Creepy Stories of Maniac Parents Who Kept Their Children Incarcerated

The heroines of the following terrifying stories spent many years in captivity, held by their own parents. Although all the victims survived and were eventually freed, the decades they spent in confinement forever changed their lives.

In 1901, the French police received an anonymous letter that read as follows: "Monsieur General Prosecutor, I inform you of an exceptionally serious situation. I speak of an old maid who is locked up in the house of Madame Monnier. The woman lives in starvation and sleeps on rotten straw for the past 25 years among her own filth." The letter shocked the police, and they promptly arrived at the specified house. What they discovered there was astonishing. This is a real photo of the unfortunate woman who had been locked in a dark room for 25 years. The police tried to open the window shutters in the victim's room, but they were so tightly sealed that they had to be broken open with a crowbar. As soon as sunlight illuminated the room, the police saw 50-year-old Mademoiselle Blanche Monnier lying on a filthy, rotten bed. The poor woman lay completely naked on a decayed straw mattress, surrounded by a crust of excrement and fragments of decaying food. The stench was so overwhelming that the police had to leave the room several times to continue their investigation. Meanwhile, her 75-year-old mother sat calmly in the living room.

Twenty-five years before these events, young Blanche Monnier had fallen in love with a poor man of much lower status than her own family. Although more affluent men sought her hand, she always refused them. Her family, belonging to the upper middle class, discovered her unsuitable relationship and decided to end it by locking Blanche in a tiny room. When the police found Blanche locked in the dark room, she weighed only 24 kilograms and had not seen the sun for a quarter of a century. The day after her release, Blanche's mother was arrested but was placed in a prison infirmary due to her poor health, where she died 15 days later. Blanche's brother Marcel initially received a 15-month prison sentence but was later acquitted on appeal because he had not physically harmed her.

Despite gaining some weight after her release, Blanche Monnier never recovered her mental health. Upon learning that her lover had died 15 years prior, her mental state deteriorated further. Blanche never recovered from the severe trauma and died in a psychiatric clinic 13 years after her rescue.

The next story is considered one of the most horrific examples of child abuse in modern history. On November 4, 1970, a strange woman approached the social welfare office in Temple City, California. The nearly blind woman claimed her daughter needed medical help. The girl beside her made a haunting impression—she moved awkwardly, shuffling her feet and clutching her hands to her chest. She couldn't speak, drooled uncontrollably, hissed, and spat whenever anyone tried to touch her. She appeared to be around six or seven years old, but her mother stated that she had turned 13 in April of that year. The story of the 13-year-old feral child quickly gained global attention. Her real name remains unknown, and doctors referred to her as "Genie."

Genie was born to Irene Oglesby and Clark Gray Wiley and was the fourth child in the family. Tragically, the family's two older children died under grim circumstances. The first child, who had colic that irritated Clark, was locked in a desk drawer in the garage for extended periods, ultimately dying from pneumonia. The second child also died in infancy by choking on its own saliva. Clark prohibited the family from speaking even in whispers and frequently took his anger out on the third child, John, who eventually fled and never returned.

When Genie turned one, a pediatrician diagnosed her with potential developmental delays. Clark decided to isolate his daughter entirely, locking her in a room on the second floor. During the day, he tied her to a child's potty chair, preventing her from moving. At night, she was confined to a makeshift cage made of wire, resembling a dog kennel. Clark communicated with Genie by barking and growling, and if she attempted to cry out, he would beat her severely. Genie spent almost 13 years in these conditions, never seeing anyone other than her insane father and never learning to speak or use the toilet.

After 12 years, Genie's mother overcame her fear, took her daughter, and brought her to a hospital. The police were horrified by the room's condition—furnished only with a homemade cage and a chair with straps. Clark Wiley was charged but committed suicide, leaving a note that read, "You will never understand."

After her rescue, Genie underwent years of rehabilitation. At the time of her admittance to care, her intellectual development was akin to that of a one-year-old. However, she gradually learned to speak a few simple words and mastered sign language. Despite never fully learning English, Genie attended a special school for children with disabilities. Now nearly 60 years old, she lives without want and occasionally visits her older brother John, who had escaped the abusive household.

The next horrifying story took place in Austria in the quiet town of Amstetten. The world learned about Elisabeth Fritzl in 2008 when she managed to escape from the basement where her father had imprisoned her. Austrian electrician Josef Fritzl kept his daughter captive for 24 years. In 1984, when Elisabeth tried to run away from home, he locked her in a bunker he had built in the basement. Fritzl declared her missing but later claimed he had received a letter from her stating she had joined a religious sect and was living independently. Authorities ceased the search.

How could a father do this to his daughter? People who knew him described him as inherently cruel. It also came to light that he had been imprisoned in the mid-1960s for rape. Besides Elisabeth, the Fritzl family had seven other children. Shockingly, Fritzl's prison for his daughter was right in their basement, behind a door hidden by a shelf in his workshop. Over the years, Elisabeth bore seven children from her father. Three of them never left the basement: Kerstin, who lived there for 19 years, Stefan for 17 years, and Felix for 5 years. One child died shortly after birth, but Fritzl could not take him to the hospital. The other children were taken out of the basement as infants and integrated into the family upstairs. Somehow, he convinced neighbors and social services that Elisabeth had abandoned them.

In 2008, Elisabeth's eldest daughter Kerstin became seriously ill. Elisabeth insisted on medical attention for her. Doctors diagnosed severe kidney failure and demanded Kerstin's medical records and her mother's presence. Fritzl produced a letter supposedly from Elisabeth, stating she had chosen to remain in the sect and was not concerned about Kerstin. The letter aroused suspicion. Under pressure, Fritzl brought Elisabeth to the hospital and was immediately arrested. Elisabeth revealed the 24-year-long ordeal after being assured she would not return to her father. Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment in a facility for the criminally insane.

Since her release, Elisabeth has stayed out of the public eye and has not given any interviews. She and her children live in another town under a different name, trying to rebuild their lives.