I suppose you could describe me ” he admits he had sexual longings for her but says “i was capable to keep my desires under ” meanwhile, the victims of his cruelty, the six children he fathered, his daughter, Elisabeth, and his wife, Rosemarie, were reunited in a psychiatric clinic outside Amstetten, where they could get the emotional counseling they needed. Mentally of course, they all were a mess. Kerstin was known to tear her hair out in large clumps, and another was known to shred her clothes and flush them down the toilet. But there were many bizarre physical ailments resulting from their prolonged existence underground. The dark confines of the basement dungeon impacted the children more than originally thought.

Olsen, Martine Berg (19 March 2019). "Josef Fritzl is ill and 'doesn't want to live anymore' ". Metro. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019 . Retrieved 6 April 2019. a b c Elizabeth Stewart and agencies (9 May 2008). "The urge to taste forbidden fruit was too strong". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013 . Retrieved 12 May 2008. The children went to school. They did their homework properly. They were brought up strictly by this father. And so after sometime, people would have said, this is an honorable man. He may be strict, but as we say in austria that strictness never hurt anybody. So all this certainly played a part.Fritzl girl wakes from coma and is reunited with her family". The Daily Telegraph. 9 June 2008. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015 . Retrieved 30 October 2015.

This is somebody who disappeared for hours at a time in their own home. I believe she’s at least of moderate intelligence, if not more. Where was he going? What was he doing that many hours? Why did these children appear from time to time on the doorstep during the night? Could she have been completely ignorant of the husband’s nature and character? Following the fourth child's birth in 1994, Fritzl allowed the enlargement of the prison, from 35 to 55m 2 (380 to 590sqft), putting Elisabeth and her children to work digging out soil with their bare hands for years. The captives had a television, a radio, and a videocassette player. Food could be stored in a refrigerator and cooked or heated on hot plates. Elisabeth taught the children to read and write. At times, Fritzl would punish the family by shutting off their lights or refusing to deliver food for days at a time. [29] Fritzl told Elisabeth and the three children who remained (Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix) that they would be gassed if they tried to escape. Investigators concluded that this was an empty threat to frighten the victims; there was no gas supply to the basement. [35] He also told them that they would be electrocuted if they tried to meddle with the cellar door. [26] All of the children suffered from vitamin D deficiency and anemia which caused them to developweak and deformed bones. All required getting use to the additional space and different food. For most of the older children, walking for longer than 30-40 feet would cause their motor responses to go awry, and they would become disoriented.If we all sat down and attempted to capture 30 years in a few lines or a brief report, or even in a slightly longer documentary, we wouldn’t succeed. In his opening remarks, Rudolf Mayer, the defending counsel, appealed to the jury to be objective and not be swayed by emotions. He insisted Fritzl was "not a monster," stating that Fritzl had brought a Christmas tree down to his captives in the cellar during the holiday season. [52] Joseph Fritzl Could Face Murder Charges". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 October 2015 . Retrieved 30 October 2015. Rosemarie noted that many times Fritzl spent the night in the basement and instructed her to leave him alone. She knew he had built something in the basement, but he had told her he was building a nuclear shelter. Police later concluded that Rosemarie was so afraid of her husbandthat she “submitted herself to him entirely.” Alfred Dubanovsky

Anton Graf saw the Fritzls every summer and had known Elisabeth throughout her childhood, so when she went missing, Josef was sure to let him know all about it.Fritzl’s careful web of lies worked. No one came looking for Elisabeth — not her mother, not her friends, not the neighbors, not the police. A tenant, Alfred Dubanovsky, who rented a ground floor room for over a decade, claimed to have heard noises coming from the basement. When he approached Josef about the sounds, Josef explained it away as sounds from the gas heating system. Still, Dubanovsky wondered about the many bags he saw Josef carrying intothe basement. Gerturd Ramharter Gerturd Ramharter, Josef’s neighbor who lived across the street, says she often heard hammering and construction noise coming from the house. She wondered, “What’s he building? And how big is it going to be?” Other tenants Cellar incest girl 'will recover' ". BBC News. 11 June 2008. Archived from the original on 29 September 2008 . Retrieved 12 June 2008. a b Boyes, Roger (20 March 2009). "Josef Fitzl's upstairs, downstairs families united for a new life in the open". Times Online. London. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011 . Retrieved 22 March 2009.