Police investigating murder link with Fritzl

Police say they are investigating possible links between Austrian Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned and raped his daughter, and the unsolved murder of a young woman.

Police say Fritzl, 73, confessed to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth, sexually abusing her for years, fathering seven children with her and discarding in a furnace the body of one of the children who died in infancy.

The case started unfolding on April 19 after the eldest of the secret children, a 19-year-old woman, was found unconscious and gravely ill 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, Mr Polzer said.

Hospital officials said the 19-year-old remained in a critical condition yesterday because of the effects of lack of oxygen, and was undergoing dialysis.

Amstetten mayor Herbert Katzengrueber said that Fritzl was personable and well-liked, and that the town had honoured the suspect and his wife in 2006 on their 50th wedding anniversary.