Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 56 | Enslaved His Daughter In A Basement Dungeon For 24 Years | Josef Fritzl

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

For 24 years, Josef Fritzl held his daughter Elisabeth captive in a hidden basement beneath their family home. In that time, he subjected her to unimaginable abuse and fathered seven children with her—all while maintaining a facade of normalcy. This episode unpacks one of the most disturbing and shocking true crime cases in modern history. Listener discretion is advised. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, gLP ones, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus.

If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. It was a quiet town in Austria, neat streets and quiet homes, the kind of place where nothing truly bad is supposed to happen. And yet, beneath one of those houses, evil had made a home. A secret buried so deep, it took 24 years in a dying girl to bring it to surface. And in 2008, the world learned about the name, Joseph Fritzel. A name now synonymous with horror. A man whose crimes not only shocked Austria, but the entire world.

A father, a husband, a man who, for more than two decades, imprisoned his own daughter in a hidden cellar beneath their home. And what happened down there defies belief. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, intellectual, beautiful-minded, fright. Today I have my associate, Rupert, King Rupert. Oh, wow.

What a good detective buddy. Detective Rupert! On the case. He's on the case. He's sitting in the background. I don't know if you guys want this for future videos. He likes to hang out with me when I film, so I think I'm going to have him in the background a little more often.

I even got him a pedestal for this, so. I hope you know how important you are to me. Anyway, today we are getting into a very infamous case. And also a very serious case that involves a lot of triggers. So if you want to skip this one, feel free. But without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go mock-fled down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into this infamous case together.

You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body's self, your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines,

GLP1s, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus. If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it.

The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, gLP ones, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus. If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com.

So Joseph fucking Fritzel. Sorry. Sorry, he doesn't have a middle name. I don't know what his middle name is, but I'm just going to assume it's fuck. Was born on April 9, 1935 in a small town of Amstetten, Austria. And it was the only child of Joseph Sr. and Maria Fritzel. And his father was an alcoholic who had actually abandoned the family when Joseph was only four years old. And later he would die in World War II.

And this left Joseph to be raised by his mother, Maria, who was very strict to the point of brutality. And according to Joseph's later accounts, his mother frequently beat him. On top of, insulted him, calling him a Satan, a criminal, no good. I'm not saying that's okay to kids, but she kind of read the book and she read it right. Because this guy is the king of piece of schitzes. But he would grow up in the era of Nazi rule in Austria, a time of very harsh. discipline and authoritarian values and something he would later point to as an influence on his own outlook of life but as a boy Joseph did crave affection but received very little he said he never got a

kiss or a cuddle from his mommy which is sad as a kid but again I can't help but think how terrible this person is so I really don't care so instead he would learn about power and fear very early on in life living under the thumb of a domineering parent so this bleak bleak childhood just kind of set the stage for the dark path he would eventually take. And whether this is nature or nurture, I'm not sure. I'm sure it had to do a little with it, but I truly feel like people like this are born this way, you know, and then maybe nurtured into into the peak of what they could become in the worst way. But anyway, in his teenage years, Joseph Fritzel was described as intelligent, but also odd and solitary because he was coming of age in war-torn society. And although he wasn't necessarily a

soldier, he did witness the aftermath of the conflict and social order. And at home, his mother's abuse would continue. And Joseph would later reflect that he often ended up, quote-unquote, lying in a pool of blood after his mother's beatings, which again, that's horrific. And no child should ever endure that. But despite the cruelty, he initially claimed to revere his mother, calling her the best woman in the world. Only later to admit how terrified. and hurt he had been by her. But these early experiences taught Joseph the power of domination and control.

Lessons he would twist in horrifying ways in his adult life, as we will come to know. So after finishing compulsory schooling, Fritzel pursued higher technical education. And outwardly, he appeared to be turning into a normal, productive human being in society. But there were already hints of disturbing behavior beneath the surface.

So Joseph was bright enough to attend a technical college, where he earned his qualification in electrical, electrical engineering. So by his early 20s, he had a solid career path. And he would actually land a job at a steel company, and that was Verstelpina in Lintz. And later would work at a construction materials firm in the hometown of Amstenden. So with his engineering knowledge, he became very skilled at mechanics and electrics, skills that he would one day use to build a secret facility for his crimes. So in 1956, at the age of 21, Joseph married a young woman named Rosemary. And Rosemary was just 17 years old at the time, just different times. But to get this woman, he had managed to present himself as

a normal man ready to settle down. And it was around this time that Joseph's mother actually moved in with the newlyweds. How romantic. And it a disturbing reversal of his childhood, he began reportedly asserting control over his mother. And it said that eventually, he actually locked his own mother in the attic of their home and bricked up her window. And he would tell his neighbors that she died. When in fact, he just kept her imprisoned until her actual death in 1980. So the fucked up shit was starting, needless to say. He was getting his revenge. But the fact that Joseph Fritzel secretly held his mother captive

for possibly up to 20 years was an eerie foreshadowing of the horrors just to come. So by the mid-1950s, Joseph Fritzel was outwardly a trained engineer, husband, and soon-to-be father. But inside him, a dangerous obsession with power and confinement was already taking root. So Joseph would marry Rosemary in 1956, and she was very quiet and very trusting of Joseph.

And we'd like to think that she had no idea what was happening with her new husband, but we don't know that yet. So they would settle in Ebstetten at Yeepsdestra 40, the very house that would later become infamous worldwide. So Rosemary was a homemaker devoted to her family. And by many accounts, she was gentle and dutiful. So literally nothing like this guy's mother. But Joseph, on the other hand, ruled the house. household with an iron fist, like his mother, apple, tree. And he would tolerate no dissent from his wife or his children. And Rosemary's sister, Christine, later described Joseph as a tyrant at home.

And even at family gatherings, Christine recalled, quote unquote, if I myself was scared of him at a family party, then you can imagine how it must have been for Rosemary, who lived under his roof, obviously. So this guy was just waiting for the opportunity to just dominate over somebody else after he was being dominated his entire childhood from his mother. But Rosemarie would do her best to keep the family together and appease her domineering husband. Just completely unaware of the truly horrific plans he was concocting. So over the years, Rosemarie and Joseph Fritzel had seven children,

three sons and four daughters. And one of those daughters was Elizabeth, who was born on April 6, 1966. And the Fritzel household from the outside seemed fairly ordinary, but obviously strict. And neighbors would later remember Joseph as authoritative, but otherwise unremarkable. A man who liked order but kept his family in line.

Inside the home, however, there were clear signs of abuse. And an acquaintance later recalled that Elizabeth was quote unquote, very withdrawn and shy, and that her father would give her, quote, a slap for every small thing he disapproved of. And Joseph's own older son experienced this as well. And years later, one of Elizabeth's brother testified that their father would beat them as children. So fear would just hang over this family.

Joseph's wife and kids learned never to question him. His word was law. So under this climate, Joseph was able to do terrible things right under his family's feet. So Joseph Fritzel's pattern of sexual violence did not start with Elizabeth. But it appeared to have begun much earlier. In 1967, at age 32, he actually broke into the home of a 24-year-old nurse and raped her at knife point. And he would also threaten to kill the young woman if she screamed. And Fritzel would actually be caught and convicted of this crime, serving only 12 months of an 18-month sentence in prison.

But astonishingly, this violent sexual offense was kept relatively quiet under Austrian law. And it was actually wiped completely from his record after 15 years, which is fucking crazy. Is that not crazy, Rupert? He's sleeping. I just woke him up. That was rude. Joseph was also accused of an attempted rape of another woman and was just known for indecent exposure around that time. as well. Guy was the creepy guy with the jacket that opened. It was just wearing nothing underneath. But these early crimes just show a dangerous predator behind a mask of a family man. And Rosemarie did know her husband had been in jail in the late 1960s, but it's unclear if she actually knew

why. So she would stay with them, possibly just believing the excuses or rationalizations that he gave her. But by 1970s, Joseph had returned to family life and outward, respectively. But nothing had changed about his violent desires. In fact, they were now turning towards the worst possible target, and that was his own daughter, Elizabeth. So Fritzel began S. A. Elizabeth when she was only 11 years old in 1977, and he would single her out from his other children for especially harsh treatment. And as she reached adolescence, the abuse just escalated into rape. So Elizabeth just grew up in fear of her father. And during things, no child should ever suffered, let alone from their own father. So she became quiet and fearful and just tried to avoid

him as much as she could. Now at the age of 16, Elizabeth attempted to run away from home twice to escape her father's abuse. And in one instance in January of 1983, she actually fled to Vienna and hid with a friend, only to be found by police and returned back home. But each time being sent back into her father's care must have felt like a death sentence to Elizabeth. Because at this point, she had no way of truly getting away from this fucking monster. At least, not yet. And unfortunately, what Elizabeth didn't know was what her father's twisted mind had already devised as a permanent solution to keep her under his control forever.

So during the late 1970s and the early 1980s, while Elizabeth was entering her teens, Joseph Fritzel was secretly building a prison beneath his home. An engineer by training, he took on a home improvement project, expanding the celery were beneath the family's apartment house. And at the time, Cold War Fears made it common for Austrians to build nuclear bunkers and fallout shelters. So nobody batted an eye. And Fritzel took full advantage of this.

So as early as 1978, he obtained official permits. Permits to construct a deeper cellar, allegedly as a domestic nuclear shelter on his property. So neighbors saw him renting excavators and digging out tons of soil from under the house, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. And to outsiders, he was simply a diligent homeowner just improving his property. But in reality, Joseph was meticulously planning a personal dungeon for his daughter. So by 1983, Fritzel's secret bunker was almost ready. And it compromised a network of narrow rooms hidden behind the existing basement.

And he would install multiple reinforced doors as many as eight in a series, one after another, to reach the final hidden chamber. And the last door was made of concrete and metal, weighing hundreds of, of pounds and secured with an electric code lock. And Fritzel built shelves and walls to conceal entrances as well. One door was hidden behind a shelf stocked with paint cans even, and he would wire the cellar with electricity, lights, and ventilation. He just thought of everything, even soundproofing the walls,

creating a secret bathroom area and ensuring the space could be closed off from the outside world completely. And no one in the family suspected a thing, allegedly. Not his wife, nor his children, nor tenants, who rented rooms upstairs. To them, Joseph's basement renovations seemed legit. And after digging out so much soil, Joseph built a new swimming pool in the backyard as a decoy for all the construction mess. So the family would later splash in the pool on warm days, unaware that directly beneath them, under the garden lay a hidden chamber that would become Elizabeth's tomb-like home. So by August 1984, the stage was set. Joseph Fritzel's project was now complete.

And now, all he needed was a way to lure his daughter inside of it. And sadly, he already knew exactly how to do that. So August 28th, 1984, was just another ordinary summer day when 18-year-old Elizabeth Fritzel's life changed forever. Joseph would call her down to the workshop cellar, asking for help with a heavy door. And it seemed like an innocent father-daughter chore, something that she had done many other times.

And Elizabeth, likely eager to keep him happy to have a beating, followed her father into the bowels of this cellar to help her father fit this last door into place. So she would hold the door upright as instructed while he fixed it into frame. But this door would be the final piece in sealing off the new hidden cellar from the outside world completely. So as she was standing there and as he was just finished sealing it off, he finished and Joseph made his move. So as Elizabeth turned to climb back up the stairs, her father would press a cloth soaked in ether over her face. and Elizabeth would have no time to scream. And the comical's fumes would overwhelm her

and she would lose consciousness and her world went dark in an instant. And that's when Joseph Ritzel would drag his daughter's limp body into this secret chamber and close the door behind him. And with that single monstrous act, Joseph has transformed the cellar into a lifelong prison for his daughter. So when Elizabeth failed to come upstairs

or show up for work, her mother, Rosemary, was growing very worried. because she had actually been about to start a new job as a waitress in a nearby city of lynx. And Rosemary at this point, genuinely did not know what happened to her daughter. And she would later file a missing person's report frantic to find Elizabeth. But Joseph would calmly offer an explanation. An explanation he had thought of a million times over. And that is that, Elizabeth just ran away from home to join a cult.

And this lie would be disturbingly plausible at first. Because everyone knew Elizabeth had attempted to run away before. And now Joseph insisted she had done so again, and this time for good. And he said that Elizabeth wanted no contact with the family while she was gone. And to back up his story, he even produced a letter that he handed over to the police about a month after Elizabeth's disappearance. And astonishingly, this letter was handwritten by Elizabeth herself. Because obviously, Joseph had forced his captive daughter to write this letter in the cellar. And this letter was postmarked from a distant town, stating that Elizabeth was tired of family life and didn't want to be fair.

And in it, she even warned her parents not to search for her, otherwise she would leave the country entirely. So the message just sounded definitive, and the police and family accepted it as proof that Elizabeth had left by her own volition. So Joseph's cover story was now in full effect. To the outside world, it seemed that a troubled teen has just run off to live with some mysterious cult members, which at that time wasn't as uncommon as you'd think, if you have watched my channel at all. But in reality, Elizabeth was locked away just a few feet below the ground of her own home and rosemary heartbroken but trusting believed her husband's explanation she had no reason to imagine the unbelievable truth that was actually happening and rosemary sister christine even said

later that they talked often about what might have happened to elizabeth saying quote to her mother where can elizabeth be and she and her relatives tried to think what groups or places their daughter might have gone and christine recalls how they searched railway stations and areas where homeless kids and young adults gathered trying to find Elizabeth. She would say, quote, we really did detective work as to where the cult could be. They were just so desperate to ensure Elizabeth was at least safe, but every lead went nowhere because no one in the family suspected Joseph, her own father. And secondly, Joseph maintained this aura of a concerned father and a normal family man

throughout this whole situation. And friends and relatives would later say, quote, never had any reason to suspect him. And Elizabeth's brother-in-law, who married one of the older sisters, actually remembered frequently visiting the Fritzel House and completely accepting the story that Elizabeth had just run away. He would say, we always believed Elizabeth had run away

and not to come back. Everyone did. That was the truth to us. We didn't question it. And at home, Joseph just continued to reinforce the deception with intimidation and kept people from challenging him, like he always did.

Because Rosemary was as much under his control as their children were. And so the Fritzel family would just carry on with their daily lives, grieving the loss of Elizabeth, but believing as Joseph told them that she was alive and simply didn't want to be with them anymore. Which is so fucking heartbreaking. You train, you track, you eat right.

But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body stops responding. the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, GLP-1s, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus. If you're

ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, GLP1s, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus.

If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to take your work. to Maximus Tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. So when Elizabeth awakened after being knocked out that first day, she found herself chained to a bed in utter darkness. And the reality was much more horrifying than any cult fantasy,

because her own father was her jailer. And in those early days and weeks of captivity, Joseph kept Elizabeth's arms tied with an iron chain that was bolted to a metal post behind her bed. So at first, she could hardly even move. And the chain allowed her. less than a meter of slack. And for about two days, she was restrained like this.

Utterly alone, barely able to move in the pitch black dark. But after those couple days, Joseph would loosen her bonds slightly, fastening the chain around her waist so she could at least shuffle at a short distance. But she was still far, far from free. And eventually six to nine months later, he would actually remove that chain entirely. Not out of mercy, but because it was getting in the way

of all the SAs. So the emotional and physical trauma for Elizabeth was immense. Because she was just a teenager who had just lost everything, her innocence and all of her formidable years, on top of her freedom, her dignity, even daylight and fresh air. And Elizabeth was spent her first five years entirely alone in this cellar, with no company except for her monstrous father. And it was said that he hardly ever spoke to her kindly or normally during that entire time.

He would just come down mainly to bring food and essay and leave. So Elizabeth had no one to comfort her during this time. So desperate and hopeless, she later admitted that she had contemplated Slewerslide in those lonely years. But the only thing that kept her going was the thought that somehow she could maybe survive until an opportunity to escape would arise. But little did she know her imprisonment would last over two decades. And conditions in the cellar were hellish from the start.

It was cold, it was damp, the water, the water, water was dripping down the walls whenever it rained. Mold grew in the stagnant air and Elizabeth had to use old towels to sop up the moisture that collected just to keep the place somewhat dry. And rats infested this cellar. And she could hear them scurrying in the darkness when she was trying to sleep. And sometimes she actually had to catch and kill rats with her bare hands when they got too bold. And the smell and filth in the cellar was oppressive. And in the summer, the underground air turned stifling and, quote, into an intolerable sweaty sauna, as Elizabeth later wrote in a calendar functioning essentially as a hidden diary for her.

And with no sunlight or concept of time, apart from a clock and a television that she got later, much later down the road, her sense of day and night completely faded. So years passed in the world above the cellar moved on while Elizabeth remained frozen in a nightmare that seemed endless. So in late 1985, about a year into her captivity, 18-year-old Elizabeth became pregnant for the first time, carrying her father's child. And this pregnancy tragically ended in a miscarriage at 10 weeks in 1986, likely due to stress and malnutrition that she suffered. But Joseph's abuse would continue and Elizabeth would soon

become pregnant again. And on August 30th, 1988, she would give birth to a baby girl that she named Kirsten. And the birth would take place in this cramped cellar with no doctors, no nurses, and no pain relief. Only a 1960s maternity guidebook that Joseph had provided and a few basic supplies that he gave her. She did it all on her own, and Joseph didn't even come to check on them for 10 days until after the birth. And somehow Elizabeth managed to care for and give birth to her newborn in these first few critical days completely alone. But despite these horrific circumstances, Kirsten, her new baby, kind of brought a new sense of purpose to Elizabeth's life. Because after years in isolation, Elizabeth finally had someone to love and protect besides herself. And approximately one and a half years later, on February 1990, Elizabeth gave birth to her second child, which was a boy named Stefan.

And both Kristen and Stefan remained underground with their mother, never seeing sunlight and knowing only walls of the cellar as their entire world, which is so, so incredibly sad. But with it being such a small space, it started to get really cramped to raise to. to infants in. And Joseph provided only the bare minimum of food and supplies to keep them all alive. And Elizabeth would do her very best to nurse and care for her babies, but the conditions were unimaginable.

No fresh air, no outside help, and a constant fear of Joseph's next visit. So by 1992, Elizabeth was pregnant once more. And on August 29th, 1992, she delivered another baby girl whose name was Lisa. Well, this time Joseph would have a different plan. So the following May, when baby Lisa was around nine months old and becoming active,

Joseph decided to remove this child from the cellar. And the alleged reason was that the cellar was getting too crowded and lacked proper space for growing children. And in reality, Joseph likely saw an opportunity to bolster his cover story. So in May of 1993, he took the infant, Lisa, out of the dungeon, and carried her upstairs to the house. And he would place Lisa in a cardboard box

and leave them outside their doorstep of the Fritzel home, as if she had just been abandoned there. And he would include a note from Elizabeth, which he had forced Elizabeth to write ahead of time. So the note was written in Elizabeth's handwriting and explained that the baby was Elizabeth's child, but that she couldn't care for the infant and begged her parents to look after Lisa. And it would read, Dear parents, I am leaving you my little daughter, Lisa. Take good care of my little girl. I breastfed her for around six and a half months and now she drinks her milk from the bottle. She is a good girl and she eats everything else from the spoon.

Oh, gosh, this whole story is so heartbreaking. Oh my God. So it was a heart wrenching plea and it was convincing. And Joseph would discover the baby on the doorstep and then present it to Rosemary as a miraculous find. And they were both shocked and Rosemary was likely overjoyed to have a piece of her missing daughter in the form of a grandchild.

So they'd inform the local authorities and unsurprisingly, social services had no reason to doubt the story. Because here was a little baby with a note from the mother who had joined a cult, asking for the grandparents to take care of her. So officials would note that the fritzels seemed loving and devoted and were suitable caregivers for the baby Lisa. In fact, Joseph and Rosemary would actually go

through formal channels to keep Lisa, and they would eventually adopt her legally. But no one realized that the man applying to adopt the child was in fact her biological father and grandfather all at the same time, just fucking disgusting. And because of Joseph's prior criminal record from the 1967 grape, That had been removed from his record, social workers found nothing alarming when checking his background.

So to them, Joseph Fritzel was a respectable older gentleman taking his runaway daughter's baby, and the ghastly truth remained completely hidden. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with visible. It's one-line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot, powered by Verizon for $25 a month. Taxes and fees included. Plus, for a limited time, new members pay just $20 a month. for one year on the Visible Plan using the code fresh start. Refresh your wireless with Visible. Tap the banner to switch today.

Terms apply, limited time offer subject to change. See Visible.com for plan features and network management details. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. So in 1994, a fourth child would be born in the cellar. And it would be a little girl named Monica, and she would be born on February 26, 1994.

In Monica, like Lisa, would be taken upstairs as an infant. So when Monica was about 10 months old in December of 1994, Joseph removed her from the cellar and would leave her in a stroller outside of the Fritzel house. And again, he would stage it as an abandoned child of Elizabeth. And shortly after Monica was found, the Fritzels received a phone call that supposedly came from Elizabeth, telling them to take care of her baby. And at this point, Rosemary was just taken it back because the caller had sounded like Elizabeth,

but she somehow knew the family's unlisted phone number. And this was something Elizabeth just couldn't have known unless someone gave it to her. So it appears that Joseph recorded Elizabeth's voice and otherwise faked this phone call to further convince his wife that Elizabeth was truly an occult. And just out there periodically leaving her children on their front doorstep.

So Rosemary would report this bizarre number to the police. Just puzzled about how, how Elizabeth would have known their number. But still, no one would put the pieces together. And in their minds, it just reinforced that Elizabeth was in contact somehow, yet never was coming home. And Monica, like Lisa, would be taken in by the Fritzel family.

And Joseph and Rosemarie would become foster parents to Monica with the blessing of authorities. And then even more children would arrive. On April 28, 1996, Elizabeth went into labor with twin boys in the cellar. And the birth of twins in such conditions was an extraordinary strain. And one of the twins, Little Michael,

was very weak and had a lot of difficulty breathing from the start. So Elizabeth desperately tried to save her infant son, but with no medical equipment or doctors, there was little that she could do. And according to Elizabeth's later testimony, Joseph coldly told her, quote unquote, What will be will be.

As a newborn struggled for air. This guy can't be any more monstrous and then he tops himself somehow. So tragically, baby Michael would die and Elizabeth's arms at just three days old. And Joseph would take the tiny corpse from his daughter in an act of demonstrating his complete lack of remorse. And then he would burn the baby's body in an inciterator.

And he then would secretly scatter Michael's ashes in the garden behind the house. And this heinous deed would later lead to a charge of murder by negligence. Because had Michael received medical care, he may have lived. Meanwhile, the second twin, Alexander, miraculously survived. And at around 15 months old, at around 1997, Alexander was removed from the cellar and taken upstairs like his sisters before him.

And the Fritzels found Alexander and claimed Elizabeth had left the boy for them as well. And by this point, social services and just locals were a bit bewildered to say the least. Because how many children was Elizabeth going to have and drop off? But given that it had happened one by one over years, and Joseph always had letters or explanations ready, the authorities continued to believe him. And to them, Joseph was a peculiar cake. A man whose daughter had joined a sect and dumping babies on her estranged parents' doorstep, yet he and his wife were stepping up to care for these poor abandoned grandchildren.

And in total three of Elizabeth's children, Lisa, Monica, and Alexander were raised above ground by Joseph and Rosemary, while Elizabeth herself remained trapped below with her other children. But the family in the cellar had one more member coming. In our December 16, 2002, Elizabeth bore her seventh and final child in captivity, and would be a boy named Fielder. And this time, 67-year-old Joseph, he's 67 now, by the way. Fucking geriatric fucking piece of shit. But anyway, 67-year-old Joseph Fritzel decided to keep the baby Felix underground with Elizabeth. Because perhaps he thought his wife could not handle another infant, because Rosemary at this point was in her 60s now.

Or perhaps he was just running out of bullshit excuses as to why so many fucking babies were showing up at their doorstep. Whatever the reason though, Felix stayed in the cellar. joining his mother, now teenage sister Kirsten, and brother, Stefan. And by 2003, the family below ground consisted of Elizabeth and her three children. While above ground lived the other three children, Lisa, Monica, and Alexander. So the total tally of Joseph's incestuous offspring was seven children, and miraculously six were alive. But the upstairs children had relatively normal lives,

especially compared to the kids in the cellar. Rosemary would care for them lovingly, thinking that they were her grandchildren, And they would grow up calling Rosemary mammy affectionately. And in legal terms, the fritzels were foster or adoptive parents. But to the children, it just felt like Joseph and Rosemary were their parents. And as we know, one of them actually was. And they did well in school. They played instruments and were even seen out of town with Joseph on weekends. And they would enjoy the sunshine and freedom of normal childhood.

And they too had no idea that their mother was not some cult member that ran off, but was a girl stuck down below their feet. And meanwhile, the downstairs children had a polar opposite life. Kirsten, Stefan, and Felix had never seen daylight even once in their life. They just lived in a windowless hell of concrete rooms. And their only source of information about the outside world was from their mother and television that Joseph eventually provided. And these children only knew four people their entire lives.

Their mother, Elizabeth, each other, and occasionally their first. father slash grandfather, Joseph. And they were described as pale, stooped, and developmentally delayed from the lack of space and nutrition. And they had limited vocabulary and were said to communicate with each other in strange growling or sing-song manner at times, which was a speech pattern developed in isolation. Just imagine being born in a world no larger than a cellar. That was their entire reality. And life in the cellar was a study and survival under grotesque conditions. And every day was a struggle for Elizabeth and the children to maintain a sense of normalcy underground. And over the years, Joseph expanded the living space slightly,

especially after 1993 when Elizabeth pleaded for more room as the children grew. To he had forced Elizabeth and the kids to help dig out soil with their bare hands to enlarge the chambers by roughly 600 square feet. And the finished hidden apartments consisted of a few small rooms. Sleeping quarters, a really tiny bathroom, and a main living area that doubled as a kitchen. And the ceilings were so low. that adults and tall children had to slouch over because the ceilings were only about five feet six inches in high places and the walls would be lined with soundproof material to muffle any cries for help and they would only have the very basic of basic resources an old toilet a sink and a really small shower and he would later bring down a washing machine for laundry and a refrigerator for some food and there was an old hot plate as well to warm meals when they got them and the light was entirely artificial it was just this harsh

fluorescent strip light. And he would sometimes shut off the power to punish them, plunging the family into total darkness for days on end. And the air was extremely stuffy because they've never experienced fresh air before. In fact, the cellar's air was so poor that when police finally examined it, they found they could only tolerate being inside for short periods due to the lack of oxygen. And remember, Elizabeth has lived down here for 24 years, along with her And despite the filth, Elizabeth tried to make the space homey for her children. She knew that for the kids born in captivity, this cellar was the only home they had ever had. So on the mildew white bathroom tiles, Elizabeth drew and painted little pictures to brighten the place.

There was a yellow snail with a green shell and a purple octopus, a child's drawing of a flower and a fish, and stickers of stars and suns. All things that they had never seen before in real life and only on television. And Elizabeth would do her very best to educate the children. educate and entertain the children every single day. So she would teach them to read and write using limited materials that she had. She would watch adventure films with them and even invent tales of pirates and princesses

to spark their imaginations. And she managed to instruct her kids the best that she could. Even as her own knowledge from school faded over the long and long years of abuse. It was just an inadequate suffocating existence, but this underground bunker was the only home Elizabeth and her captive children knew for 24 years. And hygiene and health,

were a constant concern. The lack of sunlight meant that Elizabeth and her children became very, very pale and obviously vitamin D deficient. So they were prone to illness that they never could properly treat. So if someone got sick, Joseph might bring some medicine, but a serious condition could be life-threatening down there. There was also a freezer in the cellar where Joseph stored food when he went away on holidays.

But when he cut the power as punishment sometimes, the freezer would thaw and rotting food would just leak across the floor, creating a nodding, a nauseating mess that Elizabeth had to clean in the dark. So they would just live on whatever supplies he delivered intermittently and they never, ever had enough. So Joseph Fritzel maintained absolute control over his underground family through a mix of violence,

lies and psychological terror. He would visit the hidden cellar almost every single day, usually in the early morning around 9 a.m. under the pretense of working in the basement workshop. And he would tell tenants who rented the room in the building upstairs and his wife, that he was doing technical drawings or private projects down there and he did not want to be disturbed. And Rosemary was never allowed to bring him coffee into the basement or visit him in the basement ever.

But in truth, each morning Joseph would unlock the secret door that had that electronic code and descend into Elizabeth's prison with supplies. And he would bring food, water, and occasional treats. But always just enough to keep them dependent and subservient. And sometimes he would even stay down there through the night. And neighbors and tenants reported hearing noises, but Joseph dismissed those as faulty pipes, or the gas heating system just acting up. So his cover was just airtight. Because everyone in the house knew the cellar was completely off limits and trusted his explanation for any odd sounds. And inside

the cellar, Joseph acted both kind, sometimes, and like the absolute fucking devil. Sometimes he could be oddly domestic. Elizabeth would later recount her father would sit down after, doing horrible things to her and act as if though they were a normal family watching movies together on TV or eating dinner on their little table together. And he would bring toys and books on occasion for the children trying to appear like a benevolent parent. And he would even bring a canary down for them at one point to see because at this point they'd never seen a living animal. And one Christmas, he even carried down a small Christmas tree for them in a twisted version of Holiday Spirit. And he also physically beat and kicked Elizabeth frequently, especially if she even dared to disobey him

in any way, shape, or form. And the abuse was not only physical or sexual, but also deeply psychological. Because Joseph would force Elizabeth to reenact violent pornographic scenes he had seen, just humiliating her in front of her own kids. So the injuries and trauma he caused left her with lasting medical issues. Her teeth, for instance, suffered from the lack of care, and many would have to be removed. Just to keep control, Joseph had cultivated an atmosphere of just utter hopelessness down there. He repeatedly would threaten Elizabeth and the children if they ever tried to escape or even resist that he would kill them in horrible ways. And he would tell them that he installed a very elaborate system that would electrocute them if they meddled with the cellar doors at all, or that

poisonous gas would flood the chamber if they ever attempted to break out. But in reality, all of those threats were complete lies. But Elizabeth and the kids obviously believed him because they had no reason not to. And the thought that one push against the door could result in being gas to death was enough to keep them from ever attempting to rebel. And Joseph had exploited their concern for each other as well. And he would warn Elizabeth that if she didn't submit to his will, he would say, quote, your treatment will get worse and you will not escape from the cellar anyway. So he would just make her feel like resisting him only would bring her and her children more pain. So she would just endure the abuse silently to protect her children.

And for 24 years, this twisted routine would continue. Meanwhile, Joseph Fritzel would manage to live this double life of unimaginable depravity. He was upstairs, he was a stern but caring husband and father, having barbecues in the garden and taking his grandchildren to buy ice cream. Then downstairs, he was a captor and a grapist, forcing his own daughter and grandchildren to act as slaves. He would even go on vacations abroad. And at one point, he took a three-week trip to Thailand in 1998

for sex tourism, would put it past him, all while his daughter and their children languished in this cellar with a freezer full of food that eventually thawed and spoiled completely. So one has to wonder if he had died or an accident had happened on those trips, what would have come of the prisoners below? And it's likely that all of them

would have perished horrible. deaths. And remarkably, over the years, no one had discovered this huge secret. Social workers would visit the Fritzel home to check the upstairs foster children, and they would just find everything was in order. And they would say, the family seems so caring, nothing to arouse suspicion. And with Elizabeth being an official missing person, no one connected the dots. And by the early 2000s, Joseph was in his late 60s, and the strain of maintaining two families was starting to grow. Booh fucking who. And Elizabeth herself now was in her 40s. And the oldest cellar children were teenagers.

So Joseph had to have sensed that things could spiral out of control very quickly. Yet he would persist his lies. And it wasn't until a sudden medical crisis in 2008 that his house of cards would finally come tumbling down. So in April of 2008, the delicate balance in Joseph Fristel's hidden world would collapse. Because Kirsten, Elizabeth's older daughter that was in the cellar, fell critically ill. And at 19 years old, Kirsten had spent her entire life underground, so she would have chronic health problems. And now her condition was life-threatening, which is very unsurprising given her environment. So Kirsten was suffering from kidney failure.

And she was in such bad shape that Elizabeth was terrified her daughter would die right there in the dungeon with them. So desperate to save Kirsten, Elizabeth begged Joseph to get medical hope for her. And on April 19th, 2008, Joseph decided to take Kirsten to the hospital. And it was the first time in 24 years he had ever allowed any one of his captives to leave the cellar, besides the infants that he had removed completely. So Elizabeth helped Joseph carry Limp Kirsten out of the underground chamber. And she would see a glimpse of the outside world for the first time since 1984. So I can't even imagine how she felt in this moment.

I imagine she just had this surge of hope amongst just the feeling of dread. But Joseph would force Elizabeth to remain behind Stefan and Felix, threatening her as always. But Elizabeth would slip a note to Kirsten. And she would put it in her pocket before her daughter was taken out. And then Joseph would place the unconscious Kirsten into his car and he would drive to the local hospital. And he would come up with yet another fucking tale. Because upon his arrival, Joseph claimed he found this girl near his home with a note from her mother. And he would hand over Elizabeth's note to the doctors.

And the note would be brief and pleading. saying, please, please help her in Elizabeth's handwriting, mentioning to use aspirin to help her treat her daughter. And she would say, Kirsten is really terrified of other people. She was never in a hospital. And the hospital staff were insanely alarmed by her state because she was extremely pale. Her teeth were rotted or missing from lifelong lack of care,

and she was severely malnourished. So medical tests would show that Kirsten had kidney failure and life-threatening breakdown of all of her systems. And the doctors, luckily, would find Joseph's story very suspicious. Because here was a 19-year-old who appeared severely neglected, with a mysterious note and an oddly evasive grandfather. So they tried to get more information from Joseph about Kirsten's medical history. But Joseph would stick to his tale.

And he implied that Kirsten's mother was his long-lost daughter, Elizabeth, who had joined a cult, and that Elizabeth had dropped Kirsten off just suddenly. But the pieces weren't adding up for the doctors. Because why would a call to allow a desperately ill girl to be brought back to a public hospital? And why did the note suggest treating with aspirin if the girl clearly was beyond that? And where on earth was the girl's mother at this point? So by April 21st, 2008, the hospital alerted local authorities that something was off. And this would be two days after Kristen's arrival.

So the police would open an investigation. Because they had a gravely ill young woman with no past medical records and a questionable note and a mother who was still officially missing since 1984. So the authorities decided to make a public appeal. And they went to the media and broadcast messages pleading for Elizabeth to come forward and provide medical information about Kirsten. And this was a pivotal moment.

Because for the first time in decades, Elizabeth's disappearance was back in the public eye. And news reports on TV and radio in the area talked about the case of the sick girl named Kirsten and her missing mother, Elizabeth. And down in the cellar, Elizabeth and her son's actually saw these media reports on the television. And one can only imagine how Elizabeth was feeling

when she saw those. Just hearing the world finally calling her name, just knowing this might be her chance at rescue finally, but still being trapped behind these cellar doors. I can't even imagine. So for a week after Kirsten's hospitalization, Elizabeth remained trapped in the cellar. Her anxiety for her daughter growing every passing hour.

And she knew from the news appeals that doctors were begging for her to come forward. So she confronted Joseph pleading with him to let her go to her sick child's side. And Joseph Fritzel, now 73 years old, found himself under more pressure than ever. Because his ability to juggle these fucked up double lives was failing. And perhaps that if Kristen actually died, an autopsy would reveal evidence of long-term abuse that he could not explain away. And perhaps he just sensed that police were closing in on him. You know, like cold, dark cellar doors.

So in any event, Joseph decided to stage a sudden return of his. missing daughter Elizabeth. And his hope was to release his daughter and their children without too many questions asked. And on April 26, 2008, he told Rosemarie that Elizabeth had unexpectedly left the cult and had come home, along with the two remaining cult children, Stefan and Felix. And when they arrived at the hospital that evening, events unfolded rapidly. Doctors who had been on alert informed police that Elizabeth Fritzel was there. And the police wasted no time. And they would separate Elizabeth from her father immediately, recognizing that this reunion might not be as simple as it seemed, or as Joseph had made it seem. And Elizabeth was so frightened of Joseph that she initially refused to say

anything in his presence. So that's when the police would take a very bold step. And they would tell Elizabeth in a private room that they suspected she may have neglected Kirsten. And that if she didn't explain what was going on, she could face legal consequences. So Elizabeth would just break down and beg the officers, plead them to make a promise. And that was that she would tell them the whole story, every horrific detail if they guaranteed she'd never have to see her father again. And the police assured her on the spot. And what came next was a 24-year saga of horror that none of the officers could have imagined. So Elizabeth, at age 42 at this point, began to recount the events since August of 1984.

And for the next two hours, she would relay the key points of her captivity. And the police listening must have been just utterly stunned, shock, just horrified. Because this was far beyond just a missing person or abuse case. It was an atrocity on an almost unthinkable scale. But they had finally found Elizabeth. But in doing so, they had uncovered one of the most shocking crimes of the century. So shortly after midnight on April 27th, 2008, officers would approach Joseph.

of Fritzel. And they would place him under arrest. Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit, piece of shit fuck face. And Joseph did not resist. In fact, he informed investigators on exactly where and how to enter the chamber, which at this point he's just gloating because like what else is he going to do, I guess. And perhaps in that moment he just realized it was over. And his iron grip on this dark secret had pried loose at last. So the police would rush to Fritzel's house and they would descend into the cellar. And guided by the instructions that they received, they unlocked the the hidden dungeon. And I can't even imagine the scene that the officers would pass through one by one through all of these multiple doors, behind the shelves and walls and decoys. And finally,

step into a place that no outsider has seen for 24 years. And news of this discovery would spread rapidly. And in the following days, the world would learn of the cellar girl Elizabeth and the monster of Absetten, which is Joseph. And this story would just dominate the headlines in Austria and worldwide because people struggled to comprehend the enormity of what had happened in that unremarkable yellow house in Austria. And the neighbors were shocked, just recalling how Joseph had been strict, but seemed like a normal dad and family man. And officials would hold press conferences to share initial details while pleading for privacy for the victims. And remarkably, Elizabeth and all six of her surviving children were finally safe, and they would be immediately taken into medical care.

And Kirsten slowly began to recover once she was treated for proper dialysis. and she would eventually recover. But there was just an ironic silver lining in all of this, and that's that the very crisis that nearly killed Kirsten just ended up saving all of their lives. So Joseph Fritzel, now completely exposed, tried to minimize his actions. And during early interrogations,

he claimed that he had done what he did to protect Elizabeth from the outside world and bad influences. Okay, fuck you. And he asserted that it was consensual in some twisted way. But needless to say, these justifications fell on deaf ears. And the sheer volume of evidence was overwhelming. The physical dungeon, the DNA test confirming he fathered the children and years of letters

and notes. So as he sat in his small, decrepit piece of shit jail cell that he deserved to be in because he's a piece of shit, and the full reality of his deeds finally confronted him in the public eye. And Joseph reportedly expressed some self-pity and complained. saying, I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts. I swear to fucking God. But his words would ring hollow.

Because to virtually everyone on the planet, he was exactly what the tabloids would soon call him, which was the monster of Abstedton. So after Joseph's arrest, Austrian authorities moved quickly to ensure justice. And Elizabeth Fritzel freed from her father, showed immense courage from providing detailed testimonies. against him. And she gave a videotape statement to prosecutors in July of 2008. So by November 13th, 2008, an indictment was issued against Joseph Fritzel. And the charges were staggering. There was murder by negligence for the death of Michael due to Joseph's failure to get medical help, enslavement, grape, incest, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and coercion. And the murder charge was

the most serious, carrying a potential life sentence of its own. And the other charges like enslavement carried up to 20 years each. But in Austria, multiple convictions wouldn't stack in a US-style consecutive way. But the expectation was that Fritzel would receive the maximum penalty allowed, which was life in prison. So prosecutors were determined to hold Joseph accountable for every aspect of the 24 ordeal. And the Austrian public, and indeed the entire world, waited to see if he would try to deny responsibility or claim insanity. So Joseph Fritzel's trial would begin on March 16th, 2009 in the city of Sankpleton and Lower Austria. And the case drew such intense media attention that it was dubbed a media circus. And on the first day, reporters and camera crews from around

the globe camped outside the courthouse. And the now 73-year-old Joseph was led it to court, trying to hide his face from the cameras behind a large blue folder. Like a baby bitch fuck piece of shit. I'm sorry. Actually, I'm not. Anyway. So it was just a man who had hidden unspeakable crimes just now hiding behind the public behind a little blue folder because he was scared so under austrian law defendants in certain trials can conceal their face from the press and joseph took full advantage of that so once the proceedings started the courtroom was cleared of public press for all but the opening and closing sessions out of respect for the victims and the extremely graphic nature of the evidence and joseph would plead guilty on all charges except murder and grievous assault which was him

threatening to gas his captives if they didn't listen to him. So they had no easy task ahead. Because the evidence included hours of wrenching testimony and details that would test anyone's composure. And on the second day of trial, jurors were shown 11 hours of videotaped testimony from Elizabeth. And this video had been pre-recorded in sessions with psychiatrists and investigators so that Elizabeth would not have to personally testify in court and see that idiot fuckface's face. But even so, the content was so awful that the jurors watched in segments of no more than two hours at a time. That's just how disturbing the evidence was. It was literally unwatchable in one go.

And unbeknownst to Fritzel, Elizabeth attended one day in trial in disguise. Because she wanted to witness the proceedings personally. And on March 17, 2009, which was the second day of trial, she sat in the gallery wearing a wig and glasses to blend in. And as her video testimony played, at one point Fritzel's lawyer noticed that Joseph had suddenly gone pale and was trembling because Joseph had spotted a familiar face in the crowd. And it was Elizabeth staring right at him. And their eyes would meet briefly. And according to his lawyer, quote unquote, from this point on, you could see Joseph Fritzel going pale and he broke down. As if seeing his daughter, the one that he had brutalized for so long, now a free woman, just unafraid to confront him.

finally shattered whatever defenses he had left. In the next morning on March 18th, before the session began, Joseph unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty on all counts. So now he acknowledged everything, even the murder and negligence of the baby Michael, and the enslavement of Elizabeth. And many observers did believe that it was

Elizabeth's presence and fortitude that compelled this last minute reversal. Like the amount of strength this girl has is just, Incredible. And he would claim that he just couldn't continue to deny his guilt knowing what he had done, which I claim bullshit, but whatever. So the trial proceeded to its conclusion swiftly after the plea charge. And in the courtroom, even during the opening days, the prosecution and defense painted starkly different pictures of Fritzel. The defense lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, argued that Joseph was not a monster, but a man who had a second family he tried to care for in his own twisted way. You are just as much of a monster in my eyes. Rudolph, the fucking red nose fucking rainy.

Fuck you. And mayor would infamously tell the court that Joseph brought down a Christmas tree for the children in the cellar, implying that there was some kind of kindness in this action. And he also pointed that Joseph made sure the upstairs kids were provided for.

Oh, I give him a fucking gold star. But these arguments received widespread criticism for obvious reasons. Because no fucking Christmas tree could erase the unspeakable abuse that occurred to these kids. And the chief prosecutor, Christian Berkheiser, on the other hand, spared no harsh detail. And she would demonstrate to the jurors how low the cellar ceiling was by marking the height on the courtroom door.

And she even passed around a box of musty items taken from the cellar. And the smell was so bad that it actually made the jurors flinch. And she would describe the space as damp and moldy, just describing the awful living conditions that Elizabeth had lived in for 24 years, along with her children. And the prosecutor would press for a sentence of life in a psychiatric facility, emphasizing that Joseph Fritzel was a danger to society and that his crimes were the worst imaginable. And beyond Elizabeth's testimony, the court also heard from other witnesses. And notably, Elizabeth's older brother, one of Fritzel's sons who grew up in a normal life,

and he would testify about the abuse he endured from Fritzel. Just confirming that Joseph's cruelty extended to the family upstairs as well. And Rosemary, Joseph's wife, and the children themselves did not testify, because they understandably just wanted to avoid any further trauma publicly. So on March 19th, 2009, the trial would conclude. And Joseph Fritzel was found guilty on all charges. And when the verdict was read, Joseph stood silently because he had already admitted his guilt. So there was little suspense. And the judge would sentence him to life imprisonment with a possibility of parole after 15 years.

Which is like, what the fuck? What the fuck? However, given the severity of his crimes, it was widely understood that he would likely never be freed. And Joseph stated through his lawyer that he accepted the sentence and would not appeal. So he would be sent to Garston Abbey to begin serving his time. And this was a former monastery turned prison. So there was just a collective sigh of relief in Austria that this monster would be finally locked away forever. And outside the courthouse, crowds would gather each day.

And when the life sentence was announced, Alan Lickers and victim advocates would cheer about the outcome. And Elizabeth Fritzel would not be there for. the reading of the verdict. But justice was served on her behalf. And after 24 years of nightmarish captivity and abuse, her father received the maximum punishment Austrian law would allow. And the case would be closed in a legal sense. But the healing journey for Elizabeth and her children was only just the beginning. So in the immediate aftermath of their escape, Elizabeth Fritzel and her children would be sent to a psychiatric clinic for intensive care. And Kirsten would actually remain in the hospital for some time, but eventually woke from her coma and began recovering, reuniting with her mother and

siblings in later 2008. And doctors would report that miraculously, Elizabeth and her children were actually pretty good physical health condition considering their circumstances underground. However, they did all suffer from psychological trauma and health issues related to their years in captivity. The children from the cellar specifically had very pale skin and had a lot of difficulty adjusting to sunlight. And they also had to adjust to just open space. after living in such confined spaces for their entire lives. And during those first months, the family was kept in complete seclusion. And therapists and medical experts would work with each member of the family

to begin the long process of rehabilitation. And luckily, the Austrian authorities were extremely protective of their privacy and continued to be. And new identities were offered to Elizabeth and her children and even her mother, Rosemary. But it was made very clear that they could make that choice on their own. And they were also offered a chance to start fresh somewhere far from Amsteaden. And Elizabeth and Rosemary initially actually stayed together to support the children. But Rosemary's relationship with Elizabeth was strained given the decades of deception. Because Rosemary truly hadn't known, but the guilt just weighed on her.

And eventually she would separate from the group and Elizabeth decided to build a new life with her children. And in 2009, Elizabeth, her children, and Rosemary moved to a new, undisclosed location in the Austrian countryside, known only by the code name Village X. And this location, luckily, remains confidential to this day. The community just understood that the Fritzels had endured and suffered enough, and that they deserved peace. If anyone deserved peace, it was these people. So as the family settled into their new home, messages of support just flooded in from around the world. And Elizabeth was deeply moved by the public's kindness.

And in June of 2008, a few weeks after their rescue, Elizabeth and her children created a handmade poster, with colorful drawings and rainbows, which was displayed briefly to thank everyone for their compassion, saying we, the whole family, would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for the sympathy at our fate. Your compassion is helping us greatly to overcome these difficult times. And this heartfelt message was one of the very few communications the family made to the public. But it just showed despite everything, they felt gratitude and hope thanks to the support of others. And over the years, Elizabeth's children had undergone extensive therapy to address trauma and to just adjust to normal life. And the differences between the upstairs kids and the downstairs kids present.

presented unique challenges. Because the three who grew up above ground, which was Lisa, Monica, and Alexander, had to just deal with the guilt having lived relatively normal lives while their siblings and their mother lived underground. And the psychologist said that these kids had severe survivors guilt and just general confusion as to why they were the chosen ones, basically. Meanwhile, the three cellar raised children, which was Kirsten-Stefone and Felix, had to learn just everything from scratch.

Just like what the sky is and how to walk in open space. and how to interact with other human beings. And at first, reportedly, the downstairs siblings had trouble bonding with the others because of their life experiences and how they were so different. But in time, according to occasional updates from those close to them,

the children have slowly integrated together. But understandably, therapy is something that's ongoing for them and likely for many years to come. And Elizabeth Fritzel emerged from that cellar at the age of 42, with virtually no experience of adult life in the real world. Yet her determination to live a normal life after the horrors committed against her and her children demonstrate that she is astonishingly strong and that she is an incredibly resilient woman. And thankfully, after receiving proper medical care and years and years of therapy, Elizabeth's condition has improved.

And it was later reported that her hair gradually regained some color because after years and years of being in that cellar, her hair had actually gone like ashy and gray. and she began to dress more normally and started to experiment with colorful clothing. And it's also noted that Elizabeth has even learned to drive a car and now goes on shopping trips into town, enjoying just the simple pleasures that any ordinary person would take for granted. And there are numerous reports that suggest that Elizabeth is indeed living with a partner who cares for her very, very deeply. And the kids. So it's just a heartwarming development after the horrors that they endured. And I'm so happy that Elizabeth has a chance at genuine love and just a normal life.

Meanwhile, Joseph Fritzel has been in prison since 2009 and the years have not been kind to him, nor does he deserve any kindness. And a few years into his prison sentence, he changed his name to Maroff. And it's speculated just to avoid conflict with other inmates. And now in his 90s, the fucker won't die. Fritzel is incarcerated at a regular prison, though it took quite a bit to get him there. And according to his lawyer and some new reports, he now suffers from dementia and is frail in physical health. Womp, as of now, Joseph Fritzel remains behind bars.

And his lawyer claims in more lucid moments, Joseph is haunted by nightmares of his crimes and that he deeply regrets his actions. Okay. But the psychiatrist who assessed him, which is Dr. Heidi Katzner, reportedly believes that Fritzel is still minimizing and whitewashing his deeds,

even in old dementia age. So, you know, still a giant, giant fucking monster piece of shit. But in all likelihood, Joseph will die in prison and no one will mourn his passing. Good riddance. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is living free with her children and she deserves everything wonderful in life. And she just wants to live her life in peace and anonymity, raising her family and never being in the shadow of her father's name again, which she won't be because this video is for Elizabeth and Elizabeth's children. And that is the video. If you have any other videos, you want me to deep dive into.

Let me know down below. This one was a lot. This one was a lot, but I think it's an incredibly important case. I know a lot of you suggested this one, but it's a lot. So I hope you take a little breather. Go outside, go outside, go take a walk, go think of everything you're grateful for. And remember to be safe out there, all right? And until then, I will see you a beautiful face, okay?

You go and say by to Rupert. We'll say by to Rupert. Come here, baby. Say goodbye to everybody. Say bye. Oh, thank you. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it.

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