24 Years In Her Father's Captivity

Elisabeth Fritzl, at 18 years old, disappeared on August 28, 1984.

In a panic over her daughter's location, Rosemarie's mother immediately filed a missing-persons report. Elisabeth's parents were left to worry about the worst after weeks of no communication. A letter from Elisabeth then appeared out of nowhere, explaining that she had fled her family because she had grown weary of it.

She had previously spoken of joining a religious cult, so her father Josef informed the policeman who arrived to the home that while he had no clue where she would go, it was possible that she would join one.

The fact, however, was that Josef Fritzl was well aware of his daughter's whereabouts and that she was some 20 feet underneath the police officer.

Josef summoned his daughter to the family's home's basement on August 28, 1984. He required assistance transporting a door that needed to be reinstalled in the recently refurbished cellar. Josef secured the door as Elisabeth held it open. He flung it open as soon as it was on hinges, pushing Elisabeth inside and putting her to sleep with an ether-soaked cloth.

Elisabeth Fritzl would never see anything outside of the cellar's earthen walls for the subsequent 24 years. Her father would fabricate tales about her running away and joining a cult and tell them to her mother and the police.

The search for the missing Fritzl child would eventually come to a close, and soon after that, everyone would have forgotten about her.

Josef Fritzl, however, was unable to forget. And he made that extremely plain to his daughter throughout the course of the following 24 years.

Josef, according to the rest of the Fritzl family, would go downstairs to the basement every morning at nine to create drawings for the devices he sold. He occasionally would stay the night, but his wife wouldn't be concerned because her husband was a diligent worker and wholly committed to his profession.

Josef was an evil person in Elisabeth Fritzl's eyes. He would at least pay her a three-times-per-week visit in the basement. It typically happened daily.

He kept her as his prisoner for the first two years, leaving her all alone. Then he started raping her, carrying on the nightly visits he'd started when she was just 11 years old.

Elisabeth got pregnant after two years in captivity, but she miscarried at 10 weeks. But she became pregnant again two years later, and this time she carried the baby to term. Kerstin was a baby girl born in August 1988. Another kid was born two years later, a male called Stefan.

Josef delivered Kerstin and Stefan monthly rations of food and water while their mother was imprisoned, and they stayed in the cellar with her. In spite of their terrible circumstances, Elisabeth tried to provide them the most normal existence she could by teaching them and providing them with the meager education she herself had.

Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to five further children during the following 24 years. Three were brought upstairs to live with Rosemarie and Josef, while one was permitted to stay in the basement with mom and one passed very soon after birth.

However, Josef did not just raise the kids at his home.

He staged elaborate child discoveries in order to keep his activities from Rosemarie, frequently putting the kids on bushes outside the house or on the threshold.

Every time, the infant would be carefully swaddled and come with a message purportedly written by Elisabeth, explaining that she was leaving the kid with her parents for protection since she couldn't care for it.

Surprisingly, social services never questioned the kids' appearance and let the Fritzls raise them as their own. After all, the authorities believed Rosemarie and Josef to be the children's grandparents.

Josef Fritzl held his daughter hostage in his basement for an unknown amount of time. He had gotten away with it for 24 years, and the cops had no idea if he would keep doing it for another 24. However, one of the kids in the cellar got sick in 2008.

Elisabeth urged her father to let her daughter Kerstin, who is 19 years old, get medical care. Elisabeth was inconsolable because of how quickly and seriously ill she had become. Josef reluctantly consented to drive her to the hospital. He took Kerstin out of the cellar and dialed 911, claiming to have a message from Kerstin's mother outlining her medical situation.

Police questioned Kerstin for a week while also requesting any information about her relatives from the general public. As there was no family to speak of, it was only natural that no one stepped forward. Eventually, Josef's actions led the police to resume their investigation into the disappearance of Elisabeth Fritzl. As they started to read the letters Elisabeth was supposed to be leaving for the Fritzls, they saw contradictions in them.

The world may never know if Josef finally felt the strain or experienced a change of heart about his daughter's confinement, but on April 26, 2008, he finally let Elisabeth to leave the dungeon after 24 years. As soon as she arrived at the hospital to visit her daughter, medical officials called the police to report her unusual entrance.

She was arrested that evening and questioned about her daughter's condition and her father's account. Elisabeth Fritzl told the police about her 24-year incarceration after promising them she would never have to face her father again.

She revealed that she had seven children and that her father had confined her in the basement. She said that Josef Fritzl was the father of all seven of them and that he used to sneak in at night, force her to watch porn, and then rape her. She said that he had been mistreating her since she was 11 years old.

That evening, Josef Fritzl was detained by the police.

Following the arrest, Rosemarie Fritzl left the house and the kids in the cellar were also freed. She said she was unaware of the happenings right in front of her, and Josef supported her claim. Josef had blamed defective pipes and a noisy heater for any noises, so the tenants who had been in the flat on the first floor of the Fritzl residence were likewise unaware of what was happening just under them.

In a covert Austrian community known only as "Village X," Elisabeth Fritzl currently resides there under a different name. Police patrol every part of the house while CCTV is running nonstop. The family forbids interviews inside their home and refuses to participate in any outside. Although she is currently in her mid-fifties, her most recent photograph was shot when she was just 16 years old.

To keep her history secret from the public and allow her to enjoy her new life, measures were taken to disguise her new identity. However, many think they've done a better job making sure she lives forever as the girl who was taken hostage for 24 years.

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