Secrets in the Cellar (18 page)

A New Start

On Wednesday, June 11, dozens of television crews from all over the world crowded into a small hotel dining room in Zeillern, a seven-minute drive from Amstetten. They had been summoned to a press conference, where Dr. Albert Reiter would announce Kerstin Fritzl’s miraculous recovery.

“These first moments were the end of a very long ordeal and the start of a long road,” said an obviously emotional Dr. Reiter, in a cracking voice.

Describing Kerstin’s dramatic recovery as “a miracle,” he recounted how she had first opened her eyes on May 15, and went on to describe her stunning progress, leading to the reunion with her family two weeks later.

“It was an extraordinary moment for me last Sunday,” said the doctor, “when Kerstin, holding my arm, and I were able to walk through the door into a new home, crossing the threshold into a new life. Certainly for all of us, our Kerstin’s good recovery has been a major relief.”

Asked what had caused Kerstin’s sickness, Dr. Reiter said he was still uncertain, but it could have been an epileptic seizure.

“We’ve so far been unable to ascertain the definite cause of organ failure,” he said. “But it’s probable that a small [untreated] inflammation triggered the failure of one of her major organs.”

He said Kerstin’s lungs appeared to have failed after she’d suffered an epileptic fit and bitten her tongue, leading to blood getting into her lungs.

Then, responding to a reporter’s question about any requests Kerstin had made, Dr. Reiter said that after the breathing tube had been removed, she’d asked to go to a Robbie Williams concert.

“Now of course, it’s very important that her condition will stabilize further. And further therapeutic steps are already being planned, certainly in the area of immune system strength.”

Finally, he thanked hospital staff who had thwarted the paparazzi by smuggling Elisabeth past them to her daughter’s bedside each day. He also thanked the catering department for brewing him all the cups of strong coffee he’d needed to function.

But on a more serious note, Dr. Reiter refused to discuss fears that Kerstin may have been sexually abused by her father, observing that medical examinations conducted while she was in intensive care had been inconclusive on the matter.

In June, the Fritzl family moved into a spacious villa, well hidden within the grounds of the Amstetten-Mauer clinic, embarking on the next step in the long healing process. Over the last few days, removal vans had quietly arrived at their new home, unloading seven beds, a lounge suite, a refrigerator, microwave, washing machine and toys.

Doctors hoped that by taking them away from a hospital atmosphere, they would be able to lead a more normal life. It would be that family’s first home together, after spending more than two months at the clinic.

The secret move was also made to evade the press. The private security force patrolling the grounds of the clinic around the clock was disbanded also, saving the Amstetten council thousands of dollars a day.

Family life soon settled into an easy routine. Each morning Rosemarie and Elisabeth got up early to prepare breakfast, helped by the clinic staff.

After breakfast, Kirsten received physiotherapy while Felix played Chinese checkers and other board games with his doting grandmother. In another room, the four older children had classes with their respective tutors. Stefan, who had been taught basic mathematics and German grammar by his mother, surprised his teacher with how advanced he was under the circumstances.

After lunch, the family rested or had free time to do what they wanted. Stefan had exchanged the aquarium for computer games, tutored by his younger brother Alexander. And the two cellar brothers loved walking through the local botanical gardens, looking at nature, still wearing sunglasses to protect their eyes from harmful UV rays.

Most days Elisabeth’s sister Gabrielle and other relatives came to visit, often bringing their children along.

“She has children of a similar age,” said Christoph Herbst, “and the clinic becomes a madhouse while the children play together.”

But in early June, the whole family gathered at night in front of their widescreen television, to watch Euro 2008 soccer—or football, as it’s called in Europe. The excited children cheered so loudly for their favorite teams that Elisabeth had to keep them in order.

On Monday, June 16, they all watched Austria’s crucial game against Germany in Vienna. The children were upset when the Austrian team was knocked out of the championships, losing 1–0 to Germany, who went on to win Euro 2008.

“Football is one thing they are watching together,” said attorney Herbst, “as they are slowly prepared for a ‘normal life’ in freedom.”

One afternoon, Rosemarie Fritzl quietly slipped out of the Mauer clinic to drive to Ybbsstrasse 40, accompanied by a plainclothes female police officer. It was the first time she had been back to her house since her husband’s dungeon had been exposed, and she had been granted police permission to enter, necessary because it was still officially a crime scene.

Dressed in a pale blue blouse and beige slacks, she arrived with the officer in a battered red VW Golf car. Police, on twenty-four-hour guard outside, opened the garden gates for them to drive through. Then, as she walked up to the front door, a group of laughing tourists took her photograph, which would appear in an Austrian newspaper the next morning.

“She had to drive past tourists, laughing and posing in front of the ‘House of Horror,’ ” said a British photographer who witnessed the scene. “It must have been terrible for her. She hurried inside and didn’t look back at all.”

During her forty-minute visit, she ventured into her husband’s notorious cellar for the first time ever, collecting some of Felix’s favorite toys and Kerstin’s clothes. Then she went upstairs to her old apartment, emerging a few minutes later with two suitcases and a large bag of clothes belonging to Elisabeth and the children, as well as other personal items they’d requested to brighten up their new home.

“It was mentally quite tough for Rosemarie to go back in the house,” said a hospital source. “It has become something of a symbol of evil for her. She is, mentally speaking, shattered by the revelations of what happened to her daughter and the charade that her husband acted out for over two decades.”

In late June, Elisabeth Fritzl’s psychiatrists told prosecutors that she was “too unwell” to make her scheduled court statement in early July. They ruled that she was too traumatized to give evidence from the clinic, even via a video link to St. Polten prison.

Earlier, Elisabeth had asked to give her statement as soon as possible to speed up the legal process. Although her doctors would be there to ensure she was not overwhelmed, the chilling prospect of facing her father, who would be able to challenge her evidence and question her, was proving too much.

Her mother Rosemarie was also due to give evidence at the same hearing, and Kerstin, Stefan and Felix at a later date.

St. Polten’s court spokesman Franz Cutka told reporters that the crucial hearing had been put on hold indefinitely, until Elisabeth’s doctors deemed her fit enough.

“A video recording of it will be shown at the main trial,” he explained. “So the victim will not be required to appear in person to give evidence.”

He said preparations for Josef Fritzl’s trial were running at “full speed,” and Judge Andrea Humer, 48, had been appointed to preside over it. One of her first tasks would be to supervise the taking of Elisabeth’s statement.

“We should be able to finalize the charges [in] the early stages by November,” said Gerhard Sedlacek, of the prosecutor’s office, “with a trial now in the winter months.”

After reports surfaced in the Austrian media about Elisabeth’s setback, her attorney Christoph Herbst threatened “judicial steps” against the police and her doctors if they continued to provide information to the media. She now had engaged a second lawyer, Eva Plaz, to protect the family from media intrusion.

In a letter to the authorities, Elisabeth wrote:

I require that no data or discussions about what took place in the cellar [is] passed onto any media. It must be the task of the state to prevent exposing that which the Fritzls endured. I want to live in freedom with my children.

A few days later, Austrian newspapers reported that Josef Fritzl had already started writing his memoirs from his cell, looking to make millions to finance his defense. Elisabeth was said to be “appalled” by the prospect of her father selling his version of the lurid events to the highest bidder.

“It’s been bad enough with all the leaks from doctors and police about Elisabeth,” said attorney Plaz, “but that her father, who caused all her suffering, means to cash in on her ordeal is sickening.”

At the beginning of July, Christa Goetzinger composed a moving tribute song called “24 Years,” for her old Amstetten school friend. It was written in the Schlager style that she and Elisabeth had so loved as children.

“24 years”

You were a little girl in a small town,
a girl, with many dreams and wishes
but your fate has chosen someone else
when he took you to the dungeon, at the age of 18.

24 years without love, without luck,
Elisabeth, who’s gonna give you back those years?
24 years without light and sunshine
Elisabeth, how long are you gonna stay alone?

Locked like an animal and no way out,
the dungeon was right beneath your parents’ house.
Why this particular place, that’s obvious
because your father was your tormentor.

24 years without love, without luck,
Elisabeth, who’s gonna give you back those years?
24 years without light and sunshine
Elisabeth, how long are you gonna stay alone?

Your new life starts right now, forget the dark past,
we wish you all a lot of luck and bliss,
your look is now focused on the future,
everything will be fine,
we know that you are strong,
just don’t lose your courage.

24 years without love, without luck,
Elisabeth, who’s gonna give you back those years?
Over, the time without luck and love
Elisabeth, go and get your years back.

“Some people think it should be more hip-hop or more modern,” said Christa. “But I wanted to reflect the kind of music we used to share.”

And she recorded it with Amstetten-based musician Ighino Veselsky, for a CD to raise money for the family.

Since reading about her best friend’s ordeal in the newspapers, Christa, who is now married, had desperately tried to make contact with her old friend. After reading that the family would be adopting new identities, she feared losing contact forever.

So she sent a copy of the CD to the Mauer clinic, along with a letter to Elisabeth.

A few weeks later, Christa received a legal letter from attorney Herbst, ordering her to immediately take the CD off the market, handing over any donations she had received.

“I am very disappointed and I do not understand it,” she said. “I thought the legal letter was a bit over the top, but at the end of the day, Elisabeth’s well-being is all that counts.”

On Friday, July 4, Lisa Fritzl secretly left the clinic, to spend four days “incognito” with 4,000 other children, at the annual youth fire brigade camp. For the first time in almost three months, the 15-year-old was reunited with her school friends she had missed so much.

Local Fire Chief Armin Blutsch told the
Kurier
newspaper in a story headlined, “A Big Step Towards a Normal Life,” that she had masked her identity with a false name, and there had been no problems. The paper also reported that other family members had recently made day trips outside the clinic in disguise to go swimming and rambling, and even take a trip to the cinema.

“Fortunately everything is going well,” said family lawyer Christoph Herbst, adding that all family members were devoting some time each day to personally answering the hundreds of letters received from well-wishers, from as far away as Australia and China.

Elisabeth Speaks

On Friday, July 11, Elisabeth Fritzl was driven to a secret location to begin three days of filming a video deposition against her father, covering every torturous aspect of her twenty-four-year imprisonment. A doctor and a psychologist would sit with her in a small room, to help her through her ordeal.

Defender Rudolf Mayer and state prosecutor Christine Burkheiser sat in an adjoining room, watching her testimony over a closed-circuit television monitor. They were both able to question her using a microphone. Defendant Josef Fritzl had waived his right to attend his daughter’s questioning, remaining in his prison cell.

Judge Andrea Humer, who would be questioning Elisabeth, gave the go-ahead only after doctors told her that Elisabeth was now “in relatively good health,” and able to testify.

In “excruciating” detail, she recounted how her father had begun raping her when she was 11, giving more details than she had the night police had first brought her in for questioning.

She described how her father had tricked her into the dungeon, raping her repeatedly for three days while she was handcuffed to a pole.

She also revealed how her father made her watch pornographic movies, then forced her to reenact his favorite parts. And if she ever refused to let him have his way with her, he would punish her and the children by turning off the lights for long periods, and stop bringing in food.

“He was very brutal against me,” Elisabeth reportedly told Judge Humer. “And when I did not agree to have sex, then the kids would suffer. We knew he would kick us or be bad to us.”

She accused her father of constantly bullying and belittling her and the children, viciously punishing them if they ever dared to answer back.

“It was his kind of communication to use rough words,” Elisabeth explained. “He would be insulting against [us]. When he was at the table and we were eating and someone was holding the knife wrongly, or did not want to eat, there would be verbal abuse.

“When he said such words against the kids, they ducked and tried to get out of his way. He would say, ‘Shut up and get away from me.’ And if that wasn’t enough he would become even more abusive.”

She told the judge how he refused to even allow the children to develop their own personalities.

“When they were small,” she said, “it wasn’t such a problem. But as they grew bigger . . . it was more of a problem. He did not like it. He would not allow the kids to have their own will.”

Elisabeth also explained how she tried to make the children’s daily lives as normal as possible, under the horrific conditions.

“When he went away,” she said, “we led our own lives. When he was here it was all silence. We just tried to survive. He was just all-powerful.”

Her father would constantly threaten to let them all rot in the cellar, saying that without him they had no chance of survival.

“He said he could close the door whenever he wanted,” she said, “and then we would see how [long] we survived.”

Then Judge Humer asked if she had taken his threats seriously.

“Yes,” sobbed Elisabeth.

Perhaps most damning of all, she reiterated her assertion that her father was directly responsible for 3-day-old Michael’s 1997 death, through neglect, a claim prosecutors hoped would bring a murder charge.

“He is the killer of my son,” Elisabeth testified.

Also present, listening carefully to her testimony, was a neonatologist (an expert in baby deaths), hired by the prosecution to render an expert opinion as to whether the unhealthy dungeon conditions had caused Michael’s death.

“If it emerges that Fritzl was aware that the child was severely ill,” said prosecution spokesman Gerhard Sedlacek, “and he did nothing to get medical help, that would be a case of murder under negligence, and he would be charged accordingly.”

Two weeks after Elisabeth’s testimony, Kerstin and Stefan both refused to testify against their father. This was a major setback for prosecutors, who needed their testimony to shore up the murder case against Fritzl.

“It is not clear when or if the two adult children will be questioned,” Sedlacek told reporters. “It now appears possible that they could use their right not to make any statements.”

Prior to Elisabeth’s video deposition, prosecutors had considered the two cellar children’s testimony crucial for their case against him, for Fritzl now faced a manslaughter charge, in addition to rape, abuse, incarceration and incest. But without any forensic evidence, prosecutors believed the first two charges would be difficult to prove. And unlike the American legal system, Austrian law does not allow cumulative sentences, meaning he could receive just one sentence and be a free man in ten years.

But after Elisabeth’s strong testimony, prosecutors decided Stefan and Kerstin’s testimonies would no longer be necessary.

Chief Inspector Franz Polzer said Elisabeth had provided “a mountain of evidence” against Fritzl, sparing Stefan and Kerstin the ordeal of testifying.

“There will be no need to make the children, who are already desperately scarred, talk about what happened,” he told reporters, “as this could trigger flashbacks and posttraumatic stress.”

Less than a month after moving into the new villa, Elisabeth Fritzl ordered her mother Rosemarie to leave and never come back. She was reportedly furious that her three children raised upstairs were still calling Rosemarie “Mom.”

According to press reports, in the three months since they had been reunited, Elisabeth had begun asking her mother certain questions, and tensions had been growing. She wanted to know why Rosemarie had been so passive during her fifty-two-year marriage to Josef Fritzl, not leaving him in 1967 after his rape conviction.

She was also angry that her mother had done nothing to protect her, after he’d started raping her as a child. Finally, she began to ask how her mother had never been suspicious of the cellar while living upstairs.

Rosemarie was said to be “shattered” at being thrown out of the family’s new home with no money. In desperation, the frail 69-year-old went to Linz, moving in with another daughter, until she could get herself back on her feet.

Family lawyer Christoph Herbst confirmed that she had left the family home, denying that Elisabeth had ordered her to leave.

“If you run away from your past,” said Herbst cryptically, “you will forever be on the run.”

A few days after being evicted, Rosemarie was seen shopping in Linz. The once-portly grandmother had lost at least 50 pounds, and was now living on $600 a month in state benefits and looking for an apartment.

On Saturday, July 26, she returned to Ybbsstrasse 40, slipping into her old house to move out her possessions. Paparazzi photographed her packing two cars and a trailer with her things, including a chest of drawers, a mattress and a duvet.

On her way out, a neighbor asked how she was doing.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, driving off.

Later that afternoon, a large moving truck arrived to collect the rest of her belongings, including a dresser, couch and assorted pieces of furniture.

“My sister has totally lost it,” Rosemarie’s sister Christine told a Swedish newspaper. “She is also a victim, and cannot understand [why] she does not get any help from anyone.”

Three days later, Rosemarie announced she would divorce her husband after the trial, reverting to her maiden name. It was reported that Elisabeth had demanded it.

Within hours of her announcement, the
Osterreich
newspaper ran a story saying that Josef Fritzl may have raped one of Rosemarie’s sisters (not Christine), many years earlier. Investigators had reportedly found an old diary among thousands of his papers, hidden deep in a bolted room in the cellar, with an entry proudly describing the horrific rape.

A few days later, the police said they were considering whether to flood the cellar with reinforced liquid concrete, so it could never be turned into a ghoulish money-making museum.

“No one from that family,” said Christoph Herbst, “will ever want to live in that house again.”

On Sunday, August 3, prosecutors announced that they were considering charging Josef Fritzl with slavery, under an ancient unused Austrian law. Fearful that under the Austrian legal system he could walk away with a minimal 10-year sentence, a top legal expert had suggested the slavery charge, in addition to possible manslaughter and murder ones.

If prosecutors decided to go down the slavery road, Josef Fritzl would become the first person in Austrian history to be charged under the obscure paragraph 104 of the 19
^th
century Austrian Penal Code, outlawing slavery, which carries a 20-year sentence. This would ensure that the 73-year-old defendant stayed behind bars for the rest of his life.

Two weeks after Elisabeth Fritzl’s testimony, prosecutors were finding the country’s highest ever criminal profile case riddled with problems. The manslaughter or murder charges, relating to baby Michael’s death, could easily be derailed by the lack of any forensic evidence in the thirteen years since his death. The rape charge was also thought to be problematical, if Elisabeth testified she did not fight him off during her twenty-four-year incarceration. The only firm charge was incest, which could see him released in just a few years.

Now top Austrian politicians were demanding that Fritzl receive a far stiffer punishment to fit his terrible crimes.

Judge Kurt Leitzenberger, of St. Polten Regional Court, where the eventual trial would take place, told the London
Times
that there was no legal precedent in Austrian history for the Fritzl case.

“Compiling the charges against the subject is a delicate procedure for a number of reasons,” said the judge, “and prosecutors are carefully examining all possibilities.”

At the beginning of August, there were reports that Elisabeth Fritzl had been seen taking long romantic walks in the Mauer clinic gardens with a tall, handsome ponytailed man in his thirties. There were even reports of a romance.

“He doesn’t dress like a doctor,” a source inside the clinic told the London
Daily Star
. “He looks more like a heavy metal fan. They spend a lot of time talking together.”

A few days later, Elisabeth secretly brought Kerstin, Stefan and Felix back to the cellar dungeon, to help investigators build their case against their father. The police wanted the former captives to take them through their daily routine, to get a better idea of how they’d lived and what they’d done in their subterranean jail.

It was a highly emotional visit, and a team of psychiatrists accompanied them, to help them through the ordeal.

Later, Elisabeth took her six children to a surprise tea party at Ulmerfeld-Hausmening police headquarters, seven miles outside Amstetten, to thank officers for all the hard work they had done on behalf of the family. She baked a large cake for the occasion, and presented the officers with a special thank-you poster for protecting them.

On the red poster, illustrated by the family, was a centipede with family members’ names on it, and a foam-rubber butterfly.

A handwritten message on the poster read:

We would like to thank you for your constant sympathy and protection. You stood with us during the first, very hard times and made us feel safe and strong.

Ulmerfeld-Hausmening Police Chief Karl Gschoepf said he had known nothing about it until Elisabeth arrived with her children, bearing a gift basket including several bottles of wine.

“It was such a shock,” he said. “The children had painted a very touching picture, and she brought a delicious cake. We also had coffee and ice cream, and just sat around and chatted.”

Elisabeth gave a short speech, thanking the officers, and saying how happy she was to be with “normal people” again.

“The entire family, including the eldest girl, seemed strong,” said Chief Gschoepf. “You would never guess what Elisabeth has been through. She is an extremely strong, courageous woman, who does everything for her children without worrying about herself.”

Elisabeth had impressed everyone by her strength and devotion to her children, since they’d come out of the cellar.

“She is an extremely strong, settled woman,” he said, “who cares for her children impressively.”

Chief Gschoepf, whose men guarded the family at the clinic, said the high-profile case had put great pressure on everybody.

“We had no idea what state the family and the mother would be in,” he said, “and whether they would accept us. We were with them constantly and felt with them. It was a dramatic experience for us as well.”

Just how well Elisabeth and the downstairs children were recovering was a matter of debate. Since the family hired attorney Eva Plaz to handle media relations, highly positive stories of their progress had regularly appeared in the Austrian press.

According to one widely published report, Elisabeth was teaching her three cellar children to swim, run and skate. It was said that Elisabeth and the children were now racing around the grounds of the Mauer clinic on rollerblades, startling patients and staff.

“They’re always overtaking people walking in the grounds, [who] usually have no idea who they are,” said clinic official Fritz Lengauer.

But a few days later, the daily Austrian newspaper
Osterreich
carried another report, asking, “How Bad Are the Fritzl Victims Really?” This story claimed that Elisabeth and her three downstairs children were faring far worse than previously thought, and were being heavily sedated with tranquilizers, to help them forget their nightmare in the cellar.

It claimed that Kerstin was suffering from serious posttraumatic stress disorder, similar to what Vietnam veterans encountered when they returned to America. Since emerging from her coma, she had allegedly suffered devastating panic attacks, brought on by the slightest thing, like a closing door, a small room or a light being turned off.

The bombshell story also revealed how the terrible conditions in the cellar had driven Kerstin to tear out her hair and rip her dresses into shreds, before throwing them in the toilet and blocking it, just as Josef Fritzl had complained about in his jailhouse statement.