Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Fritzl Case

Transcript

The Fritzl Case · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. I'm Nicole and I'm Ben.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Of course, welcome back. But you're listening to wicketing.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Around, a true crime podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: My podcast listener, we both said welcome back.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I said it first, I win.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but first the worst, second the best. Sure you
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: know how that works. Second is the best. I learned
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: that in like grade two. Come on now, oh my god,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that's elementary.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Oh now you're trying to be third the golden turd.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It literally feels like we have not been on here.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Forever, I know, and it's it's only been slightly over
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: a week.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think with Halloween Week, it was such
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a part of our life for so long. Okay, only
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a week, but it was just a lot of effort
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: every day, and so it just it's felt like this
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was a really long break.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: It did. It felt I mean a break we needed,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: but it was definitely lengthy. And that's what she said.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Halloween Week was so epic that for quite a while
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: after Halloween actually, I was like, you know what, screw Christmas,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I'm done with you. I don't want any part of you,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: because that was just like my favorite Halloween ever, I think,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And but I'm starting to get into the Halloween spirit.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I bought Christmas lights getting in that Christmas spirit.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, the Christmas spirit. Now, yeah, I'm still stuck on Halloween.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: It's it's slowly coming because I love Christmas. I'm gonna
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: have to pick some Christmas cases.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, we'll definitely have to pick Christmas cases.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Totally goats.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: But also side note, because Halloween did go so amazing
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and so awesome. Just the other day, we hit a
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: total of two hundred thousand lifetime listens on the podcast,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: so our episodes because of all you listeners out there,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: all you patrons, all you people who support the shit
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: out of us, you have listened to us two hundred
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: thousand times. That's wild, It's insane.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Thank.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: You so much from the bottom of our little shoveled
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: up grinch hearts that are about to grow three times
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: with Christmas.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: It's so funny that you say something with the Grinch,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: because I say something with the Grinch in my case.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh well, look at us go.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: We're in sync totally?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Or is that is that Backstreet Boyds? Oh shit, I
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: always get to make I always get a make.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Know someone will tell us if we're wrong, which is
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: totally fine. Okay, So we have some patrons to thank
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you do and then before I end up forgetting the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: case I'm doing today. Actually, one of our patrons requested
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and her name was Samantha. Sorry for a minute that
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I almost thought I was saying the wronger, but Samantha,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: because yeah, I put a little selfie up there and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I was like, take a request. And there was some
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: sweet requests that came in and we will definitely be
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: covering some of those, but for today we picked Samantha's.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So, Samantha, thank you very much for the request.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, super appreciate it you're doing.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what it is. Well, I know
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the name, I know the gist of the case in
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: like a one sentence summary. Oh dude, it's yeah, that's it.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: It's it's a bad one.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to hearing it, looking forward to what
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: happened that it does not sound good, but I'm anxious
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: to hear wild Wild. But before we get into the details,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: can we thank our patrons?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Absolutely?
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, So since we last thanked our patrons for signing up,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: we have a few more to thank like Solangel, Tracy Shandy,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Julie Phillips, Alex I almost did, Alexandria, Alexia, Kevin, Kyle Dylan,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and Teresa Ends.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Thank you all.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Signing up on our Patreon and supporting the shit out
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: of round you. Yeah, and we're going to put another
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: request up on Patreon to see what you guys want
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: us to do for the Patreon exclusive episode.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I forgot about that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: So yeah, if you want to sign up for Patreon,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: see that exclusive episode where we were completely shmammered and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: listen to the next one coming up. Head over to
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Patreon sign up, support us in the meantime, and for
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: those who are signed up, head over there and let
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: us know what you want for a Patreon only exclusive episode.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you, yes one seriously super appreciate it. Okay, do
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you drink? Don't? I don't actually have a drink today.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I'm it's kind of sad.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I have like a leader of.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: It, but you have a leader. So if I need
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: a drink, I'm just gonna steal some.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: And fear not. There is Irish cream in it, so
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: we're good.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I don't know, we can start going, let's
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: do it. I think we have other updates but we
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: probably chit chatted enough, so let's dive right in. So
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: this is the story about Joseph Fritzel and Elizabeth Fritzel.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But we're going to focus more on Elizabeth because she's
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the victim, and we try to focus on the victims
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: around here as much as possible. So Elizabeth was born
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: on April sixth, nineteen sixty six, to parents Joseph and Rosemary.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: She was the fourth child to be born out of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: their seven children. Now, trigger warning, This story is quite intense,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: including some extreme sexual abuse. So I'm just warning you
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: right off the back here. If you don't you want
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to hear it, stop now.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is your official second warning. Yes, because we
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: have a warning at the beginning of the episode. But
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: and now here's your second chance.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: To give you a second one. So, now, out of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the seven children, Joseph seemed to gravitate towards Elizabeth, taking
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a special interest in her and treating her differently than
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the rest of the children, on an obsession towards her.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: If you will, an obsession obsession I missed. Did you
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: say how many children he had?
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Seven?
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Seven? Okay?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Seven? If he needed to go somewhere, he'd want Elizabeth
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: to come with him or if he needed help. It
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: was Elizabeth he wanted help from. He liked for her
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to always be in his sight. At the age of eleven,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Joseph would start to sexually abuse Elizabeth. Fuck, which is
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: honestly horrific. Like that, that's her father, Yeah, like her father.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: There's that two perspectives. There's the age of being so
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: young and eleven, and then there's the that's your fucking dad.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, oh my gosh, I just can't. At fifteen,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth would com, oh, do you have something to say,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: my love?
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: It just reminded me of a joke. So whenever you're ready,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: so I tell you the joke. Go ahead, Okay, sorry.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Why do teenage girls always travel in odd numbers?
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I feel like I've actually heard this, but
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Know because they can't even.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, they can't even. That's awesome And I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: even said that. Yeah, So am I like a teenage girl?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Pretty much?
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Pretty much? Yeah, pretty much?
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I digress.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, Okay. So at fifteen, Elizabeth would complete her
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: necessary schooling, and once that was finished, she started a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: course to become a waitress. When she was sixteen years
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: old in January nineteen eighty three, she would run away
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: from home with a friend, but honestly can't blame her.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: No kidding.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: They went into hiding in Vienna, Austria, but were found
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: by the police and returned to their parents three weeks
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: after running away. I should mention the story itself itself
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: takes place in Amsted in Austria. Once back home, Elizabeth
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: rejoined her waitress course and completed it in nineteen eighty four,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: being offered a job in Lintz, which was a nearby town. Now,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: much to Nolan's knowledge, Joseph was realizing he was losing Elizabeth.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: She was becoming an adult and soon she would be
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: off on her own. The plan he would come up
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: with next is just horrific, And like I'm probably gonna
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: say it again, like I keep saying horrific, but it's honestly,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: there's just like no other word to describe this.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: The one detail I do know is the detail you're
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: leading up to, and it's fucking disgusting. Yeah, it's far
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: beyond horrific. Yeah, there are no words.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Like my jaw. Researching was pretty much just constantly on
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the ground. So in nineteen seventy eight, the Fritzalhouse would
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: undergo a renovation. The house was a larger, older home,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: dating back to the eighteen nineties. It had many rooms,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: some of them being rented out to tenants. Joseph had
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: applied for a building permit to extend his basement, some
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: reports saying for it to be an atomic bomb shelter.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: He went through all the necessary permits to make his
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: renovation legal stumble, which initially surprised me. But he was
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a smart man, and I think this would prevent people
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: from investigating at a later date by him going through
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the paperwork.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, that makes sense.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Once the shelter was complete, and to no one's knowledge,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Joseph would go even further, adding more space to the basement,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: reading a small prison.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Yep, here we go, We're going there up. No one,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: this is fucking nasty.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Oh it's it's yeah, yeah, yeah, it's real bad. No
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: one in his family was allowed to go to the basement.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: It was for Joseph's use only. He referred to it
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: as his kingdom, and he was busy while down there,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and not to be disturbed. He was a trained engineer,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: and apparently this is where he did his work. As
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you can imagine, he had much control over the family,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and you did not question Joseph.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Fuck this guy, I know I already. I just can't
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: this guy his kingdom.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Fuck yeah, he just deserves nothing.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: So I'm a king of nothing, king of nothingness, King
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: of the pilot who.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: On August twenty eighth, nineteen eighty four, Joseph would end
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: up luring Elizabeth into the basement of the family house,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: saying you needed help carrying a door or something to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that extent. This favor would change Elizabeth's life trajectory completely.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: As Elizabeth was helping her father, Joseph would reveal an
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: ether soaked towel, bring it to his daughter's face, and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: hold it there until she lost consciousness. She would later
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: regain consciousness handcuffed in the secret prison cell her father
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: had started working on years prior. This would be her
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: home for the next twenty four years.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's oh fuck, I can't imagine.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Like that is a long fucking time.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: That It's just it's unimaginable. It's unthinkable, Like holy frank,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: like I just almost feel like i'd rather die.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Well, and I know I'm jumping way ahead here, but
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: after those twenty four years, can you imagine what it
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: would be like to get out of there? That's Stockholm
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: syndrome that you're oh gosh.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And just like the amount of life that you've just
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: missed out on, Oh yeah.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: For sure, literally a quarter of your life if you
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: are lucky enough to live to be one hundred.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my gosh. Okay, So I didn't know exactly where
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to mention this, but his unwanted acts to words Elizabeth
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: were not his first. He was known for indecent exposure,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: peeping into people's windows and watching them in intimate moments,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: which is just He's Tom, It's just so disgusting Jesus,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: often masturbating in parks while watching women.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, well that one's completely normal. Oh my gosh, kidding,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: don't sorry. That was a bad joke.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: That was a terrible joke. And in nineteen sixty seven,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: he was actually arrested for following and raping a woman
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in her home. Fuck and get this, Like, I was like,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: what the fuck? He served twelve months of his eighteen
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: month sentence. Why the fuck was it only eighteen months?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And he even raped someone?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And even still, why did he only serve twelve months
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Eighteen Oh okay, so you literally followed someone home, raped
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: them in their goddamn home, and you had to go
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to jail for a year.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so you followed someone raped someone. We're given
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: the fucking ridiculous minimum sentence of eighteen months and you
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: didn't even have to serve that whole period. Yeah, that's
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: a whole fucked up situation.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: That is just i'd oh, like that is too low.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: That's a whole home that is.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: It makes my head hurt.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: That is a whole bunch of messed up wrapped in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: whole burritoce. That's like going to Taco Bell, getting the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: cheapest chocolate you can, throwing it on the floor, stepping
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: on it, and then eating it. Ew exactly. That's just
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: like why I think of the shit because it's a
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: whole messed up situation wrapped up. And I was gonna
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: say burrito, and then I thought taco and then I
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: thought taco bell, and I was like, how can you
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: make taco bell any shittier? You throw it the ground
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: and step on her.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Here is always thinking about taco tacos. I was gonna
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: say taco bell, but just tacos. I don't generally have
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: taco bell clearly, so this is even weird. Okay, not
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: even weird. Actually I shouldn't say that, but his Okay,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: me being a wife, I think this fucked. His wife.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Rosemary would stay with him through all of this. Did
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: she know that that she visited him in prison? And shit?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Oh oh sorry, I thought you were skipping.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Ahead to Oh no, no, I'm still talking about like okay,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: so like the twelve month sentence and shit, like she
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: would visit him and like just pretend like nothing happened. Really,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: like I'm pretty sure that is me.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: And I'd be like, pigs, your Prince Charming just raped
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: someone's in prison, and you're.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Like that's disgusting, Like I'm out.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, your fucking nasty. I'm your nasty.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Okay. So initially Elizabeth's mother, Rosemary, would report Elizabeth missing.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: She was not part of this plan and had no
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: knowledge that her daughter was locked just below the floors
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: of her home.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Well, and Rosemary had a history of running away, so
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: of course she could be missing. Rosemary or her daughter.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Who did I say, Elizabeth or Elizabeth? Rosemary is the mother?
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, Elizabeth has the history of running away. Yeah,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: so of course that's to be suspected. Now she's done
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it before.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I guess, But I mean like she's found. I mean
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay. So Joseph would put on an
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: act too as a distraught parent, even apparently crying at
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: one point to the police, like freaking bastard. Not okay
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: with that.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: This guy sucks.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: He was able to dodge this missing person's report by
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: handing over a letter to the police, the first of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: what would be many letters he would force Elizabeth to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: write while he was holding her in captivity. The letter
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: would address that Elizabeth was tired of living with her
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: family and that she had joined a cult. It warned
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: her parents not to look for her. This would close
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the investigation to look for Elizabeth.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: See, anytime there's a letter, don't look for me, that's
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: a red flag to say, fucking look for the person.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I can look like real hard. Yeah, but you know,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: it closed done. They're finished looking for her. Now, what
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: exactly was Elizabeth living in? Well, I'm going to share
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: with you.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Oh no, here we go.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Initially, going down into the basement, you were met with
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a utility room and a workshop Joseph's workshop. Behind a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: bookshelf in the workshop was a secret door only measuring
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: one meter high that would lead to the cellar. The
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: cellar consisted of a bathroom, kitchen, and two bedrooms, all
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: connected by very little, narrow passageways, which I thought was
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: really interesting. It covered approximately an area of approximately five
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety square feet, but it wasn't always that large.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And we'll touch on that a bit.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean that square footage of that it's like
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: what we're living in in our tiny it's actually bigger.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean we have windows.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we have luxuries that she would not have.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Yea, like literally like no daylight whatsoever.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Like I just could only imagine like the air, how
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: like non fresh it would.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Be in there, like and in the cellar you got
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: that cool damp stone foundation air and like, yeah, no,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: that's that's not fun.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: It would just be awful. There were two access points
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: into the cell a hinge door and this okay that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I found it apparently weighed like a thousand pounds. This door,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: which is incredibly hard for me to envision, but became
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: unstable over years due to the weight and the metal
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: door and then there was a metal door reinforced with
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: concrete on steel rails that weighed like six hundred pounds,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: so like he's like enforcing the shit out of this place.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: He was making sure no one got out, or if
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: they didn't, if they were trying to look for someone.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So that that door was located behind the shelf in
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Joseph's basement workshop and was very protected. So for one
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: it was hidden. There was an electronic code using a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: remote control unit to enter, and in order to have
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: reached this door, apparently five locking basement rooms had to
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: have been crossed to get to Elizabeth. Eight doors in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: total needed to be unlocked. Wow, two of them being
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: additionally secured by electronic locking devices. Like that is a
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: massive like there's no escaping that really, Like there's this,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I just don't think it's possible.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: The pre planning there, the premeditation involved in all this,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the years, the saying I'm going to make sure if
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: she gets past door number one or two or three,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: she's still fucking locked down.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: It's like, could you imagine if you got cross this
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: store one like just you'd probably just be like yes, yes,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: like the relief, and.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Then you're met by another door. Yeah, and you get
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: past it and the fucking oh my god, the heartbreaks like.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Oh goodness. Okay, but then also to me, Okay, So
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: if I lived in this home and there was an
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: area of my home that I couldn't go into and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: that was just locked, I think I'd be suspicious, like
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: af like, I just wouldn't. I wouldn't be okay with that.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: There'd be no way that I would not be breaking
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: in there.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Well, my my assumption wouldn't be that you're holding our
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: child captive in there, Okay.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: But if I had an area that have our host
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: ben you're not allowed to go in here, and it
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was constantly locked, you would need to go in there.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, both of us would break into each other.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, But I'm just saying I was leading up
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: to my point here, Like I wouldn't assume like they're
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: fucking hiding our missing child in there. I need to
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: go in the field.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: No, you wouldn't be married to that person.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I would be like Nicole's fucking grown a shit ton
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: of weed in her basement. I guarantee it. Either that
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: or she's like some sort of dealer something.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, accounts growing.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Now, I'd be like, why isn't the bank account growing?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: You gotta harvest this crop? What are you doing?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Let me help you?
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, but I totally yeah, I'd be
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: busting in, like what the fuck?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, There'd be no way that I would not be
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: in there.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I'd send you a grocery shopping or something, and then
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I'd be looking at getting through the doors, and then
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: I'd be questioning, why is there fucking eight locked doors
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: down here that I can't get through?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: That You would get through them, though, would so Joseph
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: would visit Elizabeth, usually every day, bringing her food and
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: other essential supplies. At these visits, he would, and I'm
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: sure you guessed, also repeatedly rape her, which brings us
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to an even worse part of the story, and that
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: is the story of the children yep, that would be born.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Here we go in this hidden seller fuck. Elizabeth would
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: become pregnant a total of eight times, with seven children
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: being born. Did you know that many?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: I knew? Well? Generally with these cases, there's not any
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: sort of birth control being used. So if someone is
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: being locked up and being used like that against their will,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: there's usually multiple at least pregnancies, whether it's children being born.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Is it a different story. There's at least multiple pregnancies.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't look into it. I feel like, I don't know.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I feel like there almost wouldn't have been birth control,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: but there totally could have been. Or sorry, there was
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: birth control because every child was born almost like after
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: two years kind of thing. And there was numerous reports
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that he raped her upwards of three thousand.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Times totally fun in the span of those.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Twenty four years. So the fact that she had that
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: few of children is almost surprising.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm gonna do that math for how.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I did actually do that math or even I can remember.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, you keep going on, on, Okay, calculate.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: So her first pregnancy, in November of nineteen eighty six,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: ended with a miscarriage when she was about ten weeks pregnant.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Her having to deal with this being completely alone, locked
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: in a dark, dingy cellar. I just couldn't imagine. On
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, Elizabeth would give birth to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: her first child, a little girl named Kirsten Chris Kirstine.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I think it is It's like they pronounced it maybe
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: differently than us over there. I wanted to say, Kirsten, I.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Got the number, and honestly, I'm surprised it's that small
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: of a number.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Because that's over it's over twenty four years.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Twenty four years, that's eighty seven hundred and sixty days, Okay,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: divided by three thousand times, that's an average of two
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: point nine to two, so that's about every three days. Yeah,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised it was that little, to be honest, really,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised, Like if you were going through that trouble
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to essentially have a slave for.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Your bidding, a sex slave, yeah, then.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised you're not taking more advantage.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: But there would be times he was away, I mean
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: times that like she was pregnant and probably like having
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a baby.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: So it's just like, I don't know that's true.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Some it did say on times that it could have
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: been numerous times a day, but then it would say
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: it was like a minimum of three times a week usually,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: So yeah, ah, like gross, okay, so bad.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fucking gross. Regarless, don't give you this.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: So on August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, Elizabeth would give
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: birth to her first child, a little girl named Chris, Kirsten,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: who would live in the cellar with Elizabeth. I even
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: struggled to write this, But Elizabeth birth these babies completely
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: on her own, no help from anyone. Fuck, And if
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: that doesn't show like her strength, I don't know what the.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Fuck does Badass of the day.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Joseph would provide her with towels, scissors, and a pregnancy
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: book and that is all.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: That is it, that is it.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And she was literally left alone to give birth to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: this child.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Does he realize the risk involves in there?
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I think he doesn't give a shit.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: But he could have been dealing with a dead body
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: coming back down there. Yeah, because childbirth.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Is there's so many things that could go wrong.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: There is high risk for fatality in that.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And like she literally had to do that herself.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Like I just can't even imagine the strength that you
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: would have to pull out of yourself to do that.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: No shit, Like holy crap. On February first, nineteen ninety
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: so that's basically like just under two years, little Stephan
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: would be born and would also stay in the cellar
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: with Elizabeth. Just over two years later, on August twenty ninth,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Lisa would be born and interesting enough,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Lisa would not remain living with Elizabeth.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: When she was just nine months old, she would be
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: discovered outside the family home in a cardboard box, allegedly
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: being left there by Elizabeth, but it was really Joseph
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: with a note asking for the child to be looked
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: after by Joseph and Rosemary.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Why did he select this one?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: So there was quite a few different stories about it,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: some saying the seller was running out of room, okay,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: so like they wanted to bring some of the children above,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Some saying that some of the children were louder than
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the others. Oh, so then he would let these children
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to go upstairs to like decrease noise.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Noise, yeah, because.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: There was like tenants and stuff in this area and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: in this house, and people would sometimes say they heard things,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: but Joseph like would always say that or have excuse
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of it being something else. And then also he was
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: a landlord, and he was kind of I don't know, dominating, right,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and so I don't know how much could you say
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to your landlord.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Well and true, if you're renting a room or something
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: from your landlord, who's to know. Maybe they had their
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: sister over who has a baby and you heard the
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: baby cry.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh ye. Numerous rooms in there and stuff.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: There was one report though that someone said they had
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: a dog, and so this dog daily would just constantly
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: be staring at the floor and like kind of growl
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and stuff, really because he could hear things that were
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: happening under there, right, and it was just like, what
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the fuckuck, So that's hole.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: That's like fucking hair standing at the back of my neck.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: It's super sad.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, and I mentioned this earlier, but
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the area they were living in was not always five
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety square feet. It was only initially three
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty square feet, but as the family grew,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: a larger area was needed, so Joseph put Elizabeth and
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the children to work. They were expected to dig out
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the soil to enlarge the prison using only their hands.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Fuck, you fucking.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Asshole, can you not just give them a shovel.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Right, go to the dollar store get a garden hole?
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: So it took them years, but they eventually got to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a place where the prison was enlarged two hundred and
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: ten square feet.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Like, I hate that fuck.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: On February twenty sixth, Are you okay.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I just this fucking guy. If it's not bad enough
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: that you're holding a human and then subsequently multiple humans
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: after that captive and using them as a fucking sex slave,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: which is disgusting enough. That's your daughter daughter, Yes, sorry,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I've forgotten that detail. God, And then you have the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: fucking audacity to not even have any human decency left
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: in you to even help in a fucking childbirth. And
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: then you're like, if you want more room for the
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: family that I am making, you have dig it out,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: dig it out with your bare fucking hands.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Like he is a monster, a monster far beyond far
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: my gosh, and honestly, dude, like you haven't even heard
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the worst fuck.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: I need a lot more alcohol in.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: This just to make an actual beer.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I need like whisk I need moonshine after this.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So on February twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four, so again,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: basically two years after Lisa was born, the fourth child
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: would be born, named Monica, and again, like Lisa had been,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: ten month old, Monica was left and found outside the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: entrance of the home in a pushchair. This time, Rosemary
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: received a phone call, sorry, our dogs are making noise. Sorry,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: sorry the pause. So this time, Rosemary the mom received
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: a phone call from presumably Elizabeth, but it's thought to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: have been recording, asking them to take care of her child.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Rosemary reporting this incident to the police, concerned that Elizabeth
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: knew their new unlisted number and reading that, I was like,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: who the fuck cares? Like, that's so good that she
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: found you, and I just feel like maybe you should
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: kind of help her because she's obviously in a shitty situation.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so they took this child and again and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: raised it as their own. On April twenty eighth, nineteen
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: ninety six, Elizabeth would give birth to twin boys, one
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: named Michael and one named Alex. Unfortunately, Michael would not survive.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: He was born with respiratory failure and Joseph refused to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: bring him to the hospital.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Of course he did.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: He was less than three days old when he died,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and had he gotten the help he needed, he would
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: have survived.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Yep, So that's murder right there. Joseph would remove his
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: body and cremate him in the family home, spreading his
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: ashes in the back garden.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: That's so far the only human thing this fucking person
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: has done.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't think that he like burnt, he like
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: cremated and burnt the baby in like their furnace or
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: some shit.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: It's there's still some semblance of honoring the debt. That's it.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: It's not he didn't just fucking in a bag in
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: the dumpster or something. You know.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I guess, I guess.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: That is the first symbol of anything decent in all.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: But it's not even in my opinion.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Oh it's not. It's not, don't get me wrong. I'm
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: just I'm trying to salvage anything, anything heart. He still doesn't,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: No, So Alex, the other twin, at fifteen months old,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: would be discovered as his previous two sisters and be
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: taken to live upstairs with the three children living upstairs
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: with Joseph and Rosemary. Social Services was actually involved and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: they were approved as foster parents. It was explained how
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the three infant grandchildren just appeared on their doorstep and
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: during regular visits by social workers, no suspicious activity was
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: ever seen or heard to deem them as a fit
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: foster parents. Now I had to kind of like look
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: into that because I was like, he was like a rapist.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Like, excuse me, I was just thinking that too. I'm like,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: deemed fit foster parents, criminal record of a fucking rapist.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: So apparently, and I don't know if this is still
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a thing. I didn't look into that. But after fifteen years,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: in accordance with Austra Australian whoa Austrian law, your criminal
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: record is cleared.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Really really holy shit.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: So fifteen years after that incident occurred, like he didn't,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: he didn't fine, Like he did nothing wrong. Wow, And okay,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I can maybe see that with like some incidents and
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: stuff like I don't know, I stole a car or something.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: But rape, no, no, yeah, that is much worse.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: That's another human you're you're committing your crime against, rather
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: than stealing a car is just a tangible, literal object.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you took something from a human.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a human is not an object, So that doesn't
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: fucking count.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: No. So the last and final child to be born
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: would be Felix, and he was born on December sixteenth,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: two thousand and two.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: I love that name, Felix.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: It's a good name actually. But he was left to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: live in the cellar with Elizabeth and her two oldest children,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: as Joseph's wife could not look after any more children.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: So to go into more detail on the captives living situation,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: they had a television, a radio, a video cassette player,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and Elizabeth had also requested learning material as she would
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: want to teach the children. She did teach the children
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: each day and had taught them to read and write,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: which was like fucking good for done, Like that's just like.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Amazing, fucking go Elizabeth, like incredible.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: She also taught manners. They were very well mannered children good,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm like this lady is just a superhero. She
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: tried to make their situation as normal as possible. There
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: was a refrigerator that food could be stored in, as
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Joseph would often go on trips and they would be
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: left to fend for themselves, with reports being upwards of
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: three weeks.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: That's a long fucking time, no kidding.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: They would cook or heat their food on hot plates.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: So as Elizabeth was trying to give the children as
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: normal of an upbringing as humanly possible, Joseph obviously was
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: doing the complete fucking opposite. Yeah, besides from them being
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: locked away like prisoners. At times, he would go even
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: further with their punishment by shutting off their lights or
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: refusing to deliver food to them for extended periods of time.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And this, this is brutal. He would even bring down
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: photos of the children living upstairs to show the kids
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: living downstairs how good and normal of a life they
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: were having, showing them swimming in the pool, celebrating their birthdays,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: having summer barbecues, being just outside.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Why.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know, because he's a complete asshole.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Holy sh I was just like, what for a moment there,
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say, he's bringing down
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: photos of the kids so Elizabeth and the kids can
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: see their siblings. No, but no, he's showing the activities
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: and a life they're living.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And there's also reports and stuff where he go down
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: like talk about the delicious food and stuff that he
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: was eating and just being like a right asshole.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Holy fuck. Yeah, I want to punch this guy square
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: in the ball so he tastes his own fucking nuts.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, but you're ready, because this is the most you
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: remember when I was sitting at the counter researching and
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I was just like no, no, no, like having my
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: little spas. So this is the part.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: You ready, Yeah, I'm ready.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, So this horrified me, and I did think about
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: leaving it out because it's horrifying, but like, we're here
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: to just give all the facts. So Joseph would force
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth to watch pornographic videos, make her reenact them with him,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: and he would be doing this in front of the
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: children in order to completely humiliate her. Yep, Like I
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: was like, no, no, Like, no one would do that.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I honestly think that is like one
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: of the most disgusting things I've ever heard in my life.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: So this guy, like, there, there you go. If you
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: didn't think he was disgusting already, he's real disgusting. So
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: to instill fear in Elizabeth and the children, Joseph would
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: tell them that if they ever tried to escape, he
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: would either gas the place or they would receive an
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: electric shock, both resulting in death. When he was home,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Joseph would go into the basement most mornings, telling the
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: upstairs family he was going down there drawing plans because
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: I can't remember if I mentioned that he was an engineer,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Ye you did, okay, often being down there for extended
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: periods of time, but that they were not allowed to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: bother him. His wife not even allowed to bring him
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: down a cup of coffee. Joseph had two completely separate lives.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: When he closed the door to the basement, he also
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: closed the door in his head. He didn't think about
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the basement family when he was outside of the basement.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: He'd shop for the upstairs family at a different time
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: than he'd shot for the downstairs area. And he'd shop
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: or sorry the downstairs family at another time, and often
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it would be across town or sometimes in a different
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: time all together so that he would not get caught
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: because he could be buying, like say, stop something for babies,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: but like diapers or something, maybe have a baby or whatever, right,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and then he would bring them their supplies in the evening. Okay,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: So now that I've just basically probably completely traumatized everyone,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you're wondering, like how the situation ends for
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth and her children.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: I'm curious because in the midst of this conversation, I
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: realized something. Did a little quick google and found out
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: that my brig no, it's not not facts about this, Okay,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: there's there's a movie based off this case. And I
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: was like, this sounds familiar, and I googled it and yes,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: that movie is based off it.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the name, but I did that. Okay, yeah, I've.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Seen that movie with Bree Larson. It's a good movie.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to read I want to watch it again. Okay.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: So it would take one of Elizabeth's children, Kirsten, to
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: get extremely ill for this shit show to end. On
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: April nineteenth, two thousand and eight. Kristen, who was the
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: oldest child and nineteen years old at this point.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Holy shit, really, she lived her.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Whole life underground in that cellar. No daylight, no sun
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: ever hitting her face, no rain, no puddles to jump in.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Like the list goes on and on. Yea, like on and.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: On, missing out on your entire childhood yeah, and adolescence.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Like fuck, like it just breaks it breaks her heart.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Can you literally imagine being nineteen And I mean I
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: know that there's people around the world, like third world
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: countries and stuff who definitely do not get this luxury,
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: But living in a first world country and being nineteen
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: and not even getting to celebrate your birthday.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well I bet you. Well, Elizabeth might not have
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: really known dates and stuff because I'm just thinking, like
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth being the mom she was, I bet you she
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: would try to do something about definitely, I mean like
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: probably not have a cake and decorations and all that stuff.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, they go through that a little bit in
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: the movie room with the birthday situation. Oh okay, but yeah,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: and it's just it's heartbreaking up.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So she was in very rough shape, and surprisingly
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Joseph ended up calling an ambulance or taking her and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: one or the other. And if she were to have like, okay,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I think the reason he basically did that because if
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: she were to have died, what would he have done
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: with this full grown, you know, dead woman's body. Like,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: I just don't think he would be able to deal
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: with that. So he gets Elizabeth to write a note
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: that she's once again dropping off one of her children
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: who was sick and she can't take care of her. Like,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: at some point, these notes just have to be like
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: so ridiculous that you wouldn't even take them seriously. No kidding,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I just can't even believe at this point you would
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: still be taking them seriously. So Kirsten is admitted to
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: intensive care in very rough shape, and the nurses and
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: doctors become immediately suspicious. For one, there is absolutely no
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: record of this child ever existing when they try to
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: look up her medical history, absolutely nothing. To the government,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: she doesn't exist.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: For two, she was whiter than a ghost and displaying
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: illnesses to them that kind of had them puzzled. One
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: of them, for example, being that she was so deficient
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: in vitamin D that it surprised them that she had
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: even like lasted this long. I mean they I'm sure
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: he wasn't supplementing.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: No, probably not. He's probably just giving him cheap ass food,
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: no vitamins, no nothing, And like you say, no windows
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: in a basement, sellar, So there's no vitamin D coming in.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah nothing.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, at least you could put some fucking proper
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: light bulbs in there that might have a little bit
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: of fucking proper Come on.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: No, he gave no.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: Shits, no shits.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Because Joseph wasn't offering basically any assistance and just wanting
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: to get out of the hospital as quickly as possible,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the hospital put out a search to try and find
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Kirsten's mother During the evening of April twenty six, two
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Joseph basically had no choice but to
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: release Elizabeth, informing his wife, Elizabeth's mother mother that oh,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth just decided to come home, like geez.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you imagine that Elizabeth is not going to
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: say a word and that everyone's going to believe all
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: this and like think.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Really, yeah, so and this is being like she was
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: twenty four years like and then just boom yeah here, like.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: No, can you imagine that conversation, Oh, how was your
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: twenty four years away? Sweetie? Well let me tell you.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my gosh. Joseph takes Elizabeth to the hospital to
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: see her daughter, and everyone is shocked by her appearance.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: At this point, She's in her forties but looks years
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: beyond that, looking to be around fifty or sixty years old,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: with extremely pale skin like her daughter. It's described as
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: almost being transparent looking. And she herself looked quite sickly.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: I can imagine, like, I mean, just the trauma that
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: she had been through is just appalling. Someone from the
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: hospital tipped off the police that Joseph and Elizabeth were
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: at the hospital. This would lead to the two of
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: them being taken into police custody for questioning. Now, initially
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: they were getting quite upset with Elizabeth. The police. Apparently
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: she wasn't saying much for about the first five hours,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: and in their opinion, they're thinking she was a neglecting mother.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: She'd left three children on the porch of her of
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: her parents, and now another one of her children is
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: brought into the hospital like deathly ill. She does eventually break,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: but needed a promise from the police that she would
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: never have to see her father again.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Well, and to be fair, look at it, look at
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: it from that police perspective.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Oh totally. I'm not saying anything bad against the police.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Because you have this frair looking woman who looks years
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: beyond her age. Her skin is ghostly pale, and like,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: what does that sound like?
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a cult, Like she could have been
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: in a cult.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Well, it sounds like drug abuse to me, an addiction,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: that's true. Yeah, So generally with addiction you have struggles
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: with families and you have abandonment issues and that sort
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: of stuff or neglect of children. That sounds like right
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: off the bat, just from looking at her, I could
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: see that authorities would pinpoint that as the first thought.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and no. I mean I could also see
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: that the story of her just being in a cult
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: because I feel like sometimes you see people that are
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: in the cults and they don't seem like they're they're
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: taking care of themselves either and stuff, right, true, Yeah, so.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: A lot of cults they'll deal with substance abuse and.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Drugs, yeah, and alcohol and stuff too. So so at
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: this point, Elizabeth reveals her story to the police, and
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: it was a dozy no shit for them to understand,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: so much so that initially they didn't believe poor Elizabeth, like,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: give this hericking woman a break, for God's sakes, but
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: she insisted, causing the investigation to lead to the Fritzl
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: house and them to find the cellar below ground and
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: then to find two children in that cellar. Stephan and
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Felix were still in there. At this point they had
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: been saved, like, oh.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: My gosh, thankfully after twenty four years of all the school.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: It was reported that on the way to the hospital,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Felix was just glued to the window, amazed by the sky,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: the trees, cars that were passing by them on the road.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: He had just never seen anything so magical, which it
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: almost likes you want to cry.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Well, they depict that in that movie Moom or that
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: movie Room really well and that's why it's called room
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: because the main characters in the movie, she only has
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: one child that she's dealing with. Oh, but they live
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: in just a single room. It's a shed, and he
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: knows nothing. He can't comprehend anything outside of that. To him,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: the entire world is that shed is a room. Yeah,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: so the fact on being outside of a room is
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: mind blowing.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, I know, you just couldn't imagine what would be
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: going through their little heads, like like you just absorb
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: everything and just be in awe. So Joseph was obviously
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: arrested immediately, and thank you. The thought that he could
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: have even gotten away with this for that long, for
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: as long as he did, is mind blowing. The community
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: was absolutely shocked though, because in their mind, Joseph was
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: quite a respectable member of the.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: Community aside from his rape.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Well, they like they didn't know that, yeah really right,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Like his neighbors probably didn't know that he came across
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: or just wait where am I here? Okay, there go,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: he came across nice enough to his neighbors. He took
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: and he took on grandchildren that were dropped off by
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: this cult member mother and had raised them as their own,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: he had a respectable job, like the list goes on.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: So from the outside he did appear quite fine.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's hiding it all, so yeah, what's
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: there's no reason for anyone to suspect anything. Yeah, I
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: could see that.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I do have to mention he seems to appear quite
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: fine other than his freaking eyebrows. I don't know if
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: you've seen a bit this guy, but he has freaking heft.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: He's actually quite a weird looking dude. There was a
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: photo that I came across on his researching, and it
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: was his face next to the face of the Grinch.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Oh god, and there was actually, like so much of
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: a resemblance that it was freaking hilarious.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, I Google, you have to google this.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: But this story would have no happy ending and Joseph's
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: heart would not grow three sizes.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Joseph, my god, he does look like the.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Grin, doesn't he like a human Grinch?
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: He also looks like a human piece of shit?
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, disgusting. So your phone was making noise?
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was getting in too close to the recording feedback.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: So Joseph Strials started on March sixteenth, two thousand and nine.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: He was charged with rape, incest, kidnapping, slavery, and murder.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Joseph's defense being that he wanted to protect Elizabeth from
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a lifestyle he didn't think was good for her.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's his fucking call.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Fuck off. After Elizabeth's testimony, which was recorded and not
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: shared to the public to protect her, Joseph actually broke
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: down and realized the crimes he'd committed. He apparently apologized
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: for the pain he inflicted on his family, and pleaded
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: guilty to all the charges.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, years too late, I know.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Wait, he was sentenced to life in prison, which is
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: he which he is still serving today?
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: At one point in time, Joseph admitted that he had
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: always planned to lock Elizabeth up so that he could
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: contain and express his evil side, saying he was born
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: to rape and he had held himself back for too
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: long and could have behaved a lot worse than locking
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: up his daughter.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: What the fuck? Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised the
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: fact that he always planned to lock her up. I
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: could have guessed that on my own, But the born
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: to rape, he could have done much worse. What the fuck?
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Like, that's like he's almost making excuse for his
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: horrific actions.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: Holy shit, this guy is disgusting.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Like I don't even there isn't words to describe how
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: how brutal he is.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: If the Devil is real, the Devil is We'll probably
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: look at this guy and be like, uh the fuck.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was actually a video I was watching and
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: they're like, the devil wouldn't have wouldn't treat his children
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: this bad?
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: No, no never.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: After finally being released from their prison, Elizabeth and her
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: children lived in a clinic for a year, finally learning
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: to live a normal life. They now live in an
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: undisclosed location and have never accepted any interviews with media.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: They lost a ridiculous amount of their life and needed
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: to learn what it would be like to be free
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: to feel the rain on their skin, see grass, feel
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: grass on their feet for the first time. Such simple
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: things that I know a lot of us take for granted,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: but that we should be lucky to experience on a
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: daily basis.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: So that's the story.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: That was a really good wrap up.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Holy shit, I know I even have sus but it's
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: it's true, Like I one hundred percent take those things
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: for granted, and it's like, if this story can teach
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: us anything like maybe just next time when you're outside,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: enjoy the blue sky.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Even on your drive to work, looking out that window
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: of your car, just being amazed by the world on
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: that glass.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it could be a hell of a lot worse.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Holy shit.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: Quite the story.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: Eh, Yeah, I kind of knew of this case without
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: even knowing of the case apparently. Yeah, although the movie
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: is significant different, there's just there's details that made me
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: draw the parallels.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Was were they in that shed for that long? Like
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: twenty four years long?
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it was quite twenty four years,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: but it was definitely over a decade, maybe fifteen to
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: twenty somewhere in there.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe I know, because it just amazes me that this
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: shit actually happens, Like this is not the only story
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: where someone has been held captive for just that extended
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: period of time. It's just I don't know. I just
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: feel like the doom you would feel would just be
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: so much. So I mean, hopefully they're doing like okay
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: and at least someone able to be enjoying the rest
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: of their lives, right, Yes.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: No, kidd, I wish nothing for the best of that family,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: Oh totally, And as far as Joseph fucking.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Rot yeah, rot, Yeah, he's disgusting, like he just.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: I hope he stubs his big toe. You know what, No,
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: I hope he stubs his little toe. That's even worse.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: That's a lot worse.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, stubbing your little toe fucking hurts a lot.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: I hope he does that every fucking minute.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: So do. I hope he stubs his toe every Monday, Tuesday.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: I'll give him Wednesdays to maybe, you don't know, get
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: the flu.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: I just hope everything bad on him, because fuck that guy.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's disturbing. Okay, well, there you go. We have
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the story. Thank you for listening.
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to our patreons patreons patrons
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: on Patreon to you guys. If you want to be
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: a patron, check our link down below in the description
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: of this podcast, and of course for you to be there,
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: our social links as well.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: Facebook, Instagram, website.
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're all down there.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So until then, my friends stay wicked.