Austria Stunned by Case of Imprisoned Woman

VIENNA: The police have found a woman missing since 1984 who told the authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him.
The 73-year-old father was taken into custody, the head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, Franz Polzer, said Sunday.

 Josef Fritzl

With his Mercedes-Benz and his fine clothes, Josef Fritzl looked every inch a property owner, neighbors in this tidy Austrian town said Monday. Even when running errands, they said, he wore a natty jacket, crisp shirt and tie.

The authorities found the woman Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, the police in Lower Austria said in a statement.
The 42-year-old woman told the 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 six children, the statement said. She said she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later; the police said they were investigating.
Father kept her prisoner, Austrian woman says
The police said in the statement that the woman appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after the authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be taken care of.
The Austria Press Agency said the three boys and three girls ranged in age from 5 to 20. One of the children, a 19-year-old woman, was being hospitalized in very serious condition, according to the Austrian broadcaster ORF.
The developments Sunday recalled another case that shocked Austrians in the summer of 2006, when a young woman escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a quiet suburb of Vienna for more than eight years.
That woman, Natascha Kampusch, was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself in front of a train hours after her dramatic escape.

how nobody noticed 24-year incest case

 Austria asked itself Tuesday how a man could imprison his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and father seven children with her without his family and neighbours noticing anything.

"One confession and 1,000 questions," titled the daily Kurier Tuesday, noting that "Josef F.'s double life still hides many secrets."

The daily Salzburger Nachrichten added: "Nobody noticed the tragedy; confession leaves many questions unanswered," reflecting concerns among Austrians that their society lacks solidarity and noting that the tragedy occurred in a small provincial town.

"Precisely there where people greet each other and exchange a few words daily, nobody noticed the horror happening nearby," it wrote.

The tabloid Heute meanwhile noted in an editorial: "What kind of country is this?" echoing reactions in the foreign media, while the daily Oesterreich called: "More moral courage!"

The daily Der Standard added: "it's especially shocking and outrageous that neighbours didn't see anything, although they now say there was "indeed always something odd' when TV cameras are running."

This latest case of abuse recalls that of Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped on her way to school in 1998, aged 10, and kept locked up in a basement near Vienna for over eight years before escaping in August 2006.

In another recent case, three young girls were locked up for seven years by their mentally ill mother near Linz, in northern Austria.

Josef Fritzl, 73, confessed Monday to imprisoning his now 42-year-old daughter Elisabeth for nearly a quarter of a century in an underground dungeon in the family home in Amstetten, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Vienna.

"He admitted ... to moving her (into the cellar) by force, hitting her, locking her up against her will and he also admitted to repeatedly abusing this young woman -- his own daughter -- sexually," chief investigator Franz Polzer told a press conference.

Police said the case had been by and large been solved, but several questions remain: how Fritzl fed his daughter and three of her children also held captive, how the babies were born and cared for in the windowless cell, and how he could have incarcerated his victims for so long without his wife knowing.

Fritzl legally adopted three of the children when they were still babies, allegedly telling local authorities and his wife Rosemarie, 69, -- with whom he had already had seven children -- that his daughter had left them on their doorstep.

The three others were kept in the basement with their mother. A seventh baby, a twin, died shortly after birth and Fritzl disposed of it in the furnace of his building, police said.

Fritzl was likely to be remanded in custody Tuesday.

He was moved Monday from Amstetten, where he was initially held for questioning, to a court in nearby St. Poelten where he was to appear in front of a custodial judge, a court official told AFP.

Fritzl still faces several days of questioning and up to 15 years in jail for rape and imprisonment, according to the press.

Meanwhile, police were continuing to search the cell in which he held his captives for so many years.

Elisabeth said she was drugged by her father in August 1984 and had been his prisoner ever since, giving birth to seven children in the "dungeon".

The case came to light Sunday after her eldest child, Kerstin, was admitted to hospital on April 19 with serious health problems.

Doctors looking for background information made a media appeal looking for the mother and Elisabeth was able to convince her father to let her out of her cellar.

Investigators released photos of the suspect Monday in the hope that witnesses who had seen him buying food and clothing for his captives, including baby food and diapers, might step forward.

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