Fritzl Owes Millions, Further Clouding Kids' Future

Dungeon dad Josef Fritzl is millions of euros in debt, adding to the challenge of his daughter’s recovery from years of sexual abuse and imprisonment, and the children's painful adaptation to the outside world, the Guardian reports. Now in a clinic near their old home, the family’s recuperation will take years, experts say.

There are signs that Fritz was planning to release his captives; he had forced Elisabeth to write a letter in which she said she wanted to come back, "but it's not possible yet." "He may have recognized that he couldn't keep the thing going forever," says a police official. "Or perhaps he was no longer attracted to his anaemic, ailing daughter who now looked as old as her mother," speculates the Guardian. Meanwhile, Elisabeth can’t explain her father’s actions. “My father simply chose me for himself,” she told officials. (More Josef Fritzl stories.)