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Daughter imprisoned for 24 years

Last Modified: 28 Apr 2008
By: Sue Turton

Seventy-three-year-old Josef Fritzl admits imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. Sue Turton reports.

A retired electrical engineer, who was living an apparently unremarkable life in a small Austrian town, his neighbours were unaware of the horrors he was inflicting.

His daughter Elisabeth Fritzl and three of the children were held captive in a network of windowless, underground rooms at her parents' home.

Her father has confessed his crimes to the police, admitting that he burned the body of one child who died in infancy.

Background: timeline and key facts

A timeline of key dates and events leading up to the discovery of a daughter who had been held captive for 24 years by her father and who had given birth six times by him.
Read more

Inside the cellar

Austrian police have released the following handout provided by the Security Administration of Lower Austria. It shows the hidden bedroom at the house and hiding place, where a father imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and had seven children with her, in Amstetten, Austria (Credit: Getty)

Austrian police have released the following handout provided by the Security Administration of Lower Austria. It shows the hidden bedroom at the house and hiding place, where a father imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and had seven children with her, in Amstetten, Austria (Credit: Getty)