Father molests girl from 11-18, then at 18 he fakes her joining cult and locks her in basement dungeon for 24 years, Father fathers 7 children with her, 3 of which he takes from the mother, his own daughter, at birth to raise upstairs with his wife who rejoices the children left on doorstep by long-lost daughter, 1 child dies at birth and Father incinerates, 3 others remain downstairs (currently aged 19, 18, and 5), dungeon is less than 6 ft high, and has no windows or access to outside world but has a tv. 2 weeks ago, the oldest under the stairs daughter fell ill and is taken by Father to hospital where rare blood disease is uncovered, doctors need to test mother so police post image of mother on local tv where children and mother see it downstairs. Upstairs and downstairs have been reunited and father is in custody facing 20 years. This happened in Austria.
We should know about these stories, because it could be happening under our feet. Right now. Go check.
Um, Yeah...While police continued to probe one of the most horrific cases of domestic abuse in European criminal history, Sepp Leitner told the daily Die Presse he had come eerily close to discovering the windowless prison a decade ago.
Leitner lived for four years in a small flat on the ground floor immediately above the cellar in the 1990s.
He said he could never understand why his electricity bill was so high, considering he was frequently absent and did not even have a washing machine.
Leitner only realised this month after the case emerged that he was paying the utility costs for the underground prison as well, which had an elaborate security system installed by owner Josef Fritzl, a former electrician.
"If I'd been a bit more persistent and not let it go until the mystery of the high electricity consumption had been resolved, perhaps we'd have found out about the dungeon earlier," Leitner said. - AFP
I told my youngest sister, aged 16, about this and she asked me FAITH, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS TELL ME THESE THINGS?! First I share for comparison, it's good to know how nice your life really is and how worse your childhood could have been. From a philosophical standpoint it's fascinating, a real 21st century Myth of the Cave. Growing up underground seeing the "real world" through a tv is just one facet when you consider the psychological depths of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. If the abuse was downstairs, was it upstairs too? Artificial lights or full morning sunrises, would it matter if you were shackled by fear and trauma?
