You've probably heard of this incredibly bizarre and sad story when it broke a couple of days ago: Josef Fritzl is an Austrian man who locked his daughter Elizabeth in a cellar beneath his house for 24 years and fathered 7 children with her.
All this time, Josef's wife (and Elizabeth's mom) lives upstairs not knowing that her daughter, whom she was told ran away to join a religious cult, was held captive.
What's even more bizarre is that three of Elizabeth (and Josef's) children were allowed to live in the house (they told the wife that Elizabeth couldn't keep the kids at the cult) and lived normal lives. Three more children (1 died shortly after birth) spent all of their lives in the cellar - and had never seen daylight before the police freed them.
Josef's crime was uncovered when one of his "dungeon" child was deathly ill and had to be taken to the hospital:
Psychiatrists believe he was obsessed with power and must have been insane to have kept them incarcerated for so long and to have managed to keep it a secret.
Elisabeth is said to be white-haired, mentally and physically frail and traumatised, while Kerstin, 19, is fighting for her life. It was Kerstin's collapse that prompted the discovery of the dungeon in the basement of Fritzl's home in Amstetten.
The teenager is in critical condition and in an artifically-induced coma after suffering from cramping fits caused by lack of oxygen. Like her mother, and her siblings, she had been forced to live in the windowless cellar for years.
Because she and two of her brothers were kept there their whole lives, they had never seen sunlight until they were released. [...]
Three other children - Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12 - were adopted and brought up by Josef and his wife Rosemarie, 78.
Leopold Etz, a regional police official, says Fritzl apparently chose which of the children would live upstairs with him and his wife according to whether they were "crybabies."
Or, she might've been a nutcase, too. Whatever the case may be, I'm having a hard time conjuring up a punishment to equal the crime.
No shit?
That's what I can't wrap my head around! How can anyone be oblivious about the basement. But it maybe infact she was a participant in this or she truely didn't want to know. Either way this is just heartbreaking. I'm just glad they were found because what would have happened if that crazy guy died one day and those trapped in the dungeon had no way of knowing or how to get out!?
If they turn out anything like the child found in a similar situation in the 60s (discovered in 1970), they'll probably be mentally handicapped and incapable of joining society. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29
In my opinion, 13 years of torture - or in this case - 24 years of torture - is worse than just killing someone. Adding rape of his own daughter to the charges should get him put away forever.
Here's Genie's story - and enough to convince you to agree with me about the death penalty: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4I5mZIFxSlk
I believe she knew. She knew. She had to know. And she had to know he was abusing their daughter before this. She chose to turn a blind eye. She should be prosecuted.
I have a question.
How -- exactly -- is this... "neat" ???
This is neat-o-rama, right? The blog of neat things?
It sure seems to be devolving.
There are no words to describe the gut-churning awfulness of this whole situation.
And I don't believe it. There is no way the wife knew nothing for 24 years. That's some BIG TIME denial or she's just as evil as he is by doing nothing.
And the point of neatorama is not to be neato-o-happy-go-lucky-joy-joy. I think Alex (and all the other posters/writers/bloggers of the Neatorama community) want people to think and discuss and become aware.
You can't JUST be aware of the pleasant things.
But that's really beside the point.
I'd say what this bastard deserves beside my agreement with Persephone, but then I wouldn't be allowed on the Internet anymore.
Sadly, I'm sure there have been and are others like this in other areas of the world.
Ah, Austria: The hills are alive...
Take a moment and think.
She's a 19 year old girl, the child of icest between grand father and daughter.
Do you think she somehow escaped the predations of that evil old man?
2nd generation incest?
What was she sick with?
My guess would be a home done abortion gone wrong.
And it's horrific, and certainly not "neat."
I'm not australian