Mr. Green Eyes
War Child
Police: DNA proves man fathered grandchildren
Austrian has confessed to holding daughter captive in cellar for 24 years
Helmut Fohringer / EPA
Austrian police are surrounded by reporters Monday as they arrive at the house in Amstetten where the alleged abuse occurred.
Austrian house of horrors
April 28: An Austrian man says he imprisoned his daughter for almost 25 years and fathered seven children with her. Dan Abrams discusses the case with former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt
AMSTETTEN, Austria - DNA tests have shown that Austrian Josef Fritzl, who had kept his daughter prisoner for 24 years and abused her sexually, was the father of her six surviving children, police said on Tuesday.
Police also said that 73-year-old Josef Fritzl did not build secret hiding places at his other properties.
Fritzl told investigators that one of the seven children died in infancy and he tossed the body in the furnace of his apartment building in the town of Amstetten, west of Vienna, authorities said.
Prosecutors said earlier Tuesday they are looking into the possibility of charging Fritzl with "murder through failure to act" in connection with that child's death.
Fritzl would face up to 20 years in prison if tried and convicted on such a charge.
Investigators were searching the 645 square feet cellar beneath the electrical engineer's two-story home, Franz Prucher, head of security in Lower Austria said.
"Down there it is just chaos at the moment. We have to go over every detail very carefully," Prucher told Reuters by telephone.
Fritzl is expected to be put in investigative custody for 14 days. After this period, a further hearing will decide whether he can continue being detained.
Lured into cellar
Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, says her father lured her into the cellar of their home in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.
Three of her children, aged 19, 18 and 5, had been locked in the cellar with her since birth and had never seen sunlight. The younger two were boys, the eldest a girl.
Three other children — two girls and one boy — were adopted and brought up by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.
Police said Fritzl had admitted to burning the body of a seventh child in a furnace used to heat the building when the baby died soon after birth.
Hospital officials also told The Associated Press Tuesday that members of the Fritzl family met each other on Sunday and that the scene was "astonishing."
'Self-satisfied society'
Authorities have been asking how events in the house, situated in a busy street with shops in the small industrial town of Amstetten, 80 miles west of Vienna, passed unnoticed for so long.
Commentator Petra Stuiber wrote in Austria's Der Standard newspaper that what she termed a rich, self-satisfied society needed to examine why it was allowed to occur.
Ghastly confession
April 28: A man in Austria reportedly confesses to holding his daughter captive for 24 years, and fathering her children. NBC's Dawna Friesen reports.
MSNBC.com
"How is it possible that nobody heard or saw anything? How can it be that nobody asked questions?" said Stuiber.
The case has shocked Austria, less than two years after an Austrian teenager, Natascha Kampusch, escaped from the basement where she had been locked up by an abductor for eight years.
Fritzl kept his daughter and three of the children in a complex which was in some places no more than 5 feet 6 inches high and contained a padded cell, according to authorities.
Photographs of the cellar show a narrow passageway leading into other rooms that included a cooking area, with children's drawings on the walls, a sleeping area and a small bathroom with a shower.
Fritzl had hidden the entrance to the cell behind shelves and only he knew the code for the concrete door.
Emergency hospital visit
The case unfolded when the 19-year-old girl became seriously ill and was taken to hospital with severe cramp caused by lack of oxygen. Doctors appealed for her mother to come forward to give details of her medical history.
Fritzl brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the cellar, telling his wife their "missing" daughter had chosen to return home, police said.
Elisabeth agreed to make a thorough statement to the police after receiving assurances she would have no further contact with her father, who she said abused her from the age of 11.
Police believe Josef's wife did not know what happened to her daughter when she disappeared in 1984.
Fritzl had said Elisabeth had joined a sect and that she had left three of the children on the doorstep. He forced Elisabeth to write letters by hand to prove his claims, said the police.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24363811/
Just really terrible.
Austrian has confessed to holding daughter captive in cellar for 24 years
Helmut Fohringer / EPA
Austrian police are surrounded by reporters Monday as they arrive at the house in Amstetten where the alleged abuse occurred.
Austrian house of horrors
April 28: An Austrian man says he imprisoned his daughter for almost 25 years and fathered seven children with her. Dan Abrams discusses the case with former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt
AMSTETTEN, Austria - DNA tests have shown that Austrian Josef Fritzl, who had kept his daughter prisoner for 24 years and abused her sexually, was the father of her six surviving children, police said on Tuesday.
Police also said that 73-year-old Josef Fritzl did not build secret hiding places at his other properties.
Fritzl told investigators that one of the seven children died in infancy and he tossed the body in the furnace of his apartment building in the town of Amstetten, west of Vienna, authorities said.
Prosecutors said earlier Tuesday they are looking into the possibility of charging Fritzl with "murder through failure to act" in connection with that child's death.
Fritzl would face up to 20 years in prison if tried and convicted on such a charge.
Investigators were searching the 645 square feet cellar beneath the electrical engineer's two-story home, Franz Prucher, head of security in Lower Austria said.
"Down there it is just chaos at the moment. We have to go over every detail very carefully," Prucher told Reuters by telephone.
Fritzl is expected to be put in investigative custody for 14 days. After this period, a further hearing will decide whether he can continue being detained.
Lured into cellar
Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, says her father lured her into the cellar of their home in 1984 and drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.
Three of her children, aged 19, 18 and 5, had been locked in the cellar with her since birth and had never seen sunlight. The younger two were boys, the eldest a girl.
Three other children — two girls and one boy — were adopted and brought up by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie.
Police said Fritzl had admitted to burning the body of a seventh child in a furnace used to heat the building when the baby died soon after birth.
Hospital officials also told The Associated Press Tuesday that members of the Fritzl family met each other on Sunday and that the scene was "astonishing."
'Self-satisfied society'
Authorities have been asking how events in the house, situated in a busy street with shops in the small industrial town of Amstetten, 80 miles west of Vienna, passed unnoticed for so long.
Commentator Petra Stuiber wrote in Austria's Der Standard newspaper that what she termed a rich, self-satisfied society needed to examine why it was allowed to occur.
Ghastly confession
April 28: A man in Austria reportedly confesses to holding his daughter captive for 24 years, and fathering her children. NBC's Dawna Friesen reports.
MSNBC.com
"How is it possible that nobody heard or saw anything? How can it be that nobody asked questions?" said Stuiber.
The case has shocked Austria, less than two years after an Austrian teenager, Natascha Kampusch, escaped from the basement where she had been locked up by an abductor for eight years.
Fritzl kept his daughter and three of the children in a complex which was in some places no more than 5 feet 6 inches high and contained a padded cell, according to authorities.
Photographs of the cellar show a narrow passageway leading into other rooms that included a cooking area, with children's drawings on the walls, a sleeping area and a small bathroom with a shower.
Fritzl had hidden the entrance to the cell behind shelves and only he knew the code for the concrete door.
Emergency hospital visit
The case unfolded when the 19-year-old girl became seriously ill and was taken to hospital with severe cramp caused by lack of oxygen. Doctors appealed for her mother to come forward to give details of her medical history.
Fritzl brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the cellar, telling his wife their "missing" daughter had chosen to return home, police said.
Elisabeth agreed to make a thorough statement to the police after receiving assurances she would have no further contact with her father, who she said abused her from the age of 11.
Police believe Josef's wife did not know what happened to her daughter when she disappeared in 1984.
Fritzl had said Elisabeth had joined a sect and that she had left three of the children on the doorstep. He forced Elisabeth to write letters by hand to prove his claims, said the police.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24363811/
Just really terrible.
I don't even know where to begin..
