Dad confesses to holding daughter captive 24 years

[BuckNutty]

Lucky bastards! They had all kinds of time to make cigar box guitars!

Silver lining, meet cloud.

 

[OCBucksFan]

Lucky bastards! They had all kinds of time to make cigar box guitars!

 

[OCBuckWife]

The cellar rooms, covering an area of approximately 60 sq m (650 sq ft), were equipped for sleeping and cooking, and also contained sanitary facilities.

Not much space for 4 people and the father when he felt like visiting. What, about a 1 room apartment here in the US?

 

[OCBuckWife]

Living without sunlight

None had seen a doctor or a dentist since birth, and it is reported that, at the age of 19, the oldest daughter kept in captivity has already lost most of her teeth.

The cellar had no windows, and a lack of sunlight can be harmful - it helps the body produce vitamin D, which has a role in bone formation.



While a healthy diet can compensate for this, there are signs this was not the case for these children, with medical tests revealing vitamin D deficiency.
The consequences are unclear, but there is some evidence to suggest that vitamin D may help to prevent diseases such as cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis and heart disease.
Vitamin D deficiency can cause pain,

spasms and weakness in the muscles. It can also cause joint pain, soft and deformed bones and retarded growth.
Another problem for the older children is directly related to the low ceilings in their prison - a permanently hunched posture.


Other long term effects are less clear, although the authorities suggest that the children have "defective" immune systems.
The development of a healthy immune system does depend to some extent on the body being constantly challenged by new infections and allergens, and a childhood spent in virtual isolation would prevent this from happening.

This is part of what horrifies me so badly about stories like this, not so much that a human is capable of such things but the everyday horrors of surviving them.

 

[BUCKYLE]

This is part of what horrifies me so badly about stories like this, not so much that a human is capable of such things but the everyday horrors of surviving them.

But, do the people who know no different...is it that bad? I mean, to those kids, that's normal. It's disturbing to us, sure, but to them, it's just the way the world turns...

 

[OCBuckWife]

But, do the people who know no different...is it that bad? I mean, to those kids, that's normal. It's disturbing to us, sure, but to them, it's just the way the world turns...

They knew better too, they had TV and radio that talked about and showed them the world outside, not to mention their mother grew up to 19 NOT stuck in a damn cellar.

Even if they didn't know any better, it doesn't make it any less horrific that they had to live life stooped, without any natural light, the only air recycled thru a tube, watching their grandfather have sex with their mother, sitting thru natural child birth over and over and over, not having anyone to turn to with their growing sexual urges......Just because they didn't know any different doesn't make me less horrified is my point.

 

[BUCKYLE]

They knew better too, they had TV and radio that talked about and showed them the world outside, not to mention their mother grew up to 19 NOT stuck in a damn cellar.

Then what in the fuck did they stay down there for? Unacceptable. You'd think one of them would kick the fucking secret door down. Or at least hit the sick fuck over the head with a brick they gradually loosen from the foundation using the handle end of a spoon? AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT WATCHES MOVIES HERE?

 

[OCBuckWife]

Then what in the fuck did they stay down there for? Unacceptable.

Well, for one thing, the kids, as you mentioned, wouldn't have known any better. They were psychologically conditioned, from birth, to live in that environment, aware of an outside world or not.

Example:the 5 year old from the cellar knew what a car was, had seen one, seen people riding in one (from a movie or the tv), and was THRILLED to be able to do so himself finally, but he wasn't angry about not have ever been able to ride in one.

Who knows what fucked up story they were told to make them stay? Could be anything! It would have been totally believable to them since there would have been very little to no "word otherwise" as the only social patterning they had would be the mother and the grandfather. And the mother was, seemingly, completely coerced. Again, we know not how yet, but many possibilities loom.

You'd think one of them would kick the fucking secret door down. Or at least hit the sick fuck over the head with a brick they gradually loosen from the foundation using the handle end of a spoon? AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT WATCHES MOVIES HERE?

Maybe in Austria, movie watches you.

 

[mercer_buckeye]

Ya know this same thing happened to me yesterday.

 

[OCBuckWife]

When the children emerged into daylight, 18-year-old Stefan made a squeaking noise and covered his face with his hands. Later, he made gurgling noises when he saw a cow.
"When the media write that the children speak, this is just half-true," said Austrian Police Chief Leopold Etz. "Among each other, they communicate with noises that are a mixture of growling and cooing. If they want to say something so others understand them as well, they have to focus and really concentrate, which seems to be extremely exhausting for them."
Not only is their language impaired, but all three children have defective immune systems and looked "terrified and terribly pale," according to police.
Kerstin, who is still hospitalized with kidney failure, has lost most of her teeth due to vitamin deficiency. Doctors are evaluating Stefan for hearing and sight damage. The entire family shows stooped posture due to the low ceilings in their underground enclosure. Felix, 5, crawls, rather than walks. He also sings to himself and startles easily.

Interesting article that discusses psychological development here.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

OCWB:

What's with your obsession with this?

 

[sandgk]

Then what in the fuck did they stay down there for? Unacceptable. You'd think one of them would kick the fucking secret door down. Or at least hit the sick fuck over the head with a brick they gradually loosen from the foundation using the handle end of a spoon? AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT WATCHES MOVIES HERE?

Apparently he threatened to kill them with gas if they tried to escape.

AMSTETTEN, Austria (Reuters) - An Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her had threatened to kill his victims by pumping gas into the cellar where he was holding them, police said on Thursday.
Police were also investigating a claim by Josef Fritzl that the locked door to the cellar would open automatically if he was away for an extended period.

Of course the Austrian Police have to confuse the issue:

Fritzl, 73, told police earlier this week he had made threats to pump gas into the cellar where he hid his daughter and three of her children, a spokesman for the national criminal investigation office said.
"But we have not yet proved if this claim is correct," Helmut Greiner of the Federal Criminal Police Office said.

If a sick fuck who sires 7 granchildren / children through incestuous rape tells you this - just take him at his word.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

OCWB:

What's with your obsession with this?

Good question.

OCBW, you want to come live in my basement? I promise I won't gas you as long as you don't try to escape. :tongue2:

 

[BUCKYLE]

Apparently he threatened to kill them with gas if they tried to escape.



Of course the Austrian Police have to confuse the issue:


If a sick fuck who sires 7 granchildren / children through incestuous rape tells you this - just take him at his word.

Hmm..incestial rape, or possible escape...hmm...I'll risk the gas. It's not gonna end well even if you're a clean plater for twenty years. Just do SOMETHING to change the fucked up situation.

 

[OCBuckWife]

OCWB:

What's with your obsession with this?

Good question.

OCBW, you want to come live in my basement? I promise I won't gas you as long as you don't try to escape. :tongue2:

Yes, as Mr Katt says, it is a good question.


My answer is this: I am endlessly fascinated by what makes people who they are. What factors, if changed, effect what parts of our essential makeup as humans and why or how. "Nature vs Nurture", why we do what we do, how we become the individuals that we are, how it can be stunted or mutated through environment and treatment and social interaction or lack of any of them.

This case is a capsule of time with dramatic examples of "unnatural" human behavior caused by extreme conditions. I am fascinated. Horrified. And, apparently, somewhat obsessed.


I will just read up on it on my own instead of updating the thread, but remember, I didn't start this thread!