Inside the horrific secret chamber where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter | 60 Minutes Australia

you have to shake your head in disbelief how on earth can these things happen and in this particular case how could he possibly get away with it for so long it's just unthinkable a father who kept his daughter locked away in a secret chamber for 24 years the poor girl was just 18 when the horror began and over the years she had seven children one died three were kept prisoner down in the cellar and unbelievably the others were adopted by the father and lived openly upstairs as his grandchildren no wonder the family stories stunned the world and I must add a warning what follows contains strong adult themes in the very early hours of the morning about a month ago an ambulance drove up this road bringing a seriously ill young woman to the small Hospital in amstead in the town not too far from Vienna she looked like a ghost she was seriously ill her only relative a mysterious grandfather [Music] first of all that didn't know what to do with her and so they said we have to find the mother very urgently locating the mother have now become absolutely essential and after a few days a woman named Elizabeth came forward and slowly revealed details of a story so horrifying it would shock the world what Elizabeth Fritzl revealed was that her father Yosef had kept her locked in a cellar for 24 years and here she gave birth to seven of his children including the daughter now on life-support in hospital I thought I cannot believe it this can't be true this can't be true it's a monstrous case because it's the own father who did this to his daughter to his own flesh and blood and this is where that monstrous crime happened 40 Eva Strasse am Steadman a place that now ranks with the world's worst crime scenes it comes as a real surprise to discover that this house of horrors is on a very busy very normal suburban street shoppers and neighbors absolutely everywhere and yet for 24 years no one suspected the appalling crimes that were going on in there I mean this is a normal family and the neighbors we sing oh such a nice man such a nice woman and they were so nice with their grandchildren and then you find out something like that Austrian journalist and commentator Petrus Tiber has been following the case closely and she's ashamed that it could happen in her country I'm very angry I'm angry with it because I cannot believe that anyone can do this to a woman and I think this says a lot about our society because no one didn't really want to go deeper and to look into the case and to ask some questions certainly no one questioned Josef Fritzl an electrical engineer he and his wife Rosemarie were well respected in this town in truth Fritzl was a convicted rapist who'd spent time in jail he was a cunning meticulous man who planned his crime years in advance became known near darkness that's Perez Nance another doctor we now believe he planned his own personal empire as early as 1978 and to start a relationship with his pretty daughter Elizabeth in the cellar chief investigator Franz Paul's er is in charge of this case and with his help we can show you for the first time Fritzl 'he's hidden hellhole the seller is reached through one two three eight locked doors alone to the final hidden entrance to Elizabeth's prison beyond that Fritzl had purpose-built a prison with a kitchen a bathroom a living area and beyond that too badly it was cramped dark and ELLs academe I went to see this dungeon this prison for myself once when I went through it and I was very glad to be able to leave in asking Conti this clean mind is not the environment in this room where the ceilings were very low around 6 foot at the highest point the environment was anything but Pleasant because everyday living personal hygiene and so on must have kept the level of humidity high Josef Fritzl and Rosemarie had seven children five girls and two boys Elizabeth was the fourth child and one day back in 1984 she simply disappeared for at least that's what her father led everyone to believe well he was very persuasive and he he convinced everyone that his daughter did ran away because she was very difficult and even if she was a child she was a difficult child for the first four years Elizabeth was alone except when her father came down and raped her over the next 20 years she had seven of his children all born in the cellar Michael died soon after birth and was incinerated by Fritzl at the house bizarrely of the six remaining children three were chosen to live upstairs the others Felix now five Stefan 18 and Kirsten 19 were condemned to life in the dungeon and it was down here that Elizabeth tried to give them as normal a life as possible they were well raised very educated and very polite so that's really very amazing yeah dr. Krystof Herbst elizabeth whistles lawyer was stunned by how well she and the children coped read reading writing mathematics and these things she had some books she asked to her father to bring her books and and and some learning materials swellings the stuff and then she tried to educate her children I think they had two or three hours per day they had just to learn something Yosef Fritzl has never explained why he chose only three of the children to live upstairs each was taken from Elizabeth shortly after birth and placed on the front doorstep Fritzl told his wife that their runaway daughter had simply dump them in the dead of night with a note wouldn't you think with all of this going on that Rosemarie the mother would start asking questions maybe she feared about the answers do you think she knew we still do not know what his wife really knew she took him three babies one after another and accepted them yes what do you think she was she was so suppressed that she didn't she didn't raise questions she didn't dare to raise questions and she accepted everything for years and years with his upstairs family totally submissive and his secret downstairs family locked away a super confident Fritzl went on a string of holidays like this sleazy sex tour of Thailand who looked after the family in the basement who looked after the prisoners downstairs in the basement nobody looked after them because he was he was a very good Lucas Nick thinker and he planned everything he had he had some rooms where they could store milk and bread and all the things you need even vegetables and yes they were fine for three weeks that was okay [Music] there was one thing that Fritzl couldn't control when one of the kids in the dungeon got seriously ill he had to do something and that brings us back to this hospital where things started to unravel it was a few weeks ago the eldest of the cellar kids 19 year old Kirsten became seriously ill and remarkably Fritzl agreed to call an ambulance their first time ever outside doctors were immediately suspicious the young girl was as white as a sheet from severe vitamin D deficiency a total lack of sunlight police were baffled who was she where was her mother back in the basement Elizabeth finally stood up to her father demanding to go and see Kirsten and again remarkably he agreed what do you think the Elizabeth said to Fritzl I mean what what do you think she said to convince him III think she said you will be guilty of murder or something like that and she was she must have been outrageous and in a very very precarious state of mind so I think I think he feared that everything could explode downstairs in fact the whole situation had become so explosive that Yosef Fritzl knew he had to move very fast to prevent 25 years of lies and deception from blowing up in his own face so astonishingly he went down to the dungeon basement and brought up Elizabeth and the two remaining imprisoned children to meet the family upstairs and the way he sold it Elizabeth had come home of course she was so concerned about her daughter in hospital at the hospital police began questioning Elizabeth at first they suspected her of being an abusive mother but finally 24 years of horror came bursting out first of all they didn't believe her because it was so it was kind of such an such an amazing story and and it was like like a really bad thriller or something like the effects because she must have said to them he's kept me in a dungeon for 24 years he's raped me several times I bore him seven children one died after birth and the young police men or women who heard this what do you think I said to themselves I think they needed psychological help themselves because you cannot bear something like that you cannot listen to something like that and not be touched in a very very deep way what motivates a man like this most men who fall into this pattern of offending have I think two things they have a corrupted lust and a desire an urge for possessive control dr. Paul Brittain one of Europe's leading forensic psychologists believes Fritzl planned the imprisonment of his daughter when she was very young men who offend against their children their daughters they don't begin when she's a young woman of 18 they begin when she is a child they blame her for arousing in them illicit feelings so what they're able to do what they're able to push away from themselves responsibility and they put it on to someone else but what you really have is a straightforward predatory lust [Music] for the survivors of 40 EB straße the sad irony is that after all those years locked in the cellar they're now locked away in a psychiatric hospital under heavy guard Elizabeth's lawyer dr. Herbst had just visited when we spoke to him she's 42 she's been living in a dungeon since the age of 18 how does she know she looks like it normal woman she has a very she's very very white face she was a very right to face absolutely very pallid face of course because she hasn't had no sunshine or something like that but she looks completely normal just as you would expect it from someone else who is 43 years old dr. herb says it's heartbreaking to see them still confined in doors the kids can't wait to get out I mean they haven't walked in the rain they haven't stood in the Sun I haven't swum in a river though a small boy said I've never experienced rain on my skin so I would like to experience that he didn't see a thunderstorm so they've never walked on the grass and they've never smoked trout never never from his jail cell Josef Fritzl at 73 years old is said to be so deluded that he can't see what he's done is wrong it's not knowing yet whether he'll end up in a normal prison or a psychiatric ward either way it's now this monster who's facing the rest of his days locked away he was an evil man wasn't he and most people who I've come across in these circumstances one point or another would wish to argue I'm not well I must be mentally ill but at the bottom of it there is a perverse sexual drive and the intention the need is to bend everyone else as an object not as a person but as an object to use in this world and so that bad hello I'm Liz haze thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusives 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 4,227,033

Rating: 4.7844124 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, peter harvey, josef, josef fritzl, secret chamber, secret bunker, inside bunker underground bunker, austria, kidnapping, daughter, mystery, daughter kept in secret chamber, escape, escape from secret cellar, secrets from the cellar, kidnapper, father kidnaps daughter, horrific crime, Elisabeth Fritzl, captive, fritzl case

Id: mSS53HuIQGs

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Man looks like a jojo villain

[u/jaccio213]

Yes! I was gonna suggest him too. I remember this guy. I was stationed in Germany when he got busted and wanted to drive down to Austria and check out his house because I'm a weirdo but never did it. This guy is fuct.