Josef Fritzl

On August 20th, 1984, when she was 18-years-old, Elisabeth disappeared.  Josef told everyone that she ran off to join a religious cult.  He created proof that she was gone of her own volition by producing letters from Elisabeth saying that it was useless to try and search for her, and that she was very happy.  She wrote that she wouldn’t be coming home.  Over the course of her imprisonment, Josef would have her write multiple letters which he dictated, and then he would drive far away so he could mail them and they would be postmarked from different places.

However, throughout all this Elisabeth was really his prisoner in his bunker.  Josef said that he knew Elisabeth didn’t want this and knew that what he was doing was hurting her, but the “urge to finally taste the forbidden fruit was too strong.”  One night, he tricked her to come down to the cellar and help him fix a door. Then he drugged her with an ether soaked rag, dragged her underground, and chained her to a wall.  He would later say that his reason for doing this was to protect her from “persons of questionable moral standards.”  Elisabeth would spend the next 4 years alone in the dungeon with her only visitor being her father who would come down to rape her every few days, but otherwise wouldn’t really talk to her.

In the beginning, he kept her wrists chained together or kept her chained to the bed so she could barely move, but after about 9 months, he stopped chaining her because that was getting in his way when he would rape her.  Over 100 tenants would come and go from the rented rooms in the next 2 decades.  None reported hearing anything more than some knocking, which Josef explained as the new broiler he’d recently installed.  The only other reporting was that a tenant’s dog was preoccupied with the floor and would frequently bark and snarl at it or just stare at it.  

It was only with hindsight that the tenants really began to realize that they had been having parties and living their lives directly above Elisabeth and her children.  They said that they were not allowed in the cellar, yard, or garden and were not permitted to take any pictures.  Josef even told them that if they messed with the cellar door, they would get electrocuted and die.

Meanwhile, above ground, no one was looking for Elisabeth really.  They had no reason to believe that she hadn’t run off to live with a cult.  Then on her 19th birthday, the searching really ceased because Austrian law says that at 19, a person is allowed to go anywhere they want so they were no longer allowed to search for her.

After 4 years of being alone and forced to participate in her father’s twisted sexual fantasies, in 1988 when Elisabeth was 22-years-old, she gave birth to a baby girl named, Kerstin.  She did this alone (no medical treatment, no midwife, nothing)…with only a pair of dirty scissors and a 1960s book about childbirth provided by her father…in a cellar…where she was held by her father…who was also the father of the baby.  

It was thought that Elisabeth may have kind of given up fighting when she found out she was pregnant.

She would go on to give birth to 7 of her father’s children:

Kerstin (19-years-old when they were released), Stefan a year later (18-years-old), Felix (5) and, Michael (who died about 3 days after birth) were all confined to this dungeon with Elisabeth.

However, Lisa (15), Monika (14), and Alexander (12) were spared that fate.  Instead, they were dropped off on the doorstep for Rosemarie (and Josef) to raise with a note from Elisabeth each time saying that she couldn’t care for them.  To this day we’re not sure why he picked these 3 middle kids for living upstairs but could have been as simple as overcrowding.  Each baby that was abandoned on the doorstep came with a letter that was very detailed about the child’s care up to the point of abandonment and inquired about the previous child/children.

Lisa was left on the doorstep in 1992.  In 1994, when Monika was 9.5 months old, she was left with a note that said, “I’m really sorry I have to turn to you again.  I hope Lisa is doing well.”  It informed the Fritzls that Monika had been breastfed for 7.5 months and now she eats anything, but she likes bottles the best, but you have to make the hole in the nipple a little bigger.  She was the second baby abandoned and this piqued the interest of the Austrian press.  Social Services and neighbors all believed Josef’s tale and they all thought Elisabeth must be a terrible mother.

Alex was dropped off in 1996 and Josef called his best friend, Paul to complain about these babies that Elisabeth kept abandoning with them.  In actuality, Alex had been born with his twin brother, Michael in 1996.  But when Michael died after 3 days and Elisabeth said that Josef burned the body in the furnace or incinerator and spread his ashes in the garden.

Since Lisa was dropped off in 1992, Social Services made over 20 visits to the Fritzl house and saw nothing that made them concerned.  By this time, Josef’s 1967 rape conviction had been erased from the record.  Social Services was actually impressed by the fact that the kids were receiving such great care from Rosemarie.  They were doing well in school, they were involved in the community, and were by all accounts “normal” kids.  The elderly couple raising their abandoned grandchildren were receiving sympathy from everyone and looked at like they were heroes.

They adopted Lisa but kept the other 2 as foster children because the state provides funding for foster kids.  They would receive about 397-410 € (Euros) per child per month (depending on the child’s age).  So, Josef is getting financial aid from the government for the children that he helped create by raping his daughter that he has been keeping locked in an underground bunker. 

To add another twisty element to Josef’s evilness, the decor in the rooms for the children upstairs was mirrored in the decor of the underground dungeon.  He would also celebrate holidays with both of his families.  The cellar/dungeon kids knew about the upstairs family, because Josef would frequently bring down home videos for them to watch.  Elisabeth tried to make the best of a nightmarish situation and tried to give the kids a sense of structure and normality.  Her lawyer would say that Elisabeth had lessons for the kids and taught them grammar, reading, math, writing.  He said that they were polite and educated.

During the time that Elisabeth and the kids were trapped underground, Josef’s life continued unhindered.  In 1998, he went on a 4-week long trip to Thailand where he would visit brothels and have tons of sexcapades as well as massages on the beach in his speedo and shopping for clothes that were obviously too small for Rosemarie.  Paul said that once Josef was shopping and saw him filming, he yelled at him to shut off the camera.  Then told him the dress was for his new girlfriend. 

Once the truth came to light, people thought that he may have had an accomplice for the times he was away.  However, Josef was a meticulous planner and had most likely organized things underground so well with stockpiles of food.  Plus there was an electric stove and kitchen things as well as laundry.  Theoretically, they could live down there for extended periods without him coming down.  Also, DNA samples were taken all over the dungeon, but the only DNA was from Josef and his captives.

In order to keep his secrets, Josef would go shopping for his underground family out of town, so he wouldn’t be spotted buying things in bulk or things that might seem strange to buy casually.  Then he would take things underground under the cover of night.  And Rosemarie had no idea throughout all of this apparently.  Josef said in a statement that the more time that went by, he knew judgment would get harsher and harsher so there was no way he could reveal the truth.  Unfortunately, Kerstin’s illness would take the decision out of his hands.  Kerstin began going in and out of consciousness and having seizures.  Elisabeth begged him to take her up to a doctor and once he agreed, his web of lies came unraveled.

After Kerstin’s April 19th trip to the ER and Elisabeth’s April 26th reappearance and talk with the police…on April 27th, the police went into the cellar where she had lived for the past 24 years.

According to police witnesses, the cellar was kind of like a “rabbit warren” with a series of 8 locked doors before you finally get to the living area.  Behind the last door, there was a bookshelf that was actually a secret passageway to the small, windowless, 2 bedroom/1bathroom dungeon with 6-foot ceilings where Elisabeth had lived, been raped, given birth to 7 of her father’s children alone, watched one baby die and 3 be taken from her before finally seeing freedom after 8,516 days of imprisonment.

Josef had created a natural barricade above ground with shrubs and gardens.  His neighbors weren’t home often, and they weren’t close (in proximity or relationship) anyway.  Neighbors said that Josef and his family never came to the garden parties that happened in the neighborhood and eventually they quit inviting him.

After they were all freed, Elisabeth and the rest of the family spent time in a psychiatric hospital learning how to live normal lives.  Elisabeth and the 3 children that had been “abandoned” had lived in the outside world, but Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix had never even seen daylight.

Elisabeth’s lawyer, Christopher Hurbst, said that they all acted like a typical family.  The children from the dungeon were able to speak normally, walk normally, and generally looked “normal.”

It was said that the first picture of the family could be worth at least a million dollars so the family was, once again, captive.  They were not allowed to leave the hospital or even walk the grounds for fear they would be bombarded by the paparazzi.  Elisabeth told of the struggles in her underground prison where she sometimes had to catch rats bare-handed and water poured down the walls.  In the summer, it became a sauna.  She said that her father would often punish her by cutting the power for days, so she had to just live in complete darkness.

Josef was also in prison 40 miles away awaiting his trial.  He showed little to no remorse for his actions and simply said that he’s “very sorry for his family, but it cannot be undone.”  He hated that there was media coverage and that he was called a monster.  He dictated a statement to his lawyer where he disputed the claim that he was a monster by saying he was “kind to [his] family.  I could have killed them, but didn’t.”

In trying to figure out how Josef was able to get away with this for all these years, people accused the police of incompetence and in fact, the statute of limitations that wiped Josef’s record clean after ten years became such an issue that Parliament worked to change.

In one of Josef’s interviews with a forensic psychologist, he said that he is “not a man who would molest children.  It only started later.  Much later.  When she was already underneath.”  The psychologist said that incest can come from the person feeling like they have the right to do this because that child “belongs” to them.  They are able to convince themselves that they aren’t doing the child any harm, and you are the most competent person to do this because you know them best. 

On March 16, 2009, Josef Fritzl appeared in court hiding behind a 3-ring binder he was using to shield his face.  He was facing charges of rape, incest, false imprisonment, slavery, coercion, deprivation of liberty, and murder for baby Michael.  Josef denied that his imprisonment of Elisabeth was anything but the act of a “devoted father” according to his attorney.  His defense was that he was just trying to rescue his misbehaving daughter by locking her away from the bad influences.

Elisabeth, now 52 or 53,  and the kids were given new identities, but the tabloids found them.  They are said to be living in an incredibly secure home and neighborhood with 24 hour CCTV coverage and none of them have the name Fritzl anymore.

Josef was put in prison for life and even other prisoners won’t associate with him. 

In March of 2016, Josef was punched in the face by another inmate and lost several teeth.

In 2017, he paid 545.60 € (euros) to change his last name to Mayrhoff.

In March of 2019, the Daily Mail reported that, at 84, Josef Fritzl is suffering from dementia and is slowly dying.  The site also reported that the dungeon of horrors was filled in by the Austrian authorities to prevent other perverts from worshipping it as a shrine.

There is an Austrian proverb that says, “If it’s not your business, don’t get involved.”   They mind their own business to respect the privacy of others, no matter the cost apparently.