90 replies to this topic

[Low Feedback]

Today's howler imo.


http://www.timesonli...icle3832842.ece

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

I find it incredible that all this was going on without it being spotted as suspicious. Just the weekly food shopping would have sent up red flags in any community where an elderly couple are living supposedly alone and shopping for 9 people every time. These kids never went outside or saw daylight? WTF? Fucked UP.

[OldManRay]

Sweet Fanny Addams said:

I find it incredible that all this was going on without it being spotted as suspicious. Just the weekly food shopping would have sent up red flags in any community where an elderly couple are living supposedly alone and shopping for 9 people every time.

Excerpt from BBC article:

"Mr Fritzl was allegedly able to supply his secret family with clothes and food without arousing suspicion by shopping outside of Amstetten. Police say he had an excuse to travel away from home as he owned some land and could shop in other towns and deliver goods to the cellar dungeon in the evening, unnoticed."

[bizaleth]

Thank you for the BBC article. I have been reading about this on CNN and MSNBC, but their articles were confusing--especially when it got to the point where the daughter/granddaughter was taken to the hospital. The BBC article spelled out the timeline.

Man, I can't even understand why or how a person could do this. In addition to feeling for the poor daughter , being held prisoner like that... but her mother. All these years she thought her daughter had run off and the whole time her husband was keeping her prisoner and abusing her right there in her own home. How terrible.

[Ty1erDurden]

This is incredibly sad.
And the second time in two years something like this is coming from my homeland.

[Hezalin]

there are some trul sick people in this world,. wait how did his wife not know there were 5 people hidden in her basement? urgh.

[OneArpeggioPete]

according to all the news reports i read the guy was very authoritarian and his wife rather meek, so when he said don't go near the basement she didn't, and i guess in that kind of relationship his grocery spending wouldn't be questioned either. :( i wonder what'll happen to the kids now. the five year old is probably still young enough to overcome the damage that was done to him and grow into a competent adult, but what about the 18 and the 19 year old (assuming she'll survive)? that sick bastard has destroyed so many lives... :(

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

Apparently, DNA tests have confirmed that this monster did in fact father all of his daughter's children. The whole thing's almost beyond belief.

ETA-- there are more questions that need answering. For example, there was a picture of him on the news, topless, enjoying a vacation in Thailand. If he was doing all this on his own, how did he keep the family fed when he went on long holidays? Did he stockpile a huge amount of food in that tiny basement? Seems he liked going away to hot places and being in the sun, yet half his kids have never seen daylight. And the strongest accusation he'll have to face in court is rape? What about false imprisonment and torture?

[chiarem]

it's something dreadful. i reallt feel like crying everytime is think about this. and my next thought is, what does such a brute animal deserve? i'd have an aswer, but it's not the case now. i wish him all the worst things ever. all bodily pain possible, given that he cant feel psycological one.

[OneArpeggioPete]

i rarely feel that way, but "up to 15 years" in not enough for the guy; here is someone who really, truly needs the key thrown away. apparently they were reunited with their mother today, she asked for forgiveness and said over and over again that she hadn't known anything. how will she live with it? and the three children she was aware of and brought up? again, i rarely feel that way but i'm just incredibly angry at that guy. on the german media they showed pictures of the basement flat he had built for them, they had painted a flower and an octopus on the bathroom tiles to make it a bit more like home. seeing that nearly made me cry... :( they had a tv down there, that was the only thing they saw of the world, and the five year old was fascinated with cars. getting to ride in one when they were taken away from the house gave him the biggest kick of his life. it's just so sad... :(

according to the german news channel n24 josef fritzl will have to stand trial for sexual abuse, repeated rape, prolonged false imprisonment and probably murder. sounds about right...

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

This story just gets worse and worse. The children rescued from the cellar don't speak properly, they communicate in grunts and growls, like animals. They are thought to have severe vitamin deficiencies and to be sight and hearing impaired as a result of sensory deprivation. The 5 year old boy prefers crawling to walking.
This case is  so horrible. I have trouble finding words for what I feel.

[In the Corner]

Sweet Fanny Addams said:

This story just gets worse and worse. The children rescued from the cellar don't speak properly, they communicate in grunts and growls, like animals. They are thought to have severe vitamin deficiencies and to be sight and hearing impaired as a result of sensory deprivation. The 5 year old boy prefers crawling to walking.
This case is  so horrible. I have trouble finding words for what I feel.

Where did you hear that?  Nothing I've read has given such detailed information.  I can't imagine that any of them will ever have a "normal" life.

[OneArpeggioPete]

apparently they communicate in a mixture of german and animal sounds, and end up exhausted when trying to communicate in straight german. their posture is stooped. the sick girl has hardly any teeth left. and now it appears one of elisabeth fritzl's brothers had a key to the cellar and knew what was happening. it IS getting worse and worse... :(

still, there are good news seeping through. apparently one of the "upstairs" children celebrated his birthday yesterday and it was a truly joyful occasion, the youngest boy was overjoyed to see the cake and the happiness, and all the new experiences of life outside the cellar seem to do the two boys good, they get a huge kick out of feeling the sun on their skin, seeing the moon, riding in cars... it's incredibly sad they should get a kick out of these things, but maybe that means there's still hope for them.

the austrian authorities are considering giving the children new identities so they can rebuild (or actually build) their lives free from intrusion. makes sense to me... and natasha kampusch, the vienna girl who had been held captive in a basement for eight year until she fled about two years ago, has donated money and offered psychological help, talk to the family to share experiences and show them it's possible to put your life back together after such trauma. might help, dunno. as long as they lock the guy up and throw away the key... the mother is utterly traumatised... :(

weird aspect of the net - in the german and austrian media the family can only be identified as josef, elisabeth etc. f. for legal reasons - protecting their identity. yet, because other countries don't have such privacy laws, everyone knows their name now anyway...

lucy - the european media are choc-a-bloc with the story, that's where all the information about the children is from.

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[bizaleth]

I had read that reports stating the children couldn't speak, etc., had been found false. In one of the previous reports it said that leanring to read, write, etc., had been left up to their mother in the cellar. So a mix of German and "grunts" (I wonder if they developed something almost like their own language?) I had read that they were considering new identities so they could try to live a somewhat normal life. I also read that the children were adjusting to the sun.








Now that I (technically) have less than 30 days at my job, I seem to be doing a lot of online reading.

[OneArpeggioPete]

bizaleth said:

I had read that reports stating the children couldn't speak, etc., had been found false. In one of the previous reports it said that leanring to read, write, etc., had been left up to their mother in the cellar. So a mix of German and "grunts" (I wonder if they developed something almost like their own language?)

that's what it seems like at the moment, they speak in grunts etc. among each other and laboured german when talking to other people.

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[slinky1]

The whole thing is just beyond my comprehension and I don't want to think about it at all.

[In the Corner]

OneArpeggioPete said:

lucy - the european media are choc-a-bloc with the story, that's where all the information about the children is from.

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

I thought that might be the case.  Dang, what a sad sad story.

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

I wonder how Fritzl decided which children were going to have relatively normal lives in the upstairs house and which were to be imprisoned in a windowless hole with their mother? I don't think this guy should ever be allowed out of prison. EVER. Now the death of a young woman some years ago is possibly being linked to Josef Fritzl. I think there are details to come which will be even more upsetting. None of it is good news, some of it is just a relief because it's less horrific than some of the other details.

[OneArpeggioPete]

and apparently josef fritzl is proud that he managed to fool everyone for so long... i really don't have words for my feelings about that...

etty - apparently the "upstairs" children were loud, difficult babies and he was worried they might be heard from the cellar...

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[In the Corner]

Sweet Fanny Addams said:

I wonder how Fritzl decided which children were going to have relatively normal lives in the upstairs house and which were to be imprisoned in a windowless hole with their mother?

I read somewhere that the ones left in the cellar were the "crybabies".

Which is the opposite of what Astrid heard.