GUILTY Austria - Woman Held Captive, Had 7 Children by Father

[shana]

Could it have been Rosemarie?

iirc, JF released Elisabeth and her 2 sons to the upstairs after Kerstin was hospitalized (when Elisabeth was preparing to go see to her eldest daughter in response to the hospital's plea). JF told another tale to Rosemarie that their long-lost and wayward daughter had finally come home with her children. Upon looking at the obviously deprived and abused children (her own and Elisabeth's, plus perhaps having seen Kerstin before she went to the hospital), maybe something finally *clicked* for Rosemarie.

I don't necessarily get the sense that she is the tipper, but it's possible.

Another possibility: Who else might have seen the victims after they were freed from the dungeon?

ETA: I've not studied any published timeline so carefully nor have I tried to put together one of my own, but just how long was Rosemarie left alone with Elisabeth's two sons? Who might Rosemarie have called to come over to see/help? It must have been horribly shocking to witness these poor children and then to try communicating with them and tending to their needs and concerns during that time span. Were the other children in the home at all during this time? Wasn't it later in the day and even into the night, when they would typically be home?

 

[JBean]

This just gets sadder and sadder;
World of fairytales hid dungeon's reality

The electrical engineer, in prison and under investigation for abducting and sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth, apparently led a parallel family existence in the cellar beneath his house. It was there that he kept three of his children — a girl, 19, and two boys 18 and 5 — under lock and key with their mother.
Details of police interviews paint a grotesque picture of his attempt to play the role of a halfway normal father. The Austrian magazine News, referring to the interviews, claimed that he would buy the three children toys and play with them while he discussed their upbringing with their mother.
According to News, Mr Fritzl told police that he took only three children to live upstairs with him and his wife, Rosemarie, because she would not have been able to take care of another child at her advanced age.

snip
On occasions he would beat the children and their mother severely if they did not behave in the way he wanted them. It is assumed that he may have used the padded room in the cellar to rape Elisabeth while the children would be locked up in a different room.
Afterwards he would reportedly then sit on the kitchen table and make his daughter prepare a meal. It was also reported that Elisabeth never told her children that they were in fact imprisoned by their father and did everything possible to create an illusion of normality. She would watch adventure films on TV and then make up stories about princesses and pirates.
Inspector Leopold Etz said that the two boys who spent their whole lives in the cellar spoke their own dialect consisting of gurgling sounds: “To say that the children speak is only a part of the truth. It is a mixture of gurgling sounds and noises. A kind of a dialect of their own.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3850761.ece

 

[Floh]

This is NOT a picture, but a representation:

What sex slave dungeon daughter looks like now after 24 years locked in a cellar

Her face haggard and her hair lank and grey, she looks at least 20 years older than her actual age of 42.

But this is the first shocking image of Elisabeth Fritzl as she is today - 24 years after she was first locked up in a dungeon by her own father.
The artist's impression shows a woman with short, bluntly cut grey hair and a heavily-lined face - all indications of the decades of trauma she has suffered at her father, Josef's, hands.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...tml?in_article_id=562937&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

 

[PolkSaladAnnie]

Thank you for that link, Floh.

15 years???!!! I agree with the Austrian Official in your link ... stating 15 years is a mockery and is 9 years less than the brutal imprisonment he subjected his daughter and these children to. When I saw the first pics of her, I thought what a pretty little Angel she once was... now haggard; It's a colossal crime of nightmarish proportions. Incomprehensible.

This ... this vile anti-God "being" should be tried by the world in The Hague on charges of terrorism and cruelty on humanity. Anything less compliments his sick, sick, SICK and *calculating* evil, despicable mind. I cannot take torture in any form. Somehow, this "thing" gives me reason to consider he deserves it.

 

[Floh]

Thank you for that link, Floh.

15 years???!!! I agree with the Austrian Official in your link ... stating 15 years is a mockery and is 9 years less than the brutal imprisonment he subjected his daughter and these children to. When I saw the first pics of her, I thought what a pretty little Angel she once was... now haggard; It's a colossal crime of nightmarish proportions. Incomprehensible.

This ... this vile anti-God "being" should be tried by the world in The Hague on charges of terrorism and cruelty on humanity. Anything less compliments his sick, sick, SICK and *calculating* evil, despicable mind. I cannot take torture in any form. Somehow, this "thing" gives me reason to consider he deserves it.

I'm hoping they can nail him for the murder they are investigating which they believe he may have had something to do with. at his age, he can truly be banged up for the rest of his life then! :furious:

 

[Floh]

Learn more about Josef Fritzl from an interview with his sister-in-law:

"If Josef was still free, I would have never dared to give this interview.
"Josef is a despot, I always hated him. I was 16 when he was locked up on rape charges and I found that crime simply disgusting, not least because he already had four children with my sister at that point.
"Josef used to work in Linz a lot at that time, and was sleeping at the home of his parents, Franz and Rosa. At night he would often go off on his bike - and then he once climbed into a woman's flat on the ground floor.
"I was only a teenager and I deeply despised him for that. In fact I had always hated him. He was born as a criminal and he will die as a criminal."

More here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...tml?in_article_id=563210&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Clearly his past sex crime should never have been wiped from record. it may have helped ferret him out and what he was capable of.

i really am still under the belief his wife really did not know what was going on in the cellar. he controlled his family both upstairs and downstairs and was able to keep everyone out of the cellar who could have blown the whistle.

or could he? did he have an accomplice? he's stopped talking. maybe someone did know about the structure? maybe after all these years that person is now dead?

 

[dottierainbow]

I believe he should be given the death penalty!

 

[golfmom]

I'm struggling as to why they can't charge kidnapping and false imprisonment for each victim in this case with the sentences to run consecutively. Even if he gets convicted of murder in relation to the baby, it sounds like the MOST he could receive is just 25 years.

 

[golfmom]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3854921.ece

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter and children captive in a windowless cellar under his house, had told his victims that they would be gassed to death if anything happened to him, investigators say.
......
But in a separate development, the officer leading the investigation, Colonel Franz Polzer, said that Mr Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter last year which indicated that he may have been planning to release her from the cellar.

Colonel Pozler said that DNA testings proves that Elisabeth had written the letter to her family - who had been told by Josef that she had fled to a cult. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home," but “it’s not possible yet".

“He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point,” the officer said.

Mr Greiner said that the police technicians were trying to work out whether Mr Fritzl had indeed installed some kind of device to pump poison gas into the cellar.

 

[HAWG]

will she and her kids ever be over this and beable to live normal lives. this is so sad. I bet they are scared to death because they have no clue of what is going on in the world. How scared they must be. They are going to needs some help and alot of love for the children.

 

[Floh]

I believe he should be given the death penalty!

Can't be done. not in The European Union.

 

[Floh]

I'm struggling as to why they can't charge kidnapping and false imprisonment for each victim in this case with the sentences to run consecutively. Even if he gets convicted of murder in relation to the baby, it sounds like the MOST he could receive is just 25 years.

I'm at a loss, too. trying to figure out laws is so complicated.

 

[dottierainbow]

Yes, It's a shame he couldn't be given death but I believe they need to change their laws. This is just horrendous!

 

[golfmom]

Can't be done. not in The European Union.

This is just one of those cases that I'm fine with him not receiving the DP. I think that he should have to live his life out LOCKED behind bars and preferably without sunlight. Perhaps, he could "enjoy" some of the other horrors he inflicted on his daughter by other inmates.

 

[Floh]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3854921.ece

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter and children captive in a windowless cellar under his house, had told his victims that they would be gassed to death if anything happened to him, investigators say.
......
But in a separate development, the officer leading the investigation, Colonel Franz Polzer, said that Mr Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter last year which indicated that he may have been planning to release her from the cellar.

Colonel Pozler said that DNA testings proves that Elisabeth had written the letter to her family - who had been told by Josef that she had fled to a cult. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home," but “it’s not possible yet".

“He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point,” the officer said.

Mr Greiner said that the police technicians were trying to work out whether Mr Fritzl had indeed installed some kind of device to pump poison gas into the cellar.

I wouldn't put him past being capable of anything. :furious:

and i expect should he have pumped gas in to kill them all he could easily have sealed the cellar permanently to make it a tomb.

 

[Floh]

Yes, It's a shame he couldn't be given death but I believe they need to change their laws. This is just horrendous!

It won't happen.

 

[dottierainbow]

How about burying him alive? Ok. I've watched too many scary movies.

This is just one of those cases that I'm fine with him not receiving the DP. I think that he should have to live his life out LOCKED behind bars and preferably without sunlight. Perhaps, he could "enjoy" some of the other horrors he inflicted on his daughter by other inmates.

 

[Floh]

will she and her kids ever be over this and beable to live normal lives. this is so sad. I bet they are scared to death because they have no clue of what is going on in the world. How scared they must be. They are going to needs some help and alot of love for the children.

I can't honestly see how any of them — including the 3 children/grandchildren who lived a relatively normal life 'upstairs' — can ever lead a normal life.

 

[Floh]

This is just one of those cases that I'm fine with him not receiving the DP. I think that he should have to live his life out LOCKED behind bars and preferably without sunlight. Perhaps, he could "enjoy" some of the other horrors he inflicted on his daughter by other inmates.

Yes, i believe he shouldn't escape through death. too easy. i hope he is under 24/7 suicide watch! :furious:

 

[concernedperson]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3854921.ece

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter and children captive in a windowless cellar under his house, had told his victims that they would be gassed to death if anything happened to him, investigators say.
......
But in a separate development, the officer leading the investigation, Colonel Franz Polzer, said that Mr Fritzl had forced Elisabeth to write a letter last year which indicated that he may have been planning to release her from the cellar.

Colonel Pozler said that DNA testings proves that Elisabeth had written the letter to her family - who had been told by Josef that she had fled to a cult. In it, she wrote that she wanted to come home," but “it’s not possible yet".

“He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point,” the officer said.

Mr Greiner said that the police technicians were trying to work out whether Mr Fritzl had indeed installed some kind of device to pump poison gas into the cellar.

From the article he tells police that he had a spring lock where they could have gotten out if he was gone for a long period of time.Somehow I believe police will find out that isn't true. If he had a device to pump gas then they need to lock him up forever but the mere threat of it had to be a huge detriment to Elisabeth and the children.