"house of horrors" Options

[Teesa]

i read about this yesterday and it just truly made me sick.

here's an update:

AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- DNA tests have confirmed that Josef Fritzl fathered six children with his daughter, whom he kept imprisoned under his home for 24 years, police in Austria said Tuesday.

Authorities have said that a seventh child, also apparently fathered by Fritzl, died shortly after birth.

A police spokesman also said authorities believed it was "improbable" that Fritzl was hiding other people in another location.

The 73-year-old appeared in court Tuesday as Austrians struggled to come to terms with its second horrific abduction case in two years.

The retired electrical engineer faces a possible 15 years in prison if charged and convicted of rape.

In court, he appeared calm and showed no emotion, according to an Austrian reporter present. Fritzl spoke, saying that he wanted to redeem himself, said Sabrine Arndt, of Pro7/Sat1 TV station.

The female judge presiding said he would be kept in custody, the reporter said, but gave no indication for how long.

Fritzl was on Monday moved from the town of Amstetten -- where he kept his now 42-year-old daughter Elisabeth and three of her children in the cellar of his house -- to the courthouse in nearby St. Poelten, the provincial capital of Lower Austria.

The central European country's newspapers were filled with details of the case, which has shocked the nation.

"Horror father breaks silence," "Hiding a double life without wife knowing" and "Soundproof dungeon behind 300kg steel door" were headlines in Die Kronen Zeitung.

It also ran a story questioning how people could survive deprived of sunlight for so long.

Die Presse went with "The man who deceived the world" and also accused authorities of allowing the atrocities to happen.

rest of the story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/29...llar/index.html

[S-Majere]

This fronted the first page of most of the UK papers yesterday. Pretty disgusting.

[mizzkewl06]

that's just horrifying. that guy is sick and i hope he rots in prison & gets what he deserves.

[queen]

yah, i read it in the paper, and my initial reaction was that i read it wrong and that i've been watching too much law & order: svu ;o.

it's really sad and disgusting revolting.

[Comptine]

^ One of their kids passed out and he brought her to the hospital. But since the circumstances for her condition were unclear, the authorities asked the mom to come forward. He eventually brought his daughter to the hospital and the police suspected something was up and the whole thing unraveled. Also, somewhere along the line they tested the guy's blood and the sick girl's blood. That's what I gathered from all the articles.

I'm surprised they had so many children. I wonder if any of them have birth defects from having that amount of common DNA.

[queen]

^ thx, yah i just finished reading the article provided by the OP, and they had a little more detail in this one than the ones i read yesterday. it's even worse than i thought 'cause it seems like the mother (rosemarie) didn't know about it. if this is true, i can't even imagine how she must feel.

[jesusisthebestth...]

This really tugs at my heart.
I don't know if I should be angry or sad or confused.
This is one of the most tragic tales I've ever heard.
I'm at a complete loss for words...I'm stunned!
I cannot believe it is the year 2008 and foolishness like this is going on.

[Teesa]

^i know..but technically it started in 1984, so you can only imagine what all happened.

[*absinthe*]

Holy --. This is beyond freaky. It almost reminds me of a Sweeney Todd thing with the bolted door and the cellar. Only the people are alive.

After reading this article and re-reading the title "house of horrors," I got goosebumps.