What was he found guilty of - and what was his sentence?įritzl was jailed for life in 2009 after he was convicted of rape, incest, enslavement and negligent homicide. When they questioned the now 42-year-old, she revealed she had been held captive for more than two decades. In the week following, Fritzl released Elisabeth from the cellar and the police were alerted to her reappearance. In 2008, Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter Kirsten became critically ill.Īfter Fritzl took her to hospital, police issued an appeal for Elisabeth to come forward. They were raised by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie. While three of the children were kept in the cellar, three others "appeared" near the house with notes purportedly from Elisabeth, saying she could not care for them. He forced his daughter to write letters supporting the story. He asked for his 18-year-old daughter's help to hang the final door - then held an ether-soaked cloth to her mouth and locked her in the cellar.Įlisabeth had run away before, and while her mother filed a missing person report, Fritzl's story that she had run away to join a cult was easily believed. How did he capture his daughter - and keep it secret?įritzl started building the cellar stretching below the house and garden years before he took Elisabeth into captivity. Image: The house where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter locked in a cellar. He also told his captives they would be electrocuted if they tried to get through the cellar door. He beat Elisabeth and forced her to recreate acts from pornographic videos - sometimes in front of her children.įritzl punished Elisabeth and her children by switching off the power for days at a time. One died days after birth and the other three were taken upstairs to be raised in the house.įritzl incinerated the body of the baby who died and was later charged with negligent homicide for failing to get medical help for the infant. Three of their children were kept in captivity with their mother. In the cellar, he started raping her - sometimes several times a day. He had sexually abused her from when she was 11. Trapped underground and enslaved, she was raped thousands of times by her own father and gave birth to seven of his children. On August 28, 1984, Josef called in Elisabeth who was 18 at the time, thinking they needed help installing a newly renovated cellar door but instead knocked her unconscious with an ether-soaked towel, before lying to both Elisabeth’s mother and police that she was running away and had joined a cult. She had spent those years locked in the cellar below the Fritzl family home in Amstetten, Austria.įritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth locked in a cellar from when she was 18 until she reached the age of 42. Josef Fritzl's notoriety began in 2008 when his daughter reappeared 24 years after she went missing.
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