Elisabeth Fritzl

Guide Note

Elisabeth Fritzl is an Austrian woman who was held captive in a windowless cellar for 24 years by her father, Josef Fritzl. Abused and raped throughout her captivity, Austrian police proved through DNA tests that Josef Fritzl fathered Elisabeth Fritzl's children.¹

Arrested and currently awaiting trial, Fritzl may face charges of rape, coercion, deprivation of freedom, incest and manslaughter (for a newborn that died). Judge Andrea Hummer is scheduled to try the case and Frizl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, has entered a plea of insanity.²

In mid-July 2008, after receiving several months of psychiatric care, Elisabeth was questioned for the first time. Prosecutors and Josef Fritzl's legal representative asked questions via video-link while Elisabeth remained in the presence of her lawyer and Judge Andrea Hummer.²

Fast Facts

1. Age: 42
2. Siblings: Six
3. Imprisoned and abused: 24 years
4. Conceived seven children by her father²
5. Children: Kerstin (19), Stefan (18), Lisa (15), Monika (14), Alexander (12), and Felix (5)²
6. One of her children died shortly after birth and her father reportedly burned its body in an incinerator²
7. Elisabeth, her children and her mother received several months of psychiatric care in an undisclosed clinic
8. July 2008: Elisabeth was questioned for the first time²
9. The testimonies of Elisabeth and her children will be recorded and presented to the court during the trial¹
10. Elisabeth has demanded that neither she, nor her children ever see their father again²

Elisabeth's two oldest children, Kerstin and Stefan, spent their entire lives in the cellar.² Claiming she had run away to join a cult, Josef Fritzl openly raised three of Elisabeth's children with his wife, Rosemarie. ¹

Elisabeth and all of her children received several months of care at an undisclosed psychiatric facility.²

Kerstin, one of the children forced to live in the basement cell, suffered renal failure and was in critical condition. On May 21, 2008, doctors said the teen is "showing signs of recovery," though she was still on life support.

Elisabeth Fritzl was imprisoned in a cellar in the Austrian town of Amstetten. First reported as missing in 1984, she was held captive and repeatedly raped by her father, Josef Fritzl.

Shortly after her disappearance, her father forced her to author a letter stating she had joined a fundamentalist religious sect. Josef Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, apparently never realized that her daughter and children were locked in the basement of her home.

On April 26, 2008. Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, was left at a hospital with a life-threatening illness. Kerstin, and two of her brothers, had also been incarcerated in the cellar with her mother.

After reading a note Elisabeth had secretly stowed in Kerstin's pocket, doctors made a televised plea for her to come to the hospital. Upon hearing this on the television in her basement cell, Elisabeth managed to convince her father to take her to the hospital. On the evening of April 26, Elisabeth and her father appeared at the the hospital together. They were questioned and Josef was arrested and charged.³