Latest / The conspiracy / Kept His Daughter In A Basement Dungeon For 24 Years _ Josef Fritzl

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Kept His Daughter In A Basement Dungeon For 24 Years _ Josef Fritzl · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It was a quiet town in Austria, meat streets and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: quiet homes, the kind of place where nothing truly bad
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is supposed to happen. And yet beneath one of those houses,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: evil had made a home, a secret buried so deep
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it took twenty four years and a dying girl to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: bring it to surface. And in two thousand and eight
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  Speaker 1: the world learned about the name Joseph Fritzel, a name
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  Speaker 1: now synonymous with horror, A man whose crimes not only
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: shocked Austria but the entire world. A father, a husband,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a man who for more than two decades imprisoned his
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: own daughter in a hidden cellar beneath their home. And
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: what happened down there defies belief. Crime, conspiracy, gats, serial killers,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and murder, all things that I love to consume, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I know you do too. You see twisted, intellectual, beautiful minded.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Today I have my associate Rupert King Rupert.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, what.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: A good detective buddy. Detective Rupert on the case. He's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on the case, sit in the background. I don't know
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: if you guys want this for future videos. He likes
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to hang out with me when I filmed, so I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: think I'm gonna have him in the background a little
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: more often. I even got him a pedestal for this,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So I hope you know how important you are to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: make anyway. Today we are getting into a very infamous
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: case and also a very serious case that involves a
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  Speaker 1: lot of triggers. So if you want to skip this one,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: feel free, but without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: go MA five down the highway, slam on the brakes,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and muster this windshield into this infamous case together. So
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  Speaker 1: Joseph fucking Fritzel. Sorry, sorry, he doesn't have a middle name.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know what his middle name is, but I'm
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  Speaker 1: just gonna assume it's was born on April ninth, nineteen
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: thirty five in a small town of Amstetton, Austria, and
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  Speaker 1: it was the only child of Joseph and Maria Fritzel,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and his father was an alcoholic who had actually abandoned
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  Speaker 1: the family when Joseph was only four years old, and
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  Speaker 1: later he would die in World War Two, and this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: left Joseph to be raised by his mother, Maria, who
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was very strict to the point of brutality, and according
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: to Joseph's later accounts his mother frequently beat him on
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  Speaker 1: top of insulted him, calling him a satan, a criminal.
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  Speaker 1: No good. I'm not saying that's okay to kids, but
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: she kind of read the book, and she read it right,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: because this guy is the king of piece of shitzes.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: But he would grow up in the era of Nazi
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: rule in Austria, a time of very harsh discipline and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: authoritarian values, and something he would later point to as
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: an influence on his own outlook of life. But as
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: a boy, Joseph did crave affection but received very little.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: He said he never got a kiss or a cuddle
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  Speaker 1: from his mommy, which is sad as a kid, but again,
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  Speaker 1: I can't help but think how terrible this person is,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: so I really don't care. So instead, he would learn
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  Speaker 1: about power and fear very early on in life, living
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: under the thumb of a domineering parent. So this bleak,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: bleak childhood just kind of set the stage for the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: dark path he would eventually take. And whether this is
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  Speaker 1: nature or nurture, I'm not sure. I'm sure it had
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  Speaker 1: to do a little with it, But I truly feel
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  Speaker 1: like people like this are born this way, you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And then maybe nurtured into the peak of what they
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: could become in the worst way, but anyway. In his
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: teenage years, Joseph Fritzel was described as intelligent, but also
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: odd and solitary because he was coming of age in
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  Speaker 1: war torn society, and although he wasn't necessarily a soldier,
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  Speaker 1: he did witness the aftermath of the conflict and social order,
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  Speaker 1: and at home his mothers would continue and Joseph will
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  Speaker 1: later reflect that he often ended up quote unquote lying
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  Speaker 1: in a pool of blood after his mother's beatings, which, again,
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  Speaker 1: that's horrific and no child should ever endure that. But
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  Speaker 1: despite the cruelty, he initially claimed to revere his mother,
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  Speaker 1: calling her the best woman in the world, only later
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  Speaker 1: to admit how terrified and hurt he had been by her.
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  Speaker 1: But these early experiences taught Joseph the power of domination
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  Speaker 1: and control, lessons he would twist in horrifying ways in
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  Speaker 1: his adult life, as we will come to know. So
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  Speaker 1: after finishing compulsory schooling, Fritzel pursued higher technical education, and
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  Speaker 1: outwardly he appeared to be turning into a normal, productive
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  Speaker 1: human being in society, but there were already hints of
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  Speaker 1: disturbing behavior beneath the surface. So Joseph was bright enough
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  Speaker 1: to attend a technical college where he earned his qualification
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  Speaker 1: in electrical engineering. So by his early twenties he had
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  Speaker 1: a solid career path and he would actually land a
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  Speaker 1: job at a steel company and that was first Alpina
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  Speaker 1: in Lintz and later would work at a construction materials
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  Speaker 1: firm in the hometown of Amstenden. So with his engineering knowledge,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: he became very skilled at mechanics and electrics, skills that
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  Speaker 1: he would one day use to build a secret facility
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  Speaker 1: for his crimes. So in nineteen fifty six, at the
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  Speaker 1: age of twenty one, Joseph married a young woman named
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: rose Marie, and Rosemary was just seventeen years old at
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  Speaker 1: the time, just different times. But to get this woman,
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  Speaker 1: he had managed to present himself as a normal man
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  Speaker 1: ready to settle down. And it was around this time
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  Speaker 1: that Joseph's mother actually moved in with the newlyweds. How
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: romantic and in a disturbing reversal of his childhood, he
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  Speaker 1: began reportedly asserting control over his mother, and it said
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that eventually he actually locked his own mother in the
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  Speaker 1: attict of their home and bricked up her window, and
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  Speaker 1: he would tell his neighbors that she died, when in
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  Speaker 1: fact he just kept her imprisoned until her actual death
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. So the shit was starting. Needless to say,
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  Speaker 1: he was getting his revenge. But the fact that Joseph
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  Speaker 1: Fritzel secretly held his mother captive for possibly up to
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  Speaker 1: twenty years was an eerie foreshadowing of the horrors just
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  Speaker 1: to come. So by the mid nineteen fifties, Joseph Fritzel
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  Speaker 1: was outwardly a trained engineer, husband and soon to be father,
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  Speaker 1: but inside him, a dangerous obsession with power and confinement
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  Speaker 1: was already taking root. So Joseph would marry Rosemary in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, and she was very quiet and very
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  Speaker 1: trusting of Joseph, and we'd like to think that she
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  Speaker 1: had no idea what was happening with her new husband,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: but we don't know that yet. So they would settle
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  Speaker 1: in Abstetton at Yepsterstraw forty, the very house that would
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  Speaker 1: later become infamous worldwide. So Rosemrie was a homemaker, devoted
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  Speaker 1: to her family, and by many accounts she was gentle
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  Speaker 1: and dutiful, so literally nothing like this guy's mother. But Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, ruled the household with an iron
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  Speaker 1: fist like his mother apple Tree, and even tolerate no
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  Speaker 1: descent from his wife or his children, and Rosemarie's sister Christine,
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  Speaker 1: later described Joseph as a tyrant at home and even
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  Speaker 1: at family gatherings. Christine recalled, quote unquote, if I myself
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  Speaker 1: was scared of him at a family party, then you
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  Speaker 1: can imagine how it must have been for rose Marie,
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  Speaker 1: who lived under his roof. Obviously, so this guy was
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for the opportunity to to just dominate over
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  Speaker 1: somebody else after he was being dominated his entire childhood
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  Speaker 1: from his mother. But rose Marie would do her best
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  Speaker 1: to keep the family together and appease her domineering husband,
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  Speaker 1: just completely unaware of the truly horrific plans he was concocting.
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  Speaker 1: So over the years, Rosemarie and Joseph Fritzel had seven children,
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  Speaker 1: three sons and four daughters, and one of those daughters
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  Speaker 1: was Elizabeth, who was born on April sixth, nineteen sixty six,
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  Speaker 1: and the Fritzel household from the outside seemed fairly ordinary
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  Speaker 1: but obviously strict, and neighbors would later remember Joseph as
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  Speaker 1: authoritarian but otherwise unremarkable, a man who liked order but
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  Speaker 1: kept his family in line. Inside the home, however, there
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  Speaker 1: were clear signs of a bit, and an acquaintance later
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  Speaker 1: recalled that Elizabeth was quote unquote very withdrawn and shy,
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  Speaker 1: and that her father would give her a quote a
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  Speaker 1: sap for every small thing he disapproved of, and Joseph's
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  Speaker 1: own older son experienced this as well, and years later
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  Speaker 1: one of Elizabeth's brother testified that their father would be
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  Speaker 1: them as children. Fear would just hang over this family,
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  Speaker 1: and Joseph's wife and kids learned never to question him.
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  Speaker 1: His word was law, So under this climate, Joseph was
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  Speaker 1: able to do terrible things right under his family's feet.
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  Speaker 1: So Joseph Fritzel's pattern of sexual violence did not start
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  Speaker 1: with Elizabeth, but it appeared to have begun much earlier.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, at age thirty two, he actually
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  Speaker 1: broke into the home of a twenty four year old
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  Speaker 1: nurse and ripped her at knife point, and he would
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  Speaker 1: also threaten to kill the young woman if she screamed,
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  Speaker 1: and Fritzel would actually be caught and convicted of this crime,
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  Speaker 1: serving only twelve months of an eighteen month sentence in prison,
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  Speaker 1: But astonishingly, this violent stile offense was kept relatively quiet
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  Speaker 1: under Austrian law and it was actually wiped completely from
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  Speaker 1: his record after fifteen years, which is fucking crazy. Is
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  Speaker 1: that not crazy, Rupert? He's sleep and I just woke
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  Speaker 1: him up. That was rude. Joseph was also accused of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: an attempted rip of another woman and was just known
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  Speaker 1: for indecent exposure around that time as well. Guy was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the creepy guy with the jacket that opened and was
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  Speaker 1: swearing not that underneath, but these early crimes to show
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  Speaker 1: a dangerous predator behind a mask of a family man.
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  Speaker 1: And rose Marie did know her husband had been in
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  Speaker 1: jail in the late nineteen sixties, but it's unclear if
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  Speaker 1: she actually knew why so she would stay with them,
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  Speaker 1: possibly just believing the excuses or rationalizations that he gave her.
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  Speaker 1: But by nineteen seventies, Joseph had returned to family life
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  Speaker 1: and outward respectably, but nothing had changed about his violent desires.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they were now turning towards the worst possible target,
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  Speaker 1: and that was his own daughter, Elizabeth. So Fritzel began
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  Speaker 1: saying Elizabeth when she was only eleven years old in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, and he would single her out from
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  Speaker 1: his other children for especially harsh treatment, and as she
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  Speaker 1: reached adolescence, the abuse just escalated into so Elizabeth just
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  Speaker 1: grew up in fear of her father, and during things
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  Speaker 1: no child should ever suffer, let alone from their own father.
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  Speaker 1: To she became quiet and fearful and just tried to
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  Speaker 1: avoid him as much as she could. Now at the
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  Speaker 1: age of sixteen, Elizabeth attempted to run away from home
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  Speaker 1: twice to escape her father's abuse, and in one instance,
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  Speaker 1: in January of nineteen eighty three, she actually fled to
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  Speaker 1: Vienna and hid with a friend, only to be found
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  Speaker 1: by police and return back home. But each time being
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  Speaker 1: sent back into her father's care must have felt like
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  Speaker 1: a death sentence to Elizabeth, because at this point she
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  Speaker 1: had no way of truly getting away from this freking monster,
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  Speaker 1: at least not yet. And unfortunately, what Elizabeth didn't know
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  Speaker 1: was what her father's twisted mind had already devised as
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  Speaker 1: a permanent solution to keep her under his control forever.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So during the late nineteen seventies and the early nineteen eighties,
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  Speaker 1: while Elizabeth was entering her teens, Joseph Fritzel was secretly
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  Speaker 1: building a prison beneath his home. An engineer by training,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: he took on a home improvement project expanding the cellar
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  Speaker 1: beneath the family's apartment house. And at the time, cold
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: war fears made it common for Austrians to build nuclear
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: bunkers and follow shelters, so nobody batted an eye, and
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Fritzel took full advantage of this, so as early as
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight he obtained official permits permits to construct
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  Speaker 1: a deeper cellar, allegedly as a domestic nuclear shelter on
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  Speaker 1: his property. So neighbors saw him renting excavators and digging
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: out tons of soil from under the house wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow,
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  Speaker 1: and to outsiders he was simply a diligent homeowner just
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: improving his property, but in reality, Joseph was meticulously planning
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  Speaker 1: a personal dungeon for his daughter. So by nineteen eighty three,
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  Speaker 1: Fritzl's secret bunker was almost ready, and it comprised a
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  Speaker 1: network of narrow rooms hidden behind the existing basement, and
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  Speaker 1: he would install multiple reinforced doors, as many as eight
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  Speaker 1: in a series one after another to reach the final
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  Speaker 1: hidden chamber, and the last door was made of concrete
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  Speaker 1: and metal, weighing hundreds of pounds and secured with an
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  Speaker 1: electric code lock. And Fritzel built shelves and walls to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: conceal entrances as well. One door was hidden behind a
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  Speaker 1: shelf stocked with paint cans, even and he would wire
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  Speaker 1: the cellar with electricity, lights and ventilation. He just thought
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  Speaker 1: of everything, even soundproofing the walls, creating a secret bathroom area,
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  Speaker 1: and ensuring the space could be closed off from the
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  Speaker 1: outside world completely. And no one in the family suspected
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a thing, allegedly, not his wife, nor his children, nor
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: tenants who rented rooms upstairs to them. Joseph's basement renovations
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: seemed legit, and after digging out so much soil, Joseph
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: built a new swimming pool in the backyard as a
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  Speaker 1: decoy for all the construction mess, so the family would
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: later splash in the pool on warm days, unaware that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: directly beneath them under the garden lay a hidden chamber
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  Speaker 1: that would become Elizabeth's tomb like home. So by August
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, the stage was set. Joseph Fritzel's project
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  Speaker 1: was now complete, and now all he needed was a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: way to lure his daughter inside of it, and sadly,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: he already knew exact actly how to do that. So
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: August twenty eighth and nineteen eighty four was just another
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  Speaker 1: ordinary summer day when eighteen year old Elizabeth Fritzel's life
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: changed forever. Joseph would call her down to the workshop
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  Speaker 1: cellar asking for help with a heavy door, and it
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: seemed like an innocent father daughter chore, something that she
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: had done many other times, and Elizabeth, likely eager to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: keep him happy to avoid a beating, followed her father
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  Speaker 1: into the bowels of this cellar to help her father
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  Speaker 1: fit this last door into place. So she would hold
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the door upright as instructed while he fixed it into frame.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: But this door would be the final piece in sealing
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: off the new hidden cellar from the outside world completely,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: so as she was standing there and as he was
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: just finished sealing it off, he finished, and Joseph made
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  Speaker 1: his move, so as Elizabeth turned to climb back up
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  Speaker 1: the stairs, her father would press a cloth soaked in
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: ether over her face, and Elizabeth would have no time
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to screen and the comical's fumes would overwhelm her and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: she would lose consciousness and her world went dark in
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  Speaker 1: an instant. And that's when Joseph Fritzel would drag his
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: daughter's limp body into this secret chamber and close the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: door behind him. And with that single monstrous act, Joseph
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: had transformed the cellar into a lifelong prison for his daughter.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: So when Elizabeth failed to come upstairs or show up
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: for work, her mother, Rosemary, was growing very worried because
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: she had actually been about to start in a new
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: job as a waitress in a nearby city of Lynz
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and Rosemary at this point genuinely did not know what
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: happened to her daughter, and she would later file a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: missing person's report, frantic to find Elizabeth. But Joseph would
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: calmly offer an explanation, and an explanation he had thought
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: of a million times over, and that is that Elizabeth
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: just ran away from home to join a cult. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: this lie would be disturbingly plausible at first, because everyone
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: knew Elizabeth had attempted to run away before, and now
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Joseph insisted she had done so again, and this time
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: for good, and he said that Elizabeth wanted no contact
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: with the family while she was gone, and to back
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: up his story, he reproduced a letter that he handed
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: over to the police about a month after Elizabeth's disappearance,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and astonishingly, this letter was handwritten by Elizabeth herself, because
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: obviously Joseph had forced his captive daughter to write this
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: letter in the cellar, and this letter was postmarked from
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a distant town, stating that Elizabeth was tired of family
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: life and didn't want to be found, and in it
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: she even warned her parents not to search for her,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: otherwise she would leave the country entirely. So the message
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: just sounded definitive, and the police and family accepted it
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: as proof that Elizabeth had left by her own volition,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: so Joseph's cover story.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Was now in full effect.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: To the outside world, it seemed that a troubled teen
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: has just run off to live with some mysterious cult members,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: which at that time wasn't as uncommon as you'd think
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: if you have watched my channel at all. But in reality,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was locked away just a few feet below the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: ground of her own home, and Rosemary, heartbroken but trusting,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: believed her husband's explanation. She had no reason to imagine
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the unbelievable truth that was actually happening, and Rosemary says
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Sir Christine even said later that they talked often about
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: what might have happened to Elizabeth, saying, quote to her mother,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: where can Elizabeth be? And she and her relatives tried
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to think what groups or places their daughter might have gone.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: And Christine recalls how they searched railway stations and areas
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: where homeless kids and young adults gathered trying to find Elizabeth.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: She would say, quote, we really did detective work as
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: to where the cult could be. They were just so
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: desperate to ensure Elizabeth was at least safe, but every
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: lead went nowhere because no one in the family suspected Joseph,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: her own father, And secondly, Joseph maintained this aura of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: a concerned father and a normal family man throughout this
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: whole situation, and friends and relatives would later say, quote,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: never had any reason to suspect him. And Elizabeth's brother
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: in law, who married one of the older sisters, actually
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: remembered frequently visiting the fritzelhouse and completely accepting the story
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: that Elizabeth had just run away. He would say, we
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: always believed Elizabeth had run away and not to come back.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Everyone did. That was the truth to us. We didn't
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: question it, and at home, Joseph just continued to reinforce
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the deception with intimidation and kept people from challenging him
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: like he always did, because rose Marie was as much
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: under his control as their children were, And so the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Fritzl family would just carry on with their daily lives,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: grieving the loss of Elizabeth, but believing, as Joseph told them,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: that she was alive and simply didn't want to be
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: with them anymore, which is so freaking heartbreaking. So when
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth awakened after being knocked out that first day, she
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: found herself chained to a bed in utter darkness, and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the reality was much more horrifying than any cult fantasy,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: because her own father was her jailer, and in those
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: early days and weeks of captivity, Joseph kept Elizabeth's arms
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: topped with an iron chain that was bolted to a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: metal post behind her bed, so at first she could
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: hardly even move, and the chain allowed her less than
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a meter of slack, and for about two days she
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: was restrained like this, utterly alone, barely able to move
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: in the pitch black dark but after those couple days,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Joseph would loosen her bonds slightly, fastening the chain around
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: her waist so she could at least shuffle at a
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: short distance, but she was still far far from free,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and eventually six to nine months later he would actually
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: remove that chain entirely, not out of mercy, but because
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it was getting in the way of all the s.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: So the emotional and physical trip for Elizabeth was immense
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: because she was just a teenager who had just lost everything,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: her innocence in all of her formidable years, on top
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of her freedom, her dignity, even daylight in fresh air.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: And Elizabeth would spend her first five years entirely alone
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in this cellar, with no company except for her monstrous father,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and it was said that he hardly ever spoke to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: her kindly or normally during that entire time. He would
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: just come down mainly to bring food and sam and leave,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: so Elizabeth had no one to comfort her during this time,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: So desperate and hopeless, she later admitted that she had
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: contemplated square slide in those lonely years, but the only
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: thing that kept her going was the thought that somehow
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: she could maybe survive until an opportunity to escape would arise,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: but little did she know her imprisonment would last over
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: two decades, and conditions in the cellar were hellish from
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the start. It was cold, it was damp, the water
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: was dripping down the walls whenever it rained. Mold grew
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and the stagnant air, and Elizabeth had to use old
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: towels to stop up the moisture that collected just to
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: keep the place somewhat dry. And rats infested this cellar,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and she could hear them scurrying in the darkness when
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: she was trying to sleep, and sometimes she actually had
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to catch in rats with her bare hands when they
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: got too bold. And the smell and filth in the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: cellar was oppressive, and in the summer the underground air
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: turned stifling end quote into an intolerable, sweaty sauna. As
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth later wrote in it calendar functioning essentially as a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: hidden diary for her, and with no sunlight or concept
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of time, apart from a clock and a television that
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: she got later, much later down the road, her sense
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of day and night completely faded. So years passed and
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the world above the cellar moved on, while Elizabeth remained
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: frozen in a nightmare that seemed endless. So in late
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, about a year into her captivity, eighteen
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: year old Elizabeth became pregnant for the first time, carrying
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: her father's child, and this pregnancy tragically ended in a
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: miscarriage at ten weeks in nineteen eighty six, likely due
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: to stress and malnutrition that she suffered. But Joseph's use
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: would continue and Elizabeth would soon become pregnant again, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: on August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, she would give birth
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to a baby girl that she named Kirsten, and the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: birth would take place in this cramped cellar with no doctors,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: no nurses, and no pain relief, only a nineteen sixties
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: maternity guide book that Joseph had provided and a few
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: basic supplies that he gave her. She did it all
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: on her own, and Joseph didn't even come to check
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: on them for ten days until after the birth, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: somehow Elizabeth managed to care for and give birth to
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: her newborn in these first few critical days completely alone.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: But despite these horrific circumstances, Kirsten, her new baby, kind
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: of brought a new sense of purpose to Elizabeth's life
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: because after years in isolation, Elizabeth finally had someone to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: love and protect besides herself, and approximately one and a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: half years later, on February nineteen ninety, Elizabeth gave birth
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: to her second child, which was a boy named Stefan,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and both Kristin and Steffan remained underground with their mother,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: never seeing sunlight and knowing only walls of the cellar
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: as their entire world, which is so, so incredibly sad,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: but with it being such a small space, it started
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to get really cramped to raise two infants in and
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Joseph provided only the bare minimum of food and supplies
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: to keep them all alive, and Elizabeth would do her
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: very best to nurse and care for her babies, but
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the conditions were unimaginable, no fresh air, no outside help,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and a constant fear of Joseph's next visit. So by
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Elizabeth was pregnant once more, and on
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: August twenty ninth, nineteen ninety two, she delivered another baby
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: girl whose name was Lisa. Well, this time Joseph would
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: have a different plan, so the following May, when baby
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Lisa was around nine months old and becoming active, Joseph
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: decided to remove this child from the cellar, and the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: alleged reason was that the seller was getting too crowded
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: and lacked proper space for growing children, and in reality,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Joseph likely saw an opportunity to bolster his cover story,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: so in May of nineteen ninety three, he took the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: infant Lisa out of the dungeon and carried her upstairs
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to the house and he would place Lisa in a
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: cardboard box and leave them outside their doorstep of the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Fritzl home as if she had just been abandoned there,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and he would include a note from Elizabeth, which he
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: had forced Elizabeth to write ahead of time, so the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: note was written in Elizabeth's handwriting and explained that the
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: baby was Elizabeth's tie, but that she couldn't care for
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the infant and begged her parents to look after Lisa,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and it would read, dear parents, I am leaving you
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: my little daughter Lisa. Take good care of my little girl.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I breastfed her for around six and a half months,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and now she drinks her milk from the bottle. She
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: is a good girl, and she eats everything else from
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the spoon.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: This whole story is so heartbreaking. Oh my god.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: So it was a heart wrenching plea and it was convincing,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and Joseph would discover the baby on the doorstep and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: then present it to rose Marie as a miraculous find,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and they were both shocked, and Rosemary was likely overjoyed
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to have a piece of her missing daughter in the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: form of a grandchild. So they'd informed the local authorities,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and unsurprisingly, social services had no reason to doubt the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: story because here was a little baby with a note
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: from the mother who had joined a cult asking for
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the grandparents to take care of her. So officials would
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: note that the fritzals seemed loving and devoted and were
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: suitable caregivers for the baby Lisa. In fact, Joseph and
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: rose Marie would actually go through formal channels to keep Lisa,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and they would eventually adopt her legally, but no one
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: realized that the man applying to adopt the child was
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: in fact her biological father and grandfather all at the
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: same time. Just disgusting, And because of Joseph's prior criminal
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: record from the nineteen sixty seven grape that had been
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: removed from his record, social workers found nothing alarming when
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: checking his background. So to them, Joseph Fritzel was a
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: respectable older gentleman taking his runaway daughter's baby, and the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: ghastly truth remained completely hidden. So in nineteen ninety four,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: a fourth child would be born in the cellar and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: it would be a little girl named Monica, and she
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: would be born on February twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: In Monica, like Lisa, would be taken upstairs as an infant.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: So when Monica was about ten months old in December
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, Joseph removed her from the cellar
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and would leave her in a stroller outside of the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Fritzeal house and again he would stage it as an
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: abandoned child of Elizabeth. And shortly after Monica was found,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the Fritzels received a phone call that supposedly came from
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth telling them to take care of her maybe. And
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: at this point Rosemary was just taken aback because a
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: caller had sounded like Elizabeth, but she somehow knew the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: family's unlisted phone number, and this was something Elizabeth just
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't have known unless someone gave it to her. So
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it appears that Joseph recorded Elizabeth's voice and otherwise faked
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: this phone call to further convince his wife that Elizabeth
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was truly at a cult and just out there periodically leaving
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: her children on their front doorstep. So Rosemary would report
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: this bizarre number to the police, just puzzled about how
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth would have known their number, but still no one
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: would put the pieces together, and in their minds it
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: just reinforced that Elizabeth was in contact somehow, yet never
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: was coming home, and Monica, like Lisa, would be taken
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: in by the Fritzl family, and Joseph and Rosemarie would
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: become foster parents to Monica with the blessing of authorities,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and then even more children would arrive. On April twenty eighth,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Elizabeth went into labor with twin boys
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in the cellar, and the birth of twins in such
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: condition was an extraordinary strain. In one of the twins,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: little Michael, was very weak and had a lot of
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: difficulty breathing from the start, so Elizabeth desperately tried to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: save her infant son, but with no medical equipment or doctors,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: there was little that she could do, and according to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's later testimony, Joseph coldly told her quote unquote, what
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: will be will be as a newborn struggled for air,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: This guy can't be any more monstrous than he and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: then he topps himself somehow, So tragically, baby Michael would
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: do Elizabeth's arms at just three days old, and Joseph
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: would take the tiny corpse from his daughter in an
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: act of demonstrating his complete lack of remorse, and then
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: he would burn baby's body in an insiderator, and he
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: then would secretly scatter Michael's ashes in the garden behind
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the house, and this heinous indeed would later lead to
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a charge of murder by negligence because had Michael received
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: medical care, he may have lived. Meanwhile, the second twin, Alexander,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: miraculously survived and at around fifteen months old. At around
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, Alexander was removed from the cellar and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: taken upstairs like his sisters before him, and the Fritzls
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: found Alexander and claimed Elizabeth had left the boy for
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: them as well. And by this point social services and
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: just locals were a bit bewildered, to say the least,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: because how many children was Elizabeth going to have? And
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: drop off. But given that it had happened one by
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: one over years, and Joseph always had letters or explanations ready,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the authorities continued to believe him, and to them, Joseph
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: was a peculiar case, a man whose daughter had joined
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: a sect and dumping babies on her a strange parents' doorstep.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Yet he and his wife were stepping up to care
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: for these poor abandoned grandchildren. And in total, three of
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's children, Lisa, Monica, and Alexander, were raised above ground
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: by Joseph and Rosemarie, while Elizabeth herself remained trapped below
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: with her other children. But the family in the cellar
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: had one more member coming in. On December sixteenth, two
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: thousand and two, Elizabeth bore her seventh and final child
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: in captivity and would be a boy named Felix, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: this time sixty seven year old Joseph. He's sixty seven now,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: by the way, fucking geriatric, fucking piece of shit, but anyway,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: sixty seven year old Joseph Fritzel decided to keep the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: baby Felix underground with Elizabeth because perhaps he thought his
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: wife could not handle another infant, because Rosemary, at this
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: point was in her sixties now, or perhaps he was
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: just running out of bullshit excuses as to why so
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: many fucking babies were showing up at their doorstep. Whatever
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the reason, though, Felix stayed in the cellar, joining his
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: mother now teenage, sister Kirsten, and brother Stefan, and by
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three the family below ground consisted of
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth and her three children, while abug ground lived the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: other three children, Lisa, Monica, and Alexander. So the total
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: tally of Joseph's instuous offspring was seven children, and miraculously
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: six were alive. But the upstairs children had relatively normal lives,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: especially compared to the kids in the cellar. Rosemary would
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: care for them lovingly, thinking that they were her grandchildren,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and they would grow up calling Rosemarrie Mammy affectionately. And
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: in legal terms, the Fritzls were foster or adoptive parents,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: but to the children it just felt like Joseph and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Rosemary were their parents, and as we know, one of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: them actually was. And they did well in school. They
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: played instruments and were even seen out of town with
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Joseph on weekends, and they would enjoy the sunshine and
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: freedom of normal childhood, and they too had no idea
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: that their mother was not some cult member that ran off,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: but was a girl stuck down below their feet. And meanwhile,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the downstairs children had a polar opposite life. Kirsten, Stefan
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and Felix had never seen daylight even once in their life.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: They just lived in a windowless hell of concrete rooms,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and their only sources of information about the outside world
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: was from their mother and television that Joseph eventually provided.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And these children only knew four people their entire lives,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: their mother, Elizabeth, each other, and occasionally their father slash
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: grandfather Joseph. And they were described as pale, stooped, and
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: developmentally delayed from the lack of space and nutrition, and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: they had limited vocabulary and were said to communicate with
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: each other in strange growling or sing song manner at times,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: which was a speech pattern developed in isolation. Just imagine
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: being born in a world no larger than a cellar.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: That was their entire reality, and life in the cellar
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: was a study in survival under grotesque conditions, and every
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: day was a struggle for Elizabeth and the children to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: maintain a sense of normalcy underground and over the years,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Joseph expanded the living space slightly, especially after nineteen ninety
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: three when Elizabeth pleaded for more room as a children grew.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: So who had forced Elizabeth and the kids to help
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: dig out soil with their bare hands to enlarge the
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: chambers by roughly six hundred square feet, and the finished
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: hit and apartments consisted of a few small rooms, sleeping quarters,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: a really tiny bathroom, and a main living area that
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: doubled as a kitchen. And the ceilings were so low
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that adults and tall children had to slouch over because
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the ceilings were only about five feet six inches in
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: high places, and the walls would be lined with soundproof
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: material to muffle any cries for help, and they would
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: only have the very basic of basic resources, an old toilet,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a sink, and a really small shower, and he would
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: later bring down a washing machine for laundry and a
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: refrigerator for some food, and there was an old hot
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: plate as well to warm meals when they got them,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: and the light was entirely artificial. It was just this
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: harsh fluorescent strip light, and he would sometimes shut off
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the power to punish them, plunging the family into total
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: darkness for days on end, and the air was extremely
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: stuffy because they've never experienced fresh air before. In fact,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: the seller's air was so poor that when police finally
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: examined it, they found they could only tolerate being inside
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: for short periods due to the lack of oxygen. And remember,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth has lived down here for twenty four years along
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: with her children, and despite the filth, Elizabeth tried to
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: make the space homey for her children. She knew that
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: for the kids born in captivity, this cellar was the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: only home they had ever had, so on the mildew
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: white bathroom tiles, Elizabeth drew and painted little pictures to
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: brighten the place. There was a yellow snail with a
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: green shell, and a purple octopus, a child's drawing of
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: a flower and a fish, and stickers of stars and suns,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: all things that they had never seen before in real
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: life and only on television. And Elizabeth would do her
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: very best to educate and entertain the children every single day.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: So she would teach them to read and write using
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: limited materials that she had. She would watch adventure films
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: with them and even invent tales of pirates and princesses
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: to spark their imaginations, and she managed to instruct her
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: kids the best that she could, even as her own
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: knowledge from school faded. Over the long and long years
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of it was just an inadequate Kadi existence, but this
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: underground bunker was the only home Elizabeth and her captive
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: children knew for twenty four years, and hygiene and health
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: were a constant concern, and a lack of sun light
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: meant that Elizabeth and her children became very pale and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: obviously vitam indeed deficient, so they were prone to illness
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: that they never could properly treat. So someone got sick,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Joseph might bring some medicine, but a serious condition could
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: be life threatening down there. There was also a freezer
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: in the cellar where Joseph stored food when he went
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: away on holidays, But when he cut the power as punted,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes the freezer would thaw and rotting food would just
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: leak across the floor, creating a nauseating mess that Elizabeth
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: had to clean in the dark. So they would just
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: live on whatever supplies he delivered intermittently, and they never
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: ever had enough. So Joseph Fritzel maintained absolute control over
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: his underground family through a mix of violence, lies, and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: psychological terror. He would visit the hidden cellar almost every
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: single day, usually in the early morning around nine am,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: under the pretense of working in the basement workshop, and
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: he would tell tenants who rented the room in the
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: building upstairs and his wife that he was doing technical
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: drawings or private projects down there and he did not
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: want to be disturbed, and Rosemary was never allowed to
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: bring him coffee into the basement or visit him in
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the basement ever. I In truth, each morning, Joseph would
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: unlock the secret door that had that electronic code and
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: descend into Elizabeth's prison with supplies, and he would bring food, water,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: and occasional treats, but always just enough to keep them
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: dependent and subservient. And sometimes he would even stay down
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: there through the night, and neighbors and tenants reported hearing noises,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: but Joseph dismissed those as faulty pipes or the gas
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: heating system just acting up, so his cover was just
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: air tight because everyone in the house knew the seller
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: was completely off limits and trusted his explanation for any
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: odd sounds, and inside the cellar, Joseph acted both kind
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes and like the absolute foking devil. Sometimes he could
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: be oddly domestic. Elizabeth would later recount her father would
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: sit down after doing horrible things to her and act
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: as if though they were a normal family, watching movies
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: together on TV or eating dinner on their little table together,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and he would bring toys and books on occasion for
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the children, trying to appear like a benevolent parent, and
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: he would even bring a canary down for them at
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: one point to see, because at this point they had
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: never seen a living animal, And on Christmas he even
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: carried down a small Christmas tree for them, in a
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: twisted version of Holiday's spirit. And he also physically beat
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: and kicked Elizabeth frequently, especially if she even dared to
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: disobey him in any way, shape or form, and the
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: this was not only physical or sexual, but also deeply psychological,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: because Joseph would force Elizabeth to re enact violent graphic
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: scenes he had seen just humiliating her in front of
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: her own kids. So the injuries and trauma he caused
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: left her with lasting medical issues. Her teeth, for instance,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: suffered from a lack of care, and many would have
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to be removed just to keep control. Joseph had cultivated
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: an atmosphere of just utter hopelessness down there. He repeatedly
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: would threaten Elizabeth and the children if they ever tried
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to escape or even resist, that he would kime in
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: horrible ways, and he would tell them that he installed
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: a very elaborate system that would electrocute them if they
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: meddled with the cellar doors at all, or that poisonous
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: gas would flood the chamber if they ever attempted to
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: break out. But in reality, all of those threats were
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: complete lies. But Elizabeth and the kids obviously believed him
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: because they had no reason not to, and the thought
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: that one push against the door could result in being
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: gased to death was enough to keep them from ever
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: attempting to rebel. And Joseph had exploited their concern for
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: each other as well, and he would warn Elizabeth that
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: if she didn't submit to his will, he would say, quote, your.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Treatment will get worse and you will not escape from
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: the cellar anyway. So he would just make her feel
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: like resisting him only would bring her and her children
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: more pain, so she would just endure the abuse silently
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: to protect her children. And for twenty four years, this
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: twisted routine would continue. Meanwhile, Joseph Fritzel would manage to
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: live this double life of unamassable depravity. Upstairs, he was
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: a stern but caring husband and father, having barbecues in
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: the garden and taking his grandchildren to buy ice cream,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: and downstairs he was a captor and a grapist, forcing
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: his own daughter and grandchildren to act as slaves. And
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: he would even go on vacations abroad, and at one
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: point he took a three week trip to Thailand in
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight for six Tourism would put it past
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: him all while his daughter and their children languished in
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: this cellar with a freezer full of food that eventually
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: thowed and spoiled completely. So one has to wonder if
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: he had died or an accident had happened on those trips,
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: what would have come of the prisoners below. And it's
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: likely that all of them would have perished horrible deaths.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: And remarkably, over the years no one had discovered this
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: huge secret. Social workers would visit the Fritzl home to
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: check the upstairs foster children and they would just find
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: everything was in order. They would say, the family seems
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: so caring. Nothing to arouse suspicion, and with Elizabeth being
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: an official missing person, no one connected the dots, and
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: by the early two thousands, Joseph was in his late
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: sixties and the strain of maintaining two families was starting
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: to grow Boo fucking who, and Elizabeth herself now was
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: in her forties and the oldest Seller children were teenagers,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: So Joseph had to have sensed that things could spiral
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: out of control very quickly, yet he would persist his
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: lives and it wasn't until a sudden medical crisis in
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight that his house of cards would
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: finally come tumbling down. So in April of two thousand
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: and eight, the delicate balance in Joseph Fristle's hidden world
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: would collapse because Kirsten, Elizabeth's older daughter that was in
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: the cellar, fell critically ill. And at nineteen years old,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Kirsten had spent her entire life underground, so she would
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: have chronic health problems, and now her condition was life threatening,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: which is very unsurprising and given her environment. So Kristen
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: was suffering from kidney failure and she was in such
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: bad shape that Elizabeth was terrified her daughter would die.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Right there in the dungeon with them.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: So desperate to save Kirsten, Elizabeth begged Joseph to get
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: medical hope for her, and on April nineteenth, two thousand
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and eight, Joseph decided to take Kirsten to the hospital,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and it was the first time in twenty four years
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: he had ever allowed any one of his captives to
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: leave the seller, besides the infants that he had removed completely.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: So Elizabeth helped Joseph carry limp Kirsten out of the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: underground chamber and she would see a glimpse of the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: outside world for the first time since nineteen eighty four.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: So I can't even imagine how she felt in this moment.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I imagine she just had this surge of hope amongst just
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the feeling of dread. But Joseph would force Elizabeth to
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: remain behind Stepan and Felix, threatening her as always, But
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth would slip a note to Kirsten and she would
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: put it in her pocket before her daughter was taken out,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and then Joseph would place the unconscious Kirsten into his
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: car and he would drive to the local hospital and
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: he would come up with yet another fucking tail because
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: upon his arrival, Joseph claimed he found this girl near
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: his home with a note from her mother, and he
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: would hand over Elizabeth's note to the doctor's and the
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: note would be brief and pleading, saying please please help
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: her in Elizabeth's handwriting, mentioning to use aspirin to help
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: her treat her daughter, and she would say, Kirsten is
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: really terrified of other people. She was never in a hospital,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and the hospital staff were insanely alarmed by her state
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: because she was extremely pale, her teeth were rotted or
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: missing from lifelong lack of care, and she was severely malnourished.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: So medical tests would show that Kirsten had kidney failure
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: and life threatening breakdown of all of her systems, and
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the doctors luckily would find Joseph's story very suspicious because
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: here was a nineteen year old who appeared severely neglected,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: with a mysterious note and an oddly evasive grandfather. So
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: they tried to get more information from Joseph about Kirsten's
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: medical history, but Joseph would stick to his tail and
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: he implied that Kirsten's mother was his long lost daughter, Elizabeth,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: who had joined a cult and that Elizabeth had dropped
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Kirsten off just suddenly. But the pieces weren't adding up
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: for the doctors, because why would a cult allow a
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: desperately ill girl to be brought back to a public hospital,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: and why did the note suggest treating with aspirin at
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the girl clearly was beyond that, And where on earth
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: was the girl's mother at this point. So by April
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: twenty one, two thousand and eight, the hospital alerted local
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: authorities that something was off, and this would be two
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: days after Kirsten's arrival, so the police would open an
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: investigation because they had a gravely ill young woman with
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: no past medical records and a questionable note, and a
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: mother who was still officially missing since nineteen eighty four.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: So the authorities decided to make a public appeal, and
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: they went to the media and broadcast messages plating for
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth to come forward and provide medical information about Kirsten.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: And this was a pivotal moment because for the first
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: time in decades, Elizabeth's disappearance was back in the public
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: eye and news reports on TV and radio in the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: area talked about the case of the sick girl named
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Kirsten and her missing mother Elizabeth and down in the cellar.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth and her sons actually saw these media reports on
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the television, and one can only imagine how Elizabeth was
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: feeling when she saw those just hearing the world finally
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: calling her name, just knowing this might be her chance
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: at rescue, finally, but still being trapped behind these cellar doors,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine. So for a week after Kirsten's hospitalization,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth remained trapped in the cellar for anxiety for her
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: daughter growing every passing hour, and she knew from the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: news appeals that doctors were begging for her to come forward,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: So she confronted Joseph, pleading with him to let her
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: go to her sick child's side. And Joseph Fritzel, now
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: seventy three years old, found himself under more pressure than
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: ever because his ability to juggle these double lives was failing,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and perhaps that if Kirsten actually died, an autopsy would
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: reveal evidence of long term abings that he could not
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: explain away. And perhaps he just sensed the police were
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: closing in on him, you know, like hold dark cellar doors.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: So in any event, Joseph decided to stage a sudden
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: return of his missing daughter, Elizabeth, and his hope was
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: to release his daughter and their children without too many
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: questions asked, and on April twenty sixth, two thousand and eight,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: he told rose Marie that Elizabeth had unexpectedly left the
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: cult and had come home along with the two remaining
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: cult children, Stefan and Felix. And when they arrived at
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the hospital that evening, events unfolded rapidly. Doctors who had
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: been on alert informed police that Elizabeth Fritzel was there,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: and the police wasted no time and they would separate
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth from her father, immediately, recognizing that this reunion might
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: not be as simple as it seamed or as Joseph
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: had made it seen. And Elizabeth was so frightened of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Joseph that she initially refused to say anything in his presence.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: So that's when the police would take a very bold
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: step and they would tell Elizabeth in a private room
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: that they suspected she may have neglected Kirsten and that
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: if she didn't explain what was going on, she could
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: face legal consequences. So Elizabeth would just break down and
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: beg the officers, plead them to make a promise and
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: that was that she would tell them the whole story,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: every horrific detail, if they guaranteed she'd never have to
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: see her father again. And the police assured her on
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the spot, and what came next was a twenty four
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: year saga of horror that none of the officers could
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: have imagined. So Elizabeth, at age forty two at this point,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: began to recount the events since August nineteen eighty four,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: and for the next two hours she would relay the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: key points of her captivity, and the police listening must
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: have been just utterly stunned, shock, just horrified, because this
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: was far beyond just a missing person or a case.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: It was an atrocity on an almost unthinkable scale. But
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: they had finally found Elizabeth, but in doing so, they
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: had uncovered one of the most shocking crimes of the century.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: So shortly after midnight on April twenty seventh to and
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: eight officers would approach Joseph Fritzel and they would place
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: him under arrest. He you piece of shit, piece of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: shit face, and Joseph did not resist. In fact, he
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: informed investigators on exactly where and how to enter the chamber,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: which at this point he's just gloating because like, what
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: else is he going to do? I guess, And perhaps
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: in that moment he just realized it was over, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: his iron grip on this dark secret had pried loose
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: at last. So the police would rush to Fritzel's house
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and they would descend into the cellar, and guided by
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the instructions that they received, they unlocked the hidden dungeon.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: And I can't even imagine the scene that the officers
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: would pass through, one by one, through all of these
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: multiple doors, behind the shelves and walls and decoys, and
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: finally step into a place that no outsider has seen
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: for twenty four years. And news of this discovery would
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: spread rapidly, and in the following days, the world would
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: learn of the seller girl Elizabeth and the monster of Absetton,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: which is Joseph, and this story would just dominate the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: headlines in Austria and worldwide because people struggled to comprehend
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: the enormity of what had happened in that unremarkable yellow
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: house in Austria, and the neighbors were shocked just recalling
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: how Joseph had been strict but seemed like a normal
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: dad and family man, and officials would hold press conferences
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: to share initial details while pleading for privacy for the victims,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and remarkably, Elizabeth and all six of her surviving children
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: were finally safe and they would be immediately taken into
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: medical care, and Kirsten slowly began to recover once she
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: was treated for proper dialysis, and she would eventually recover.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: But there was just an ironic silver lining in all
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: of this, and that the very crisis that nearly killed
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Kirsten just ended up saving all of their lives. So
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Joseph Fritzel, now completely exposed, tried to minimize his actions,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: and during early interrogations he claimed that he had done
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: what he did to protect Elizabeth from the outside world
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: and bad influences. Okay, fuck you, and he asserted that
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: it was sensual in some twisted way. But needless to say,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: these justifications fell on deaf ears, and the sheer volume
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: of evidence was overwhelming, the physical dungeon, the DNA tests
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: confirming he fathered the children in years of letters and notes,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: so as he sat in his small, decrepit piece of
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: shit jail cell that he deserved to be and because
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: he's a piece of shit, and the full reality of
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: his deeds finally confronted him in the public eye, and
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Joseph reportedly expressed some self pity and complained saying.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: someone who committed monstrous acts.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I swear to fucking God. But his words would ring
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: hollow because to virtually everyone on the planet he was
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: exactly what the tabloids would soon call him, which was
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: the monster of abstettin. So after Joseph's arrest, Austrian authorities
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: moved quickly to ensure justice, and Elizabeth Fritzl, freed from
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: her father, showed immense courage from providing details testimonies against him,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: and she gave a videotape statement to prosecutors in July
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: of two thousand and eight. So by November thirteenth, two
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight, an indictment was issued against Joseph Fritzel,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and the charges were staggering. There was murder by negligence
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: for the death of Michael due to Joseph's failure to
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: get medical help, enslavement, grape, incest, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: and the murder charge was the most serious, carrying a
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: potential life sentence of its own, and the other charges
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: like enslavement, carried up to twenty years each, but in
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Austria multiple convictions wouldn't stack in a US style consecutive way.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: But the expectation was that Fritzel would receive the maximum
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: penalty allowed, which was life in prison. So prosecutors were
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: determined to hold Joseph accountable for every aspect of the
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: twenty four ordeal, and the Austrian public and indeed the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: entire world, waited to see if he would try to
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: deny responsibility or claim insanity. So Joseph Fritzel's trial would
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: begin on March sixteenth, two and nine in the city
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: of Sankuleton and Lower Austria, and the case drew such
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: intense media attention that it was dubbed a media circus,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and on the first day, reporters and camera crews from
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: around the globe camped outside the courthouse and then now
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: seventy three year old Joseph was led in to court
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: trying to hide his face from the cameras behind a
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: large blue folder like a baby bitchuck piece of shit.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, actually I'm not anyway, So it was just
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: a man who had hidden unspeakable crimes just now hiding
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: behind the public behind a little blue folder because he
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: was scared. So Under Austrian law, defendants in certain trials
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: can conceal their face from the press, and Joseph took
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: full advantage of that. So once the proceedings started, the
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: courtroom was cleared of public press for all but the
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: opening and closing sessions out of respect for the victims
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and the extremely graphic nature of the evidence, and Joseph
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: would plead guilty on all charges except murder and grievous assault,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: which was him threatening to gas his captives if they
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: didn't listen to him. So they had no easy task
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: ahead because the evidence included hours of wrenching testimony and
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: details that would test anyone's composure. And on the second
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: day of trial, jurors were shown eleven hours of videotape
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: testimony from Elizabeth, and this video had been pre recorded
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: in sessions with psychiatrists and investigators so that Elizabeth would
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: not have to personally testify in court and see that
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: idiot face's face. But even so, the content was so
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: awful that the jurors watched in segments of no more
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: than two hours at a time. That's just how disturbing
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the evidence was. It was literally unwatchable in one go an.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Unbeknownst to Fritzel, Elizabeth attended one day in trial in
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: disguise because she wanted to witness the proceedings personally, and
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: on March seventeenth, two thousand and nine, which was the
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: second day of trial, she sat in the gallery wearing
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: a wig and glasses to blend in and as her
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: video testimony played, at one point, Fritzel's lawyer noticed that
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Joseph had suddenly gone pale and was trembling because Joseph
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: had spotted Amil face in the crowd, and it was
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth staring right at him, and their eyes would meet briefly,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: and according to his lawyer, quote unquote, from this point on,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: you could see Joseph Fritzel going pale, and he broke down,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: as if seeing his daughter, the one that he had
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: brutalized for so long, now a free woman, just unafraid
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: to confront him, finally shattered whatever defenses he had left.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: And the next morning, on March eighteenth, before the session began,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Joseph unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all counts,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: so now he acknowledged everything, even the murder and negligence
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: of the baby Michael, and the enslavement of Elizabeth, and
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: many observers did believe that it was Elizabeth's presence and
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: fortitude that compelled this last minute reversal, like the amount
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: of strength this girl has is just incredible. And he
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: would claim that he just couldn't continue to deny his
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: guilt to knowing what he had done, which I claimed bullshit,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: but whatever. So the trial proceeded to its conclusion swiftly
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: after the plea charge, and in the courtroom, even during
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: the opening days, the prosecution and defense painted starkly different
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: pictures of Fritzal. The defense lawyer Rudolph Meyer, argued that
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Joseph was not a monster, but a man who had
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: a second family he tried to care for in his
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: own twisted way. You are just as much as a
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: monster in my eyes, Rudolph. The fucking red nose, fucking
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: rainy few and Mayor would infamously tell the court that
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Joseph brought down a Christmas tree for the children in
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the cellar, implying that there was some kind of kindness
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: in this action. And he also pointed that Joseph made
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: sure the upstairs kids were provided for the fucking gold Star.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: But these arguments received widespread criticism for obvious reasons, because
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: no again Christmas Tree could erase the unspeakable beach that
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: occurred to these kids. And the chief prosecutor, Christian Burkheiser,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, spared no harsh detail, and she
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: would demonstrate to the jurors how low the sellar ceiling
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: was by marking the height on the courtroom door, and
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: she even passed around a box of musty items taken
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: from the cellar, and the smell was so bad that
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: it actually made the jurors flinch, and she would describe
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: the space as damp and moldy, just describing the awful
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: living conditions that Elizabeth had lived in for twenty four
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: years along with her children, and the prosecutor would press
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: for a sentence of life in a psychiatric facility, emphasizing
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that Joseph Fritzel was a danger to society and that
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: his crimes were the worst imaginable and beyond Elizabeth Tape's testimony,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: the court also heard from other witnesses, and notably Elizabeth's
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: older brother, one of Fritzel's sons who grew up in
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: a normal life, and he would testify about these he
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: endured from Fritzel just confirming that Joseph's cruelty extended to
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: the family upstairs as well. And Rosemary, Joseph's wife, and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the children themselves did not testify because they understandably just
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: wanted to avoid any further trauma publicly. So on March nineteenth,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, the trial would conclude and Joseph
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: Fritzel was found guilty on all charges. When the verdict
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: was read, Joseph stood silently because he had already admitted
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: his guilt, so there was little suspense, and the judge
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: would sentence him to life imprisonment with the possibility of
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: parole after fifteen years, which is like, what the fuck,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: kilt and what the fuck? However, given the severity of
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: his crimes, it was widely understood that he would likely
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: never be freed, and Joseph stated through his lawyer that
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: he accepted the sentence. It would not appeal, so he
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: would be sent to Garston Abbey to begin serving his time,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: and this was a former monastery turned prison, so there
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: was just a collective sigh of relief in Austria that
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: this monster would be finally locked away forever, and outside
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: the courthouse crowds would gather each day, and when the
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: life sentence was announced, alanlookers and victim advocates would cheer
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: about the outcome, and Elizabeth Fritzel would not be there
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: for the reading of the verdict, but justice was served
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: on her behalf, and after twenty four years of nightmarish captivity,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: and her father received the maximum punishment Austrian law would allow,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: and the case would be closed an illegal sense. But
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the healing journey for Elizabeth and her children was only
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: just the beginning, so in the immediate aftermath of their escape,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Fritzel and her children would be sent to a
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: psychiatric clinic for intensive care, and Kirston would actually remain
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: in the hospital for some time, but eventually woke from
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: her coma and began recovering. Reuniting with her mother and
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: siblings in later two thousand and eight, and doctors would
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: report that miraculously, Elizabeth and her children were actually pretty
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: good physical health condition considering their circumstances underground. However, they
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: did all suffer from psychological trauma and health issues related
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: to their years in captivity. The children from the cellar
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: specifically had very pale skin and had a lot of
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: difficulty adjusting to sunlight, and they also had to adjust
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: to just open spaces after living in such confined spaces
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: for their entire lives. And during those first months, the
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: family was kept in complete seclusion and therapists and medical
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: experts would work with each member of the family to
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: begin the long process of rehabilitation, and luckily, the Austrian
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: authorities were extremely protective of their privacy and continue to be,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: and new identities were offered to Elizabeth and her children
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: and even her mother, Rosemary, but it was made very
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: clear that they could make that choice on their own,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: and they were also offered a chance to start fresh
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: somewhere far from Amstetton, and Elizabeth and Rosemary initially actually
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: stayed together to support the children, but Rosemary's relationship with
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was strained given the decades of deception, because Rosemary
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: truly hadn't known, but the guilt just weighed on her
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: and eventually she would separate from the group, and Elizabeth
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: decided to build a new life with her children, and
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, Elizabeth her children and Rosemary
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: moved to a new undisclosed location in the Austrian countryside,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: known only by the code name Village X, and this
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: location luckily remains confidential to this day. And the community
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: just understood that the Fritzals had endured and suffered enough
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: and that they deserved peace. If anyone deserved peace, it
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: was these people. So as the family settled into their
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: new home, messages of support just flooded in from around
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the world, and Elizabeth was deeply moved by the public's kindness.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: And in June of two thousand and eight, a few
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: weeks out after their rescue, Elizabeth and her children created
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: a handmade poster with colorful drawings and rainbows, which was
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: displayed briefly to thank everyone for their compassion, saying, we
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: the whole family, would like to take the opportunity to
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: thank all of you for the sympathy at our fate.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Your compassion is helping us greatly to overcome these difficult times.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: And this heartfelt message was one of the very few
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: communications the family made to the public, but it just
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: showed despite everything, they felt gratitude and hope thanks to
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the support of others, and over the years Elizabeth's children
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: had undergone extensive therapy to address trauma and to just
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: adjust to normal life, and the differences between the upstairs
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: kids and the downstairs kids presented unique challenges because the
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: three who grew up above ground, which was Lisa, Monica,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: and Alexander, had to just deal with the guilt having
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: lived relatively normal lives while their siblings and their mother
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: lived underground, and the psychologist said that these kids had
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: severe survivor's guilt and just general confusion as to why
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: they were the chosen ones.
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: Basically.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the three sell raised children, which was Kirsten, Stafone
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: and Felix, had to learn just everything from scratch, just
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: like what the sky is and how to walk in
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: open spaces and how to interact with other human beings.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: And at first, reportedly the downstairs siblings had trouble bonding
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: with the others because of their life experiences and how
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: they were so different. But in time, according to occasional
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: updates from those close to them, the children have slowly
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: integrated together, but understandably therapy is something that's ongoing for
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: them and likely for many years to come. And Elizabeth
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Fritzel emerged from that cellar at the age of forty two,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: with virtually no experience of adult life in the real world.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Yet her determination to live a normal life after the
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: horrors committed against her and her children demonstrate that she
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: is astonishingly strong and that she is an incredibly resilient woman.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: And thankfully, after receiving proper medical care and years and
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: years of therapy, Elizabeth's condition has improved, and it was
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: later reported that her hair gradually regained some color because
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: after years and years of being in that cellar, her
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: hair had actually gone like ashy and gray, and she
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: began to dress more normally and started to experiment with
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: colorful clothing. And it's also noted that Elizabeth has even
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: learned to drive a car and now goes on shopping
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: trips into town, enjoying just the simple pleasures that any
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: ordinary person would take for granted. And there are numerous
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: reports that suggest that Elizabeth is indeed living with a
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: partner who cares for her very very deeply and the kids.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: So it's just a heartwarming development after the horrors that
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: they endured, and I'm so happy that Elizabeth has a
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: chance at genuine love and just a normal life. Meanwhile,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Joseph Fritzel has been in prison since two thousand and
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: nine and the years have not been kind to him,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: nor does he deserve any kindness. And a few years
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: into his prison sentence he changed his name to Myrov
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: and it's speculated just to avoid conflict with other inmates.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: And now in his nineties, the won't Dietz is incarcerated
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: at a regular prison, though it took quite a bit
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: to get him there, and according to his lawyer and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: some new reports, he now suffers from dementia and is
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: frail in physical health wompwomp. As of now, Joseph Fritzel
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: remains behind bars, and his lawyer claims in more lucid moments,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: Joseph is haunted by nightmares of his crimes and that
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: he deeply regrets his actions. Okay, but the psychiatrist who
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: assess him, which is doctor Heidi Katzner, reportedly believes that
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Fritzel is still minimizing and whitewashing his deeds even in
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: old dementia age. So you know, still a giant monster
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: piece of shit. But in all likelihood, Joseph will die
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: in prison and no one will mourn his passing. Good riddance, Meanwhile,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth is living free with her children, and she deserves
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: everything wonderful in life, and she just wants to live
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: her life in peace and anonymity, raising her family and
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: never being in the shadow of her father's name again,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: which she won't be because this video is for Elizabeth
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: and Elizabeth's children, and that is the video. If you
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: have any other videos you want me to deep dive into,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: let me know down below. This one was a lot.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: This one was a lot, but I think it's an
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: incredibly important case. I know a lot of you suggested
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: this one, but it's a lot. So I hope you
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: take a little breath or go outside. Go outside, go
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: take a walk, go think of everything you're grateful for,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: and remember to be safe out there, all right, And
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: until then I will see you a beautiful face. Okay,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: you go say by the ruper. We'll say about a ruper.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: You're ready, say goodbye to everybody said bye, said bye, oh,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: thank you geybye.