Amstetten, Austria

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Fritzl Cellar to Be Sealed Off Forever

It's being filled with concrete

(Newser) - The cellar where Josef Fritzl locked his daughter for 24 years of abuse will soon be no more. Yesterday began a two-week effort to fill it with concrete in order to prevent any future entry, says the liquidator of Fritzl's estate, Walter Anzboeck. Officials had been worried that tourists...

Fritzl Trial to Begin Under No-Fly Zone

Dungeon dad claims daughter asked him to kidnap second girl

(Newser) - One of the highest-profile trials Europe has ever seen begins Monday, when Josef Fritzl faces charges of rape, murder, incest, and slavery, the Telegraph reports. Security is incredibly tight—police have gone so far as to declare a no-fly zone over the entire town, fearing that someone will attempt to...

Imprisonment Began as Detox for Daughter: Fritzl

(Newser) - Austrian incest dad Josef Fritzl defended his imprisonment of daughter Elisabeth as necessary to stop her abuse of household chemicals, the Daily Mail reports. “She had been sniffing cleaning fluids and I decided I should talk with her in my cellar,” Fritzl said of the day in 1984...

Comic Fritzl Play Sparks Death Threats

Director insists he's mocking media, not rape and incest

(Newser) - A comic play about accused rapist Josef Fritzl is set to open in Vienna, drawing the ire—and death threats—of Austrians who are not amused, the BBC reports. Director Hubsi Kramar stressed that the largely improvised piece, co-starring victims of abuse, is a commentary on media coverage of Fritzl’...

Fritzls Return to House of Horrors to Help Cops

Mother, children were imprisoned in basement

(Newser) - Elisabeth Fritzl and her children have returned for the first time to the basement where they were imprisoned, the Daily Mail reports, helping police gather evidence for the trial against their father. Police wanted the family to show them precisely where and how they were held captive. The family has...

Police Question Dungeon Daughter
Police Question Dungeon Daughter

Police Question Dungeon Daughter

Interview conducted in secret location, videotaped for court

(Newser) - Elizabeth Fritzl won’t have to appear in court to give her account of her dungeon nightmare. Fritzl, who was imprisoned by her father for 24 years and forced to bear him seven children, was questioned in a secret location today, police announced, and will be interviewed again Monday. ...

Dungeon Girl Will Make Full Recovery: Docs

Kerstin Fritzl will develop normally, 'happy' to be with family

(Newser) - A teenager who spent her life imprisoned in an Austrian cellar will recover fully and “develop normally” after major organ failure, said doctors at the hospital where she was treated. Kerstin Fritzl was recently awoken from an induced coma and reunited with her mother and siblings, who now live...

Dungeon Girl Wakes From Coma
 Dungeon Girl Wakes From Coma 

Dungeon Girl Wakes From Coma

Reunited with freed mom after life in cellar

(Newser) - A teenager held captive her entire life in an underground dungeon with her mother and siblings has awoken from a seven-week coma, reports the Daily Telegraph. Kerstin Fritzl, 19, was reunited with her mother and other family members in a secure medical ward after flickering back to consciousness. There were...

Fritzl Family Will Get New Identities

Hounding reporters 'make them feel imprisoned again,' says attorney

(Newser) - Austrian authorities are preparing new identities for dungeon dad Josef Fritzl’s entire family, including the daughter he imprisoned in a celler, the six children Fritzl fathered with her, her six adult siblings and her mother. The family members have been hounded by lucrative offers for media interviews, the Times ...

Fritzl Daughter to Give Interview

Elisabeth, 42, said to choose Austrian TV for sitdown next Monday

(Newser) - Elisabeth Fritzl, imprisoned by her father for 24 years, will discuss life in the Austrian dungeon in a televised interview, the Daily Mail reports; the appearance on Austria's ORF TV will be broadcast next Monday. It was unclear what, if any, payment was agreed upon for the interview; paparazzi have...

Fritzl Family Paints Plea for Normalcy

'I am happy about my freedom and about my family,' writes 18-year-old Stefan

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl’s family has broken its silence, the Daily Telegraph reports, with a hand-painted sign hung in a window of their Austrian home. The family thanks the public for its support: “We hope that there will be a time when we can return to normal life,” it...

'Ghoulish Tourism' Develops in Amstetten

Incest dungeon site attracts out-of-towners

(Newser) - Tourists are flocking to Amstetten, Austria, and snapping pictures at the site where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned as a sex slave for 23 years, the Telegraph reports. "It is bad enough that journalists and TV crews have beleaguered our town, but now there is this ghoulish tourism,...

Dungeon Daughter: 'I Never Want to See My Father Again'

Elisabeth Fritzl spends first Mother's Day with 'above ground' kids

(Newser) - The Austrian woman who spent 24 years in a cellar as the sex slave of her sadistic father has said she never wants to see him again, reports the Daily Telegraph. The information was revealed as Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, spent her first Mother's Day with five of her six surviving...

Cops Plan to Quiz Fritzl's Wife Again
Cops Plan to Quiz Fritzl's
Wife Again

Cops Plan to Quiz Fritzl's Wife Again

Police don't suspect her, but wonder if she's suppressing info

(Newser) - Austrian police want another round of questioning with Josef Fritzl's 68-year-old wife, the Times of London reports. But the chief investigator in the case doesn't count Rosemarie Fritzl a suspect, and asked, “What woman would stay silent if she knew that her husband had seven children with his daughter...

Court Orders Fritzl Held 1 More Month

Will now likely face manslaughter charges in baby's death

(Newser) - An Austrian court today ordered Josef Fritzl to remain in custody for another month while the investigation continues, reports Reuters. In addition, reports the Times of London, prosecutors say Fritzl will probably now face manslaughter charges after admitting in an interview that one of the children he fathered with his...

Fritzl Blames Nazis, Says He Was Trying to Save Daughter

Didn't plan incest; gave in to taste for 'forbidden'

(Newser) - In jail-cell notes released by his lawyer, Josef Fritzl goes to bizarre lengths to defend the rape and imprisonment of his daughter, citing his Nazi upbringing for instilling “a high regard for decency and uprightness,” and a need to save the 18-year-old Elisabeth from drinking and dissipation. “...

'I Am No Monster': Fritzl
 'I Am No Monster': Fritzl 

'I Am No Monster': Fritzl

'I could have killed all of them, and no one would have known,' incest dungeon-master says

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl complained today about receiving bad press since admitting to keeping an incestuous second family locked in his Austrian cellar, the Telegraph reports. "I am no monster," Fritzl said through his lawyer, calling his treatment “unfair” and calling the media's narrative “entirely one-dimensional” because it...

Domineering, 'Perverse' Fritzl Feared at Local Brothel

'Mentally ill' dungeon dad terrified prostitutes

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl was a regular at a brothel near his Austrian town and the prostitutes there feared him and shunned him whenever they could, the Scotsman reports. His domineering, "perverse" demands terrified the women, said a bartender. Among customers "95% are normal and 3% are a bit weird....

Daughter May Sue Fritzl for Compensation

Lawyer investigates incest perpetrator's financial situation

(Newser) - Austrian incest victim Elisabeth Fritzl may sue her father for compensation, Reuters reports. "There is the possibility of claiming compensation for imprisonment and the damage that has been incurred by it," said a lawyer for Fritzl, whose father/captor reportedly is deeply in debt. "Now it is all...

Police Think Dungeon Dad Raped Granddaughter

Incest daughter Kerstin, 19, still in coma, but likely to live

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl might not have stopped at raping his daughter, Austrian police now say, fearing now that Fritzl raped granddaughter Kerstin, the oldest incest child born in his cellar dungeon, the Daily Mail reports. But police aren't able to question the 19-year-old because she is still in an induced coma,...

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