VIENNA, Austria -- Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to seven children after being repeatedly raped by him.

The 73-year-old father was taken into custody, Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, told reporters Sunday.

Authorities found the woman Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, Lower Austria police said in a statement.

The 42-year-old woman told police that her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984.

During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused and gave birth to seven children, one of whom died several days later.

Police said in the statement the woman appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be taken care of.

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OMG! that is beyond horrible! What she lived through!

That was awful. How can such a thing happen? So are the children all right?

how does somebody go missing and no authorities or family members at least question the father? i feel like that woulda have been standard procedure...
that's absolutely terrible. things like that really make you appreciate your own life huh...

omg what an ordeal for anyone to go through !

Oh man, that is horrible and so disgusting! Poor woman.

horrible story...It doesn't say much about her children, but I'm assuming the father also kept them locked up...I can't imagine the p
physcological problems that these people have to face...One pedophile father ruining all these lives...



o.k...I'm going to answer my own question here I just read on CNN that a few of the children were allowed out of the house with the grandfather/father saying he was caring for them while his daughter was away..Two had never been outside the cellar...the 19 year old daughter was hospitalized, and had a note from the biological mother asking for help...That's how they came to find out about this disgusting excuse of a human being.....I don't care if he's 17 or 74, take his "mr. happy" and tie it in a knot.......

Josef F. lived upstairs with his wife, Rosemarie F., who police said had no idea about her husband's other family living in the cellar.

Josef F. and Rosemarie F. had adopted three of the children that he had with his daughter, according to police. He told his wife that his missing daughter had dropped the unwanted children off at the house because she could not take care of them, police said.

And her mother knew nothing about it? How could she keep believing the story about her daughter dropping all these kids off with the father? That poor daughter.

I thought the same, they were under her nose for 24 years in the same house?? how could she not know? One of the children is 18 years old and has never been outside of the basement.

They've got a photo of him on the BBC website, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7371043.stm

I agree with Goalie, chop it off I say.

i just heard this, this is so sick and sad, what is this world coming too...

Yuck. That is just sick and disgusting. Can't even begin to imagine the horrors those people have been forced to go through. Unbelievable something like this can happen. I just can't understand how someone develops a twisted mind like that. I think this might as well have been posted in the world events -section because of the magnitude of the news...I mean, I don't remember ever hearing anything this awful when it comes to incest.

Well, I am assuming that at 18, she was old enough to leave the house, and he wasn't going to let his sex toy go, so he hid her. Now, IF her mom really didn't know that she was down there, could you imagine the guilt she would feel after thinking the daughter ran away all those years ago, and here she was down there where the mom could have saved her? Those poor kids. What kind of a life are they going to have now?

My thoughts exactly... IF...
We had a simlar 'dungeon' type thing here in Syracuse a few years back. It didn't involve incest but the guy did this right under his sick wife's nose.

I just read a new article on CNN, and it said that it was his wife, and not the daughter's mom. That would be a blow. You marry a guy and then find out he's an incestuous freak. EEEEWWWWW, that poor,poor woman. He hurt so many people, he should just be buried and done with it.

OK, I just found on another site "According to the police statement, Elisabeth said that she and her children got food and clothing only from her father -- and that her mother had not been involved. " more

So, it was her mom, and the old perv had a few other kids with his wife, those poor kids knowing they had other siblings that were also their nieces and nephews.

My heart just breaks for her, and those babies! I can't even begin to imagine what it was like all those years spent as a slave in a basement! Not to mention how she and those children will cope now, and in the future! This is going to be a battle every single day for the rest of her life to heal!

I'm actually surprised that he didn't go after his grand-daughters, too. He is one sick, twisted bugger. They should lock him up in a room with no windows and have him live like his children did.

Dang ... horrible horrible Leaves me speechless

One of the saddest and most repulsive stories I've ever heard. It simply overwhelms me with disgust and sorrow. I wonder if the victims will ever be able to recover from such depravity? I doubt it. To me, having that first hand knowledge about how evil humanity can be would make it almost impossible to make it through the day.

When I read a story like this I thank the Eternal for my normal, loving family and friends.

(" They should lock him up in a room with no windows and have him live like his children did.")

hopefully prison will take care of that- he needs a little *snip where the sun dont shine too!

OMG!!!! That is awful. I mean think of what the kids now are going to have to go through...there grandfather is their dad and after they figure out what he did and fully grasp the horror.... Also you have to be reminded of the fact that a lot has changed since 1984 there are so much more things she is going to have to get use too

No doubt. She missed so much in life, that is so horrible. And then the oldest daughter is so sick...gee, do you think it's because her dad is also her grand-dad? That poor, poor girl.

I can't believe the man's own wife remained ignorant of this.

the test results are in:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_...aptive_daughter

What a horrible man and the wife too she's trying to play it off as if she did not know about her in the basement. YEA RIGHT! YOUR RAISING 3 of the children where the hell did you think they came from.....remember she has joined a cult back in 1984. Lier. Both she be locked up in a dark room for the rest of their life and when they die or get to sick throw them in the furnace just like he did to the baby that died.

What is really disturbing, is that on the news this morning, they said he is expected to get 15 years in jail. 15!!!!
HE locks his own daughter up for 24 years, repeatedly rapes her, and only gets 15 years!!!
I personally think he should be castrated, then locked in a cell with a group of men who will do the same to him as he did to his daughter, for at LEAST 24 years. But, that is just my opinion.

That's it? Although, considering his age, that may be were he spends his last days...

Also, if he did this to his own daughter, what would stop him from abusing his other grand/children?

Exactly. Sick, sick man. And I am still wondering about the mom, maybe she just turned a blind eye. It said in one report that the father told his wife and other children that the basement was off limits, wouldn't that make you wonder why you weren't allowed downstairs? That woudl have been a glaring red flag for me, and I would have been checking it out if I was the wife.

From the BBC: He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of raping his daughter, among other offences.

Officials are also considering charges of "murder through failure to act" which carries a longer sentence, in connection with the death of one of the seven children he fathered.

This perv is going to get off pretty lightly here, I can just see it. He'll be out in a few years, given an new identity and live the rest of his life like happy Larry. I hope I'm wrong and justice is done for his daughter. Blimey, all of a sudden that case a couple of weeks ago of the Australian dad marrying his daughter looks tame in comparison, what sick times we're living in.

Also, how many other people are being held captive right now, this has been the second high profile Austrian case in the last two years.

Well, the DNA came out and it matched...This isn't looked to highly on in jail, so I'm figuring some guy named "Bubba" will drop the soap and tell him to pick it up...After that it's anyone's call....After I read what he did to that poor baby, I'm kind of hoping his death will be slow and painful........

I believe that man will have retribution in the afterlife.

Well, we can sure hope so. He caused so much pain to his whole family just for his own sick pleasure.

Austrian police are investigating whether the unsolved killing of a young woman in 1986 is connected to a man who confessed this week to holding his daughter captive in his basement for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

The body of 17-year-old Martina Posch was discovered near a vacation property owned by Josef Fritzl's wife 10 days after the teen disappeared in 1986. Upper Austrian police Chief Alois Lissl said there were no concrete links in the case, but police are checking whether Fritzl had an alibi.

Posch's body is reportedly being exhumed so DNA tests can be conducted, according to freelance journalist David Hill, who named Fritzl as the main suspect in the unsolved case. Authorities did not confirm the report.

Meanwhile, more details have emerged about the three children taken from the basement cell in Amstetten, west of Vienna, where police say Elisabeth Fritzl was kept hostage and repeatedly raped since her disappearance in 1984 at age 18.

DNA test results released Tuesday confirmed that her father also fathered her seven children.

The three children kept in captivity, now aged 19, 18 and 5, had never left the tiny, cramped cellar where they were born, according to authorities.

"They've all got a very hunched-over posture from being kept in a very low-ceilinged room," Hill told CBC News on Wednesday.

"They're suffering from really a bad vitamin D deficiency, so they have an albino appearance — their hair is white, as is their skin."

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This wouldn't surprise me. I wouldn't doubt that there were other victims, otherwise why else would they have checked out his other properties to see if there were other cellars with people in them?

that's just so sad.

I don't buy the wife saying she didn't know, have you seen the size of the place? How could you not know that you've got a kitchen/dungeon/bathroom holding goodness knows how many people.

I know, I just can't get my head around that either. But, it makes me wonder that if this man could do this to his daughter, what would he do to his wife behind closed doors? We never know, his wife just might have been an abuse victim, too. Otherwise, if my husband told me that I wasn't allowed down in the basement, you can bet your ass that I would be investigating why.

Police quickly ruled out the possibility that Rosemarie Fritzl had any knowledge of her husband's activities after details of his horrific crimes emerged.

WHY?

I find it hard to believe that no one , no neighbours, family member or acquaintance noticed anything after 24 yrs.

I smell a cover-up(?)

Yeah, it just doesn't make sense. Something just doesn't add up there. But, they have just started the investigation, so we may find out a lot more soon.

Somehow i don't think so gb, not the whole truth anyway. As you say they only just started the investigation yet, Police clearly state; That ''Fritzl's wife did not know what happen to her daughter since 1984''??? Yep, and i came down in the last rain fall.

Only a forced trip to the hospital raised suspicions & exposed the whole scam after 24 yrs. (maybe he & the mrs got careless in their old age idk?) This sick slime is also pretty rich & high up in society, also kinda makes ya wonder...(hmmm)


later.

You know what scares me the most? That people are capable of this. Every single one of us is capable of committing such atrocities. Don't get me wrong. I HIGHLY doubt anyone in this entire forum would ever do anything a fraction of this, but to know people are capable of such things leaves a sick feeling in my stomach...

Yeah, very true. Just bullcrap, the whole situation.

UPDATE:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=455609

Stuff like this is just sick and so wrong on many levels. This guy really needs to suffer. The poor woman and the
kids, mentally and physically terrorized . This makes my blood boil . I pray that justice is served !

This is quite interesting, apparently they had a three story home with a basement. The perv and his wife lived on the top floor with the children then the two floors below them were rented out to tenants.

In this article, one of the tenants says that he heard knocking coming from the basement, but he didn't check it out. This might explain why the wife didn't know, only if it were a property of most people, they would know what's in the basement. Also, even if she was being abused by her husband, if she knew and didn't do anything, that's even worse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7376101.stm

I know! It's not like he took some stranger off the street, this was his own little girl that he did this to. I just can't understand any man doing this to his baby. I just appreciate my own father more and more when I read things like this.

They say the wife lived on the third floor, so I would have to believe that hearing anything in the basement would be hard...I have a 3 story townhouse, actually 4 counting the basement and when I'm on the top floor I can hardly hear anything two floors lower. This man had a keen, sick mind...He also used a falsetto voice to call his wife, talking like the daughter, and told her that the baby was left on the front porch....Sick, perverted, no emotion, and if it hadn't been for the daughter being hospitalized he would have continued...

AMSTETTEN, Austria (Reuters) - An Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter in a cellar and fathered her seven children pretended to be the young woman in a phone call to his wife in 1994, a police official said on Thursday.

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At the time, Elisabeth Fritzl had been locked in the windowless cellar of her parents' house for 10 years, without her mother's knowledge.


Faking his daughter's voice, Josef Fritzl called his wife and asked her to look after Elisabeth's baby who had been left on the doorstep.


"Rosemarie Fritzl made a report about it at Amstetten police station in 1994. This report was passed on to the prosecutors' office," Reinhard Nosofsky, regional police department official, told Reuters.


"She could not explain the call and had not recorded it. We now know it was Fritzl."


The prosecutors' office, which is responsible for missing and abandoned children, tried to get in touch with Elisabeth, who is now 42.


"They had no reason to search the house or to think she was in the cellar," Nosofsky said.


He pointed out authorities also had a letter from Elisabeth asking her parents to look after her baby and not to look for her. Police now know Fritzl forced her to write the letter.

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He covered every angle.

I think its all faked. I dont believe a word of any of it...well maybe the father having relations with the daughter. But locked up in a basement for 24 years? NO way! i dont believe it!

He faked his daughters voice to her mother, his wife - no way, what a load of rubbish.

I just read this on the BBC:

A lodger at the Austrian house where a father allegedly imprisoned and abused his daughter says he saw another man go to the cellar where the abuse happened.

Alfred Dubanovsky told the BBC the man was introduced as a plumber.

His claim contradicts those of investigators who say the father, Josef Fritzl, had no accomplice.

But, I read in another article that an investigator had said that there was no way he had done this on his own, that he had to have help because of the weight of the door that kept the daughter in. How many times have they uncovered a ring of pedophiles or other sickos by discovering one victim? I still think there will be more uncovered yet.

AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- Police probing the case of a man who held his daughter captive underground for 24 years are investigating whether he set up a mechanism to gas the inhabitants of the cellar dungeon where he kept a secret family imprisoned.


Josef Fritzl admits raping his daughter and fathering her seven children.

1 of 2more photos » Federal Bureau of Investigations spokesman Helmut Greiner said Josef Fritzl, 73, had made the claim during initial police questioning, The Associated Press reported.

Police say Fritzl confessed to keeping his daughter Elisabeth in his basement for 24 years, repeatedly raping her and fathering her seven children -- six of whom survived, three living underground with their mother.

Fritzl is alleged to have threatened to gas his prisoners if they harmed him or tried to escape, AP says.

Meanwhile, Fritzl's sister-in-law revealed further details Thursday about the secret double life of the man whose exploits have stunned Austria. In an interview with the Oesterreich newspaper, she said Fritzl had often spent entire days and nights in the cellar.

"Every day at nine in the morning Joseph would go into the cellar. He said he was drawing engineering plans that he would sell to companies," the woman -- identified as Christine R, the sister of Fritzl's wife -- said.

"Often he would stay there all night" and his wife was not even allowed to bring him coffee, she added.

Austrian authorities said the imprisoned children, who for years had not seen the light of day, were slowly adapting to sunlight. Officials also debunked reports in a few British newspapers that some of the children could not walk or speak in sentences.

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I agree. There seems to be more twists and turns to this story with each passing day.
I get physically ill at the mere thought of how callous some people can be to others.

So true, I wonder what we are going to find out next?