Cellar father to face murder charge

[awakening2lite]

5/3/08

One of the children held captive in Austria's "house of horror" is likely to die and her father, Josef Fritzl, will be charged with murder.

Kerstin Fritzl, 19, who lived her entire life as a prisoner in a cellar, suffered multiple organ failure and is in a coma from which doctors say there is little hope of recovery. Prosecutors said they would charge Fritzl with "murder by negligence".

He is also likely to face a second murder charge over the death of a baby boy who survived for three days after being born in the cellar in Amstetten in 1996.

Detectives believe that Fritzl was a serial rapist with attacks dating back 40 years.

In addition to his daughter Elisabeth, whom he kept as a sex slave for 24 years, Fritzl was jailed for raping a 24-year-old nurse at knifepoint in October 1967. A month earlier he attempted to rape a 21-year-old woman. Yesterday, a third woman said she was also raped by Fritzl in the 1960s.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1922445/Cellar-father-to-face-murder-charge.html#continue


It's getting serious now.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Yes, it's very serious.

I'd also like to see him with some charges for that child that died 3 days after being born. How dare he burn that baby in his furnace. I hope many charges arise for this POS, never to see a free day for the rest of his sorry life!

[Roamer]

I'm all for anything that will get him put away for life, not a darned 15 years.

Shows he had no compassion for anyone, to toss his own child in a furnace.

[Harmony]

I'm all for anything that will get him put away for life, not a darned 15 years.

Shows he had no compassion for anyone, to toss his own child in a furnace.

I agree, he needs to be put away for life (and throw away the key)!! I read several of the articles but did not see the information about him tossing his child in a furnace. Which article is it in?

[LiveLaughLuv]

I agree, he needs to be put away for life (and throw away the key)!! I read several of the articles but did not see the information about him tossing his child in a furnace. Which article is it in?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

There you go, Harmony.

[Harmony]

LLL thank you so much but when it opened it said 'page not found'.

[LiveLaughLuv]

LLL thank you so much but when it opened it said 'page not found'.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/27/austria.cellar.ap/index.html

Try that one, Harmony.

In 1996, she gave birth to twins but one died several days later because it was not appropriately cared for. Her father had then apparently removed the corpse from the cellar and burned it, the statement said.

[Harmony]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/27/austria.cellar.ap/index.html

Try that one, Harmony.

LLL, Thanks again! The man is a monster! http://bestsmileys.com/angry2/3.gif

[awakening2lite]

News of him being a serial rapist leads one would to thoughts that he would/should have been questioned on every local reported rape over the years and his bizarre thoughts and behavior would have been noted by local LE.

I find it difficult to believe he did not exhibit "odd" behavior in his day to day life.

[LiveLaughLuv]

Sister-in-law: Incest suspect instilled culture of fear in house

Wife of Josef Fritzl never believed him capable of alleged crimes, her sister says

Fritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say

Fritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister



AMSTETTEN, Austria (AP) -- The wife of Austria's accused "horror father" Josef Fritzl never believed her husband was involved in the 24-year disappearance of their daughter, even though he had already served an 18-month prison sentence for a 1967 rape conviction, her sister said.


Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children.

more photos » In an exclusive television interview for The Associated Press, the sister-in-law of the man accused of imprisoning his daughter in a dingy dungeon for over two decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering her seven children has provided the intimate details of the life of oppression inside the Fritzl home.

The woman, who asked only to be identified as Christine R. because of the wide attention the story has received, said incest victim Elisabeth ran away from home as a 17-year-old, about six months before police say she was locked into the soundproofed, windowless cellar beneath their apartment -- hinting at a motive for the crime.

She described the father as a "tyrant" who instilled a culture of fear at home, which helped him create an elaborate cover story that no one questioned of Elisabeth running away to join a cult and abandoning three children on their doorstep.

"When he said it was black, it was black, even when it was 10 times white," said the woman, who was interviewed Saturday evening at her home in Austria. "He tolerated no dissent. Listen, if I myself was scared of him at a family party, and I did not feel confident to say anything in any form that could possibly offend him, then you can imagine how it must have been for a woman that spent so many years with him." Watch criminal profiler discuss Fritzl's mindset »

If wife Rosemarie had challenged Fritzl, "we don't know what he would have done to her. Maybe he would have slapped her," the sister said. "In any case, he was a tyrant. What he said was good and the others had to shut up."

Christine R. also painted the most complete picture to date of her sister: a woman who against all odds fought to hold together a troubled family, yet never suspected that the cause of so much pain was in her own home.


"She never believed him capable of it," the woman said of her 68-year-old sister. "We spoke about it often when we met. And I would say, 'Rosemarie, where can Elisabeth be?' I even told her myself, she is definitely in a cult where you can only have a certain amount of children, or they don't want sick children."

But why was the cult story so easily accepted? And did Rosemarie search for her missing daughter? Such questions have puzzled this Alpine nation, which has grappled with whether Rosemarie might have had knowledge of the crime.

Police say they have no evidence that Rosemarie was complicit in her husband's alleged atrocities. They say the 73-year-old electrician confessed to the imprisonment and rape, and to incinerating the body of one of the children he had with his daughter after it died in infancy.


"Every person that looked in his eyes was fooled by him," Christine R. said of her brother-in-law.

She said Rosemarie had no idea that her daughter was locked in the basement and did for a while frantically look for her elsewhere. The sister, 12 years her junior, remembered herself searching for Elisabeth in train stations and where homeless people hang out.

"But where can you find out where these cults are?" the woman asked. "We really did detective work all around as to where the cult could be."

Christine R. said her sister devoted her life to her children -- a task that she focused on with even greater effort after her husband was jailed. "I believe he spent a year and half in prison," she said.

She did not have more information on the rape conviction.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/04/austria.incest.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview