvation?

The Seven Children

Josef allegedly “fathered” seven siblings with his daughter. In this case, the word “fathered” takes on a sinister and sick meaning. Josef denies he raped his daughter but does admit to incest. We highly doubt that Elisabeth, locked against her will in the basement, was eager to have sex and the subsequent seven children with her father.

Even crueler was his decision to allow three of the children to live upstairs. The children had no idea of how they were conceived or that their siblings and mother were imprisoned beneath their own home or that one child had died after birth, a twin of the now 14-yr.old Monica, and that the baby boy’s body had been burned in the villa’s garden.

Purportedly Josef acted as midwife for all seven children, this meant that Kerstin and Stefan were old enough to witness the births of the other children and then watch their grandfather/father/captor take them away.

The rooms had no windows, no way to look outside, to see sunlight, blue skies. They lived a twilight existence of a small strip light and a television that Josef had installed.

Josef and his wife had four other children with families of their own. They and their mother allegedly had no idea their father had imprisoned their sister beneath the family villa and that the three children she had “left on the doorstep” to raise, were Josef’s children too.

When the 19-yr-old Kerstin became critically ill Josef brought the unconscious girl out of the basement and placed her body on the front doorstep, again with the “requisite” note from Elisabeth asking for help. Kerstin was taken to a hospital where she has been in a coma for over a week and doctors have been unable to diagnosis what the cause is. It was the hospital who sent out a plea that it needed to contact Kerstin’s mother for information on the girl. It was then that Josef allowed Elisabeth to leave the basement to travel to the hospital.

Hospital authorities and the police were suspicious of Elisabeth’s behavior and it wasn’t until she had assurances that she would never have to see her father again that she was able to reveal the truth about her and her children’s circumstances. Josef’s mad scheme was revealed and he was arrested.

Authorities are running DNA tests on the children while Elisabeth, her mother, and the children are undergoing counseling while Josef remains in custody. Elisabeth purportedly looks 20 years older than her age of 43.

Josef now admits he locked his daughter in a secret prison beneath their house for 24 years and that he admits he committed “incest”.

We believe it entailed more than incest as incest implies a “kinder, gentler” form of sex with the daughter he chose to drug, handcuff, and imprison for 24 years. We believe rape would be more applicable than incest. We’re not sure why he would even try to mitigate the circumstances of this horrific crime he committed against his own daughter and the seven resulting children.

Elisabeth admits her father began molesting her at age 11 which shows a pattern of abuse. We wonder about the other female children in the household, were any of the other children sexually abused? Or was Josef fixated solely on the one daughter, Elisabeth?

Neighbors were shocked to learn of the monster, Josef, in their midst, and his horrific homemade prison. Where his own daughter had been systematically stripped of her rights then repeatedly raped through the years by the very man who was supposed to protect and love her, not turn her into his own personal love slave.

Questions are being raised, such as how his wife and Elisabeth’s mother had no idea what was going on down in the basement. What will happen to Elisabeth and her children? Especially the children. They have their own special stigma to overcome, not only as the children of incest, but the circumstances of which they were raised. A gamut of emotions, horror, guilt, grief, disbelief, and love. The three children raised upstairs, we imagine they only knew love for their grandfather, until now. The three children downstairs, opposite emotions. Those children were raised in captivity while their siblings were allowed to live what constituted a “normal” life out in the sunshine, fresh air, and the world. Now that these two sets of children will be united into one family the problems they face will be daunting.

No word yet as to what crimes Josef will be charged with. At age 73, he knows he most likely won’t be spending very much time in jail and that it won’t be long, in Shakespeare terms, before he “shuffle(d) off this mortal coil” leaving behind a legacy of monstrous proportions.

By LBG

Image - Hope in the Prison Of Despair
Source – Austrian Times – Sex Slave and her three kids told cellar was booby trapped
Source - Timesonline – Austrian Engineer Josef F ‘confesses to incest and kidnap’

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