A normal home from the outside, something is hiding behind its walls, as the chilling crimes of Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter as a sex captive in a dungeon.
The cellar in the 'house of horrors' sends a shiver down the spine as it was here, beneath 40 Ybbsstrasse in Austria that Fritzl dragged his terrified daughter Elisabeth, then 18, into the dungeon lair that would be her prison for 24 years.
He would drug and beat her into submission so she did not try to escape and she gave birth to seven of his children during 8,642 days in captivity. He had told his wife and police that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult.
The case finally emerged in 2008 when Elisabeth told police during a trip to hospital, in the town of Amstetten, that she had been held captive by her father. The woman, along with three of the seven children she had with Fritzl, were finally freed from their brutal life of captivity.
Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix were aged 19, 18 and five when they were freed in April 2008. Their fellow incest siblings Lisa, Monika, and Alexander, then 16, 14, and 12, had been granted freedom by Fritzl to live "upstairs" with his wife Rosemarie.
Skiers in Austria make the most of the little snow left as slopes melt
Sex monster Josef Fritzl (Getty Images)To the citizens of Amstetten, 70 miles from the Austrian capital of Vienna, Fritzl was a dedicated, hard-working grandfather. He covered his tracks by telling police Elisabeth had run away to a sect on August 29, 1984 – the day he drugged her and dragged her to his dungeon prison – and only returned to drop the three children as babies on his doorstep.
Elisabeth was held in the basement (MDM)The "horror house" is in a town that is home to 23,000 residents. It was bought by landlord couple Herbert and Ingrid Houska from Fritzl's bankruptcy estate and the couple renovated it. They said: "All nine apartments are rented out. There are young people among them who have no connection to the Fritzl case."
The entrance to the hidden room at the house (Getty Images)
A bathroom in the hidden room (Getty Images)They bought the property in 2016 to provide a new start for the local community. The basement dungeon where Fritzl held his daughter captive and raped her for 24 years has been filled with concrete, but the stairs and a single room remain. The landlord couple had the garage entrance, through which the Austrian discreetly provided for his captives, bricked up.
Fritzl kept his daughter captive for 24 years (MDM)Of the seven children born from the repeated abuse of his daughter, three remained in captivity with their mother and one died shortly after birth.
The basement dungeon has been filled with concrete (MDM)The remainder were brought up by Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie after he claimed they had appeared on his doorstep. The identities of the victim and her children are now protected.
Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to rape, false imprisonment, manslaughter by negligence, and incest in March 2009.
An undated photo of Elisabeth Fritzl (US PRESS/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock)Fritzl has now been granted conditional release from a prison for the mentally ill today following appeal. The 88-year-old was snapped in a car as he arrived at Landesgericht District Court at 7.20am UK time for a hearing - the first time he's been seen outside prison for 15 years.
The local community has tried to move on from Fritzl's crimes (MDM)It comes after he was allegedly seen visiting local cafes near Stein Prison in Krems an der Donau, Austria. He is set to be moved to a regular prison before he is eligible for release in March - though the decision is not yet legally binding.
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