Dark Case : Fritzl

As one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, you might imagine Austria as a peaceful place with very minimal crime rates. Perhaps there is a point too, because when this case came to light in 2008, the people there were shaken by the horror of this case. No one can imagine a father raping and locking up his biological daughter for years without anyone knowing. Since the case was revealed, his father's name is Josef Fritzl.

How did this shocking case start? The Fritzl family living in Amstetten, Austria is known to be an inconspicuous family. Josef, the head of the family, has a wife named Rosemarie and has two sons and five daughters. But behind the tightly closed door, their household keeps a dark secret. Josef, as a father, has been abusing one of his daughters, Elisabeth, since he was 11 years old.

At the age of 15, after completing her basic education, Elisabeth ran away from home. She hid at a friend's house in Vienna and worked as a waitress. Unfortunately, the police found her and returned her to the father. On August 28, 1984, Josef asked his daughter (then 18 years old) to install a door in the basement. She had no idea that the door she had installed was actually the last part of the prison her father had designed for her.

It was the last time Elisabeth smelled the air of freedom and she had to wait more than two decades before she finally saw the outside world again.

For the next 24 years, Josef visited his daughter who was locked in the basement almost every day to rape her. During that time, she gave birth to seven children. She also gave birth to twins, but unfortunately one of them died after birth. Cruelly, Josef burned the bodies of his children / grandchildren in the fireplace to destroy evidence.

The three children born from this illicit relationship were later taken care of by Josef and his wife. How to? It turned out that Josef had planned this well by pretending to find the three babies at his door accompanied by a letter written by Elisabeth containing a message that they should take care of him. In this way, Rosemarie, as Elisabeth's mother, was not at all suspicious and looked after her three grandchildren.

Unfortunately, the other kids weren't that lucky. The other three children, remain locked in the basement with their mother. Now that her three children have to stay, Elisabeth begs her father to widen her cage which only measures 35 cubic meters. Josef certainly agreed, but by forcing Elisabeth and her children to dig a dungeon with their own hands for years. In a small room, Elisabeth patiently taught her children to read and write. However, the existence of these children was not always a blessing for her. Not infrequently, Josef raped Elisabeth in front of her own children.

Most tragically, the house that the Fritzl family lived in was actually an apartment rented out to an outsider. Over the past 24 years, more than 100 people have occupied rooms on family-owned land. Often, tenants in the house hear voices from the basement. However, Josef argues that the noise only came from a broken pipe.

Finally, the moment he had been waiting for arrived. All of Josef's crimes were exposed when on April 19, 2008, the man was forced to take one of his daughters / grandchildren to the hospital after she collapsed due to kidney failure. Elisabeth helped him carry her daughter upstairs and it was then, for the first time in 24 years, that she saw the light return. Her son was taken by ambulance to the hospital where there, doctors treating her were suspicious. Hospital staff then contacted the police and suspicion led to the reopening of Elisabeth Fritzl's disappearance. They brought a letter Elisabeth wrote to an expert, in which she stated that it was strange and that it seemed the author was forced to write the letter.

The climax was when the police met Josef, who was in the hospital at that time and lucky, this time Elisabeth went with him to the hospital.

The police also interrogated Elisabeth, but like the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was held captive for years, she didn't confess right away. Of course the reason is because she is afraid of his father and there are still two children in the ground. However, after being promised by the police that from then on Elisabeth would never see her father again, she opened her voice. Her confession began with the words: No one will believe my story.

And during the next two hours, Elisabeth explained in detail what suffering she had experienced during those 24 years. That same night, Josef, now 73 years old, was arrested by the authorities. Rosemarie, the mother, admits that for more than two decades, she never knew that her child was being held under her feet.

When the police investigated the Fritzl family underground, they found that there were 8 locked steel doors (some weighing 300-500 kg) that had to be passed to reach the room where Elisabeth and her children were being held. This is the reason why for more than 20 years, Elisabeth and her children have never been able to escape. When rescued, Elisabeth's three children who were locked up on the ground were adults. Some are 20 years old, some are 18 years old, and the smallest is still 6 years old. Three children who had never seen the outside world, even during those decades, must have experienced deep trauma. Even the boy, unable to stand up straight and walk normally because he was locked up on the ground as high as 1.6 meters, even though he was 1.7 meters high. The three children who are more fortunate are cared for by their grandparents upstairs and their grandmother does not escape the trauma of knowing their mother and siblings have been locked up and suffering under their feet.

But what is the reason Josef Fritz has the heart to behave so cruelly, even to his own flesh and blood? Judging from his past, it turns out that this behavior is not the first. In 1967 he raped a nurse after breaking into his home and threatening him with a knife. He also tried to rape another woman aged 21 years. He also spent a year in prison for his actions.

Surprisingly, Josef did not regret his actions at all, even denying that what he had done to his daughter was based on "consensual". Even Josef also argued that he was kind enough to feed them every day, bring gifts of flowers and toys, and equip their prison with small kitchen, fridge, television, radio and cassette player. However, Josef seemed to have forgotten to mention that when he was angry with them, he would often turn off the lights in the basement and leave them starving for days without food or light.

When asked what Josef's reasons were for kidnapping and detaining his own daughter, Josef replied that he felt that Elisabeth was no longer following all his rules when she was growing up and that she just wanted to protect her daughter from the bad influences of the outside world.

Returning to the original question, what prompted Josef to go beyond the limits of humanity like that? The answer may lie in his past. When a psychiatrist examines his mental state, he states that all of Josef's evil sides stem from past trauma due to his mother's strict upbringing. Josef always described his mother as a demon and claimed that her mother used to torture him, humiliate him, and beat him until he lies in a pool of his own blood on the floor. His mother also never showed the slightest affection for little Josef because he only considered Josef as an alibi.

What is an alibi child? It turns out that Josef's mother only gave birth to him as proof to her husband that she wasn't barren, but in her heart, she never really wanted children. Even when World War II broke out, the mother purposely left little Josef helpless when their town was bombed to escape to a safe bunker. For this reason, psychiatrists diagnosed adult Josef as having severe combined personality disorders, including borderline, schizotypal, and schizoid personalities and of course sexual disorders because he had sex with his own daughter.

Then how did the story of this beautiful woman end? Elisabeth is now living with her children and trying to start a new, peaceful life. Elisabeth also started to feel her true love when she finally wanted to open her heart and feel in love with Thomas, the man who had been her bodyguard after she was released.

What about the father? Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life and this time it was his turn to be locked up in a prison in Austria. There, he was forced to change his name because his reputation as an immoral father got him beaten by several inmates there. And when I read his last interview that said he didn't want to live anymore because of his life in prison.