'Calm' dungeon father may face murder charge
4/29/2008 - 4:33:31 PMThe Austrian pensioner who had seven children by his captive daughter appeared before a judge today looking calm and untroubled.
Josef Fritzl ,73, who is facing charges of rape, incest and keeping his daughter and the youngsters locked in a home-made dungeon beneath his home, was remanded in custody.
Detectives said he could also face a murder charge over one of the children who apparently died soon after birth and was thrown in a furnace.
Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Fritzl was “completely calm, completely without emotion” when he was formally brought before a judge today.
Fritzl confessed yesterday to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth – now 42 – for 24 years, sexually abusing her and fathering her children Felix five, Alexander 12, Monika 14, Lisa 16, Stefan 18 and Kerstin 19.
DNA tests today confirmed Fritzl was the father of the children.
Investigators believe his wife Rosmarie, with whom he had seven other children, was unaware that the daughter she thought ran away to join a religious cult in 1984 was living as a prisoner beneath her feet.
Today they revealed that Fritzl forced Elisabeth to write several letters home during her time in the dungeon claiming that she had willingly run away but would return one day.
He used the letters to convince both his wife and police that his daughter was safe elsewhere in Austria.
A spokesman said: “You can be sure that this man left nothing undone in order to deceive everybody around him.
“He would do anything to cover up this crime.”
However they are not yet convinced that Fritzl was working alone. “Where did he get food, where did he buy clothes? These are questions we must find an answer to,” the spokesman said.
“We now have to find out what life was like in this prison, how the births came about, things like these.”
Fritzl selected three of the children, Lisa, Monika and Alexander, to live “normal” lives with him in the house because they were not “cry-babies”, police said.
He left the other three locked in the dungeon where they never saw sunlight until they were freed at the weekend.
Doctors said they had an “astonishing” reunion at the weekend when Elisabeth, her mother and most of the children met each other at a clinic where they are getting psychiatric treatment and counselling.
Clinic director Berthold Kepplinger said: “It was astonishing how easy it was.” He said the family members interacted very naturally – even though the three children who lived upstairs never met their siblings in the dungeon.
Doctors said the children were doing “relatively well”.
Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer said his client also was under psychiatric care. He refused to say if he showed any remorse.
Fritzl “is really hit by this. He is very serious, but he is emotionally broken,” Mr Mayer said.
Austria is still reeling from the 2006 case involving a girl who was kidnapped and imprisoned in a basement outside Vienna for more than eight years.
Residents in Amstetten were puzzled as to how the latest instance could go undetected for so long.
“How is it possible that no one knew anything for 24 years?” asked Anita Fabian, a teacher. “This was not possible without accomplices.”
Planning officials admitted they authorised the building of the basement in 1978.
They said inspectors examined the project in 1983 – the year before Elisabeth went missing – and nothing looked suspicious.
Police released several photos showing parts of the cramped basement cell, with a gaily decorated small bathroom and a narrow passageway leading to a tiny bedroom. Investigators said an electronic keyless-entry system apparently kept Elisabeth from escaping.
The three children who lived with the grandparents were registered with the authorities, Fritzl claimed he had found them outside their home in 1993, 1994 and 1997, at least one with a note from Elisabeth saying she could not care for the child.
Leopold Etz, a regional police official, said Fritzl apparently chose which of the children would live upstairs with him and his wife according to whether they were "cry-babies".
Officials said social workers made regular visits to the family but found nothing out of the ordinary, reporting that Fritzl’s wife was attentive, the three children were doing well in school and clubs, and that all of them played musical instruments.
The case unfolded after the eldest of the secret children, Kirsten, was found unconscious and gravely ill on April 19 and was taken to a hospital. After receiving a tip-off, police picked up Elisabeth and her father on Saturday near the hospital. Fritzl freed the captive children the same day.
Hospital officials said Kirsten remained in critical condition.
Amstetten Mayor Herbert Katzengrueber said Fritzl was well-liked, and that the town had honoured him and his wife in 2006 on their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mr Katzengrueber said he was at a loss to explain how such an atrocity could happen.
“No one can really explain it,” he said. “I am appalled and saddened that such a thing could happen in my hometown. ... These have been awful and sad days.”