Father Told Captives They Could Be Gassed
Posted on: Friday, 2 May 2008, 18:00 CDT
AN AUSTRIAN man who held his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered her seven children, repeatedly warned his captives that they would be gassed if they tried to overpower him, investigators said yesterday.
The news comes as a man claiming to be a former tenant, says Josef Fritzl had also boasted his house would one day go down in history.
Separately, authorities said Fritzl forced his captive daughter to write a letter last year, indicating he may have been planning to release her from the windowless dungeon where she lived with three of their children.
Police spokesman Franz Polzer said Elisabeth Fritzl wrote to her family, who believed she had fled to a cult, that she wants to come home but "it's not possible yet".
DNA testing on the letter proved that 42-year-old Elisabeth had written the letter, but Mr Polzer said she was forced by her father to do so.
"He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point," Mr Polzer said.
A man claiming to be a former tenant of Fritzl's said he heard occasional suspicious noises during 12 years in the house from1995.
Alfred Dubanovsky said he occasionally heard "knocking, banging" and what sounded like objects being dropped while living in a ground- floor apartment above the basement dungeon.
He said he asked Fritzl whether the noise came from the basement gas heater and Fritzl said "yes".
On another occasion, Fritzl bragged: "This house is going to make history one day," Mr Dubanovsky said.
Fritzl's crime came to the attention of authorities on April 19 when one of Elisabeth's daughters, 19-year-old Kerstin, was admitted to a hospital suffering from an unidentified illness.
Baffled doctors then appealed on TV for Kerstin's mother to come forward because they needed information from her about her daughter's medical history.
Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital, and her story came to light.
(c) 2008 Western Mail. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Western Mail
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