Re: Dad confesses to holding daughter captive 24 years

She could.not,have been eleven in
1984
and 42 now


"tiny dancer" <tinydancer357@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:p2kRj.16535$DY1.11161@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Photo of the father at link posted below:
'House of Horrors' father confesses
AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A 73-year-old man has confessed to holding his
daughter captive in his home cellar for nearly 24 years and fathering
seven
children by her, Austrian police say.

Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN, the man, known as Mr. F.,
admitted holding his daughter hostage in a windowless cell in the basement
of his home for more than two decades.

Mr. F. also told police that one of the children he fathered with his
daughter Elisabeth F. was a twin who died.

Mr. F. also admitted he burned the body of the dead child in an oven,
according to Polzer.

Further DNA tests will now be carried out to confirm fatherhood, Polzer
said.

Elisabeth F., 42, is described as "very disturbed" and having trouble
talking to police about her ordeal, reports CNN correspondent Fred
Pleitgen.

She went missing in 1984, when she was 18 years old, police said at a news
conference Sunday.

The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a
19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized in
Amstetten
after falling unconscious, according to police.

She was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her
grandfather with a note from her biological mother requesting help.
Amstetten is a rural town about 150 km (93 miles) west of Vienna.

But police said a DNA test later revealed her grandfather, Mr. F., was
also
her father, according to ORF, Austria's state-run news agency.

That sparked a police investigation, which revealed that Mr. F. may have
fathered at least six children with his daughter, forcing her and three of
the surviving children to live in the cellar of his house, according to
ORF's Peter Schmitzberger.

The children are now between 5 and 19 years old.

Polzer told ORF that the 73-year-old led police to several hidden rooms in
his cellar accessible only by an electronic passcode that he provided to
police.

On Sunday, police searched the hidden rooms where Mr. F. admitted he kept
his daughter and their children, Polzer told ORF.

The rooms included sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom, which Mr.
F.
told police he built, Polzer said.

Conditions in the 50-60 square meters cellar were described as "very dark,
narrow and damp, " reports Pleitgen.

Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5, remained locked in the basement
with
their mother, according to police. None had seen the light of day during
their entire time in captivity, she told police.

Shocked residents of the neighborhood -- a tidy, middle-class district of
homes -- said there were no indications of the horrors taking place in the
house.

The suspect "was friendly -- that's why this is so unbelievable," said
Franz
Redl, 56, who owns a shop across the street. "I'm sure the authorities did
all they could. He planned everything so perfectly," he told The
Associated
Press.

While a woman identified as Gabriele H. told Austria's Kurier newspaper
she
thought Mr. F. was a devoted grandfather doing his best to look after his
abandoned grandchildren.

"One who looks after their grandchildren whilst their mother just ran
away.
We were all asking ourselves what kind of mother would do that to their
children?," she said.

Another local, Berhard E , who lives opposite the family, told Kurier: "I
am
appalled, this is unimaginable and simply not comprehensible."

Mr. F. and I grew up together" said Erika Manhalter who lives a few meters
away from their house. "We thought this would be a family just like
others,
but you cannot look through people," she told Kurier.

News of the cellar captivity case has also prompted much soul searching in
a
country still reeling from the 2006 case of teenager Natascha Kampusch,
who
was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna.

Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to
school in March 1998. She was held for more than eight years by Wolfgang
Priklopil, who later killed himself when Natascha escaped.

"How is it possible that no one has ever heard or seen anything?" Der
Standard newspaper asked.

"What does it say about the neighbors, relatives, family and friends, but
also those who had to deal officially with the family? How could he have
been successful keeping people fooled?"

"The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going
wrong,"
the paper said in a commentary.

Amstetten police say they apprehended Mr. F. and Elisabeth F. on Saturday
near the hospital for questioning, after receiving a "confidential tip."
Once police assured the daughter that she would never have contact with
her
father again, "she was able to tell the whole story," Schmitzberger said.

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

Mr. 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.

After she was detained Saturday, Elisabeth F. gave police a
"psychologically
and physically disturbed impression," police said in a statement.

She said her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8,
1984 -- weeks before she was reported missing -- her father enticed her
into
the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in
a
room, she told police. For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by
her father, resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according
to
the police statement.

She also told police she gave birth to twins in 1996, but one of the
babies
died a few days later as a result of neglect, and Mr. F. removed the
infant's body and burned it.

She told police that only her father supplied her and her children with
food
and clothing, and that she did not think his wife knew anything about
their
situation.

When Kerstin fell ill earlier this month, Mr. F. apparently told his wife
and the hospital that his "missing" daughter had dropped off the sick girl
on his doorstep.

In an effort to find out what might be ailing 19-year-old Kerstin, the
hospital asked the media to put out a bulletin requesting any information
about the girl or her missing mother, attorney general Gerhard Sedlacek
told
NTV.

Sometime later, Mr. F. brought Elisabeth F. out of the cellar, telling his
wife that she had returned home with her two children after a 24-year
absence, police said.

He took Elisabeth F. to the hospital to talk with doctors about Kerstin's
condition, and at that point, authorities became aware of her situation,
Sedlacek said.




http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/28/austria.cellar/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail



Photos of the cellar:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdI0YfeJ78M9DHXK6YF71fjFnJCwD90AS0I00








.

Relevant Pages

  • Dad confesses to holding daughter captive 24 years
    ... Photo of the father at link posted below: ... daughter captive in his home cellar for nearly 24 years and fathering seven ... Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN, the man, known as Mr. F., ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Re: Babies Bodies Found In Coolers; Man Charged/
    ... his teenage daughter faces charges of killing at least one after human ... daughter allegedly began when she was 13, ... the teenage daughter told police he had ... at home by the father and his wife. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • AU- Pumpkins sister vanished five years ago
    ... THE father of dumped toddler Pumpkin had another daughter who vanished five ... Fu Father last year. ... police in Auckland said yesterday that the couple's ... Xue - was abducted. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • AUS Father and daughter in murder suicide
    ... Father and daughter in murder suicide ... A father and his teenage daughter have been found dead in their home in ... Sydney's north west in what police believe is a murder suicide. ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Girl locked in secret cellar for 24 years by her FATHER - who fathered her seven children
    ... Girl locked in secret cellar for 24 years by her FATHER - who fathered her seven ... An Austrian police spokesman said this morning that Josef Fritzl has admitted ... Elisabeth Fritzl then a teenager before her ordeal began, and Monika, 14, ...
    (soc.culture.malaysia)
Loading