The girl in the photo, named Elizabeth Fritz, wrote to her mother at the age of 18 and ran away from home, never to be heard from again. 24 years later, she was found by the police in her own dungeon.
She told police that for 24 years, she had lived an inhuman life, not only being imprisoned, but also being beaten, and even being violated and giving birth to 7 children.
What the police did not expect was that the person who imprisoned her, beat her, and violated her was actually her biological father.
Why did she have such an encounter? After 24 years in captivity, how did she get discovered by the police?
01
On February 19, 2008, an elderly man in his 70s took a sick girl to the Central Hospital in Amstetten in eastern Austria.
The girl had pale skin and difficulty breathing, and was placed in an intensive care unit as soon as she arrived at the hospital.
The elderly man who accompanied her to the hospital, who claimed to be the girl's grandfather, told the doctor that the girl's name was Christine, 19 years old.
But in addition, he could not provide any identity documents of the girl, nor did he know whether the girl had a medical history. When the doctor asked him for information about the girl's parents in order to obtain relevant medical history information, he swallowed and his words flickered.
Later, he said that his daughter Elizabeth Fritz, the girl's mother, had run away from home 24 years earlier.
However, just three days later, Elizabeth, who had disappeared for 24 years, suddenly appeared in the hospital.
What's going on here?
It turned out that the doctor found the mystery from the old man's words (the granddaughter was 19 years old, and the daughter had been missing for 24 years) and called the police.
After receiving the alarm, the police launched an operation and launched an investigation into the elderly.
The old man, 72, an Austrian, graduated from prestigious universities and was an engineer with excellent business skills before retiring.
During the visit, the police found that Joseph had a very good relationship with the neighbors, and everyone spoke highly of him, which also confirmed that his daughter Elizabeth had indeed run away from home 24 years ago and had never returned.
But an incident in the mouths of neighbors also caught the attention of the police, who told the police that Joseph was a very kind person and had adopted 3 abandoned babies.
All three of these children were placed directly on his doorstep.
Is this a coincidence or is there something else hidden? Is his granddaughter Christine one of those three children? If so, why would he say it was the child of his daughter Elizabeth?
In addition, one of the reasons for the doctor's diagnosis of Christine's illness was that there was no sunlight for many years, and the police had to suspect that Joseph had a tendency to abuse the child.
To this end, the police searched Joseph's house, but did not expect to make an even more bizarre discovery.
02
They inadvertently find a very hidden secret door behind the kitchen cabinet of Joseph's house, and the door is also equipped with a combination lock. The discovery made the police smell something unusual and couldn't help but think of everything behind the door.
And when they opened the door, everything that came into sight was far beyond their imagination.
Behind the door is a closed space with complete living facilities, which is not large, but it is arranged with several rooms such as kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
On the bed in one of the rooms lay a woman with white hair, sluggish eyes, a pale face, a emaciated body, who looked to be more than half a hundred years old.
When she saw the police, there was a flash of panic in her eyes, and she was immediately replaced by surprise.
From her mouth, the police heard an appalling true story.
Her name was Elizabeth Fritz, and she was joseph's daughter who had run away from home for 24 years.
Elizabeth was born on April 6, 1966, both to her father Joseph Fritz and mother Mary Fritz, both respected engineers.
Together, the duo raised 2 sons and 5 daughters.
Elizabeth is the fourth oldest in the family, with a good look and a gentle personality, and is very popular with everyone.
Since childhood, she feels that she has always been the pearl in the palm of her parents, always surrounded by love.
However, all this came to an abrupt end when she was 18 years old.
At the age of 18, she fell in love with a boy, and when she excitedly shared the matter with her father, his father changed his image of a loving father and reprimanded her severely.
Originally, she thought that her father was just out of protection for her, worried that she would do something wrong when she was a minor.
To this end, she is very much looking forward to her coming of age ceremony as soon as possible, so that she can fall in love as an adult without scruples.
But she did not expect that the coming-of-age ceremony she was looking forward to would become the beginning of her nightmare.
On April 6, 1984, on her 18th birthday, while Elizabeth was still intoxicated with her vision of a better future, her father, Joseph, quietly stunned her and dragged her into the dungeon and imprisoned.
When she woke up and found herself in a dark, damp chamber, she immediately cried out in horror, but no matter how much she called for help, she could not get any response.
Soon after, she met her father, Joseph, in the Chamber of Secrets. From his mouth, Elizabeth learned that in order to imprison her, her father had begun to build the chamber as early as 1978.
After 6 years of renovation, she finally put all the equipment in her life in place before the coming-of-age ceremony.
Moreover, the Chamber of Secrets was located just below Joseph's house, and the entrance and exit were hidden behind the cupboards in the kitchen, which was very hidden.
At first, she thought that her father was punishing her for her private love, and she was a little angry and threw a tantrum at her father.
But Joseph's next actions completely subverted her perception of her father.
Not only did her father punch and kick her, but he also forced her to have sex with her.
At first, she couldn't believe that her father, who loved her, could do such a beastly act against her, constantly shouting "Father" in an attempt to awaken a trace of his humanity.
To no avail, she kept calling out to "Mother", hoping that her mother would hear and save her from the fire and water.
However, everything she did was in vain, and in exchange for more fists from her father.
Unbeknownst to her, the day after her disappearance, her mother, Mary, had called the police, but unfortunately, the police searched the entire neighborhood and found not the slightest clue.
A month later, Elizabeth was forced by her father, Joseph, to write a letter to her mother, saying, "I am tired of living with you and have decided to go into the world alone." Don't try to find me, or I will never appear before you. ”
Although she knew that after writing this letter, she was less likely to be rescued, under the ruthless whip of her father, she could only obey.
From then on, Elizabeth was completely desperate, she no longer tried to resist, and she was obedient to her father.
03
From the age of 18 to 42, she was imprisoned for 24 years and forced to give birth to 7 children.
Christine, the girl who was taken to the hospital, is her eldest daughter, born in August 1988.
Christine, on the other hand, was not her first child. Her first child was conceived after 2 years in captivity, but due to her inexperience at the time and the harsh surroundings, the child was not born smoothly.
Two years later, she became pregnant again, and Joseph prepared her a book on childbirth, a bottle of disinfectant, and a few towels, which gave Kristen a chance to come into the world.
After that, she had a baby almost every 1 to 2 years.
The second son, Stanfan, was born in June 1990, and the third daughter, Lisa, was born in August 1992.
Unlike Stanfan, Joseph packed the 9-month-old Lisa into a cardboard box, secretly put her in the small courtyard in front of his house, pretended to be an abandoned baby, and naturally brought her home.
Monica, the fourth daughter born in February 1994, was also successfully "adopted" by the Josephs 10 months later. Also "adopted" in the same way was his son Alex, born in April 1996.
Alex and Michael are twins, but Michael is too ill-equipped to die.
In December 2002, Elizabeth gave birth to her eighth child, Fisks, and left him with her.
Since then, of the six surviving children, the eldest daughter Christine, the second son Stanfan and the younger son Fiskes have all lived in the dungeon with Elizabeth, while the other two daughters Lisa and Monica and son Alex have been openly raised by Joseph.
Due to living in a small and dark space for a long time, almost all children have immune system defects, including vitamin deficiencies, anemia, etc., and even tooth loss at a young age.
Joseph did not care about the children's situation at all, but used them to restrain Elizabeth. Ever since the birth of the child, as soon as Elizabeth did not obey him at all, Joseph immediately cut off all resources for survival and punished her in front of the child.
This time, if it weren't for Christine's impending illness, Elizabeth's pleading with Joseph would not have given him permission to take her to the hospital.
The police were shocked by Elizabeth's "story", and they could not imagine that a man who was humble, kind, and successful in the eyes of everyone could do such a thing that people were indignant.
04
They then arrested Joseph.
In March 2009, Joseph confessed to all the crimes he had committed and was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 73 on charges of imprisonment, assault, and many other crimes, without parole.
But even so, he did not have the slightest remorse for his past evil deeds, and openly revealed to the media that he hated his mother very much and hated all the women around him.
He said he did this because he had a very bad childhood.
From an early age, his parents divorced due to emotional discord, and he lived with his mother.
But his mother did not love him, but often beat and scolded him.
It was not until he became an adult that he broke free from his mother's clutches. In order to get revenge on his mother, he grounded her in the room, did not give her food or drink, and left her to fend for herself.
We all know that a person's childhood environment is very important and has a profound impact on the growth of his life. Apparently, Joseph was traumatized by his own childhood experiences, which in turn produced a distorted ideology.
Although he was eventually severely punished by the law, he buried hidden dangers in the hearts of several children.
After gaining their freedom, their 3 children and Elizabeth are not well adjusted to their new life, and the unfamiliar environment has caused them great psychological pressure. Together, they were taken to a nursing home and received professional psychological counseling.
Fortunately, Elizabeth regained her own love after being rescued for a year, and her sweetheart was always a bodyguard who accompanied her, and the relationship between the two was very stable, and finally entered the palace of marriage.
05
A good childhood will heal a person's life, but a bad childhood needs to be cured with a lifetime. Any person, if there is a pair of parents who are discordant and often quarrel in childhood, growing up in an environment without love and warmth, may have adverse psychological effects, small will affect the future marriage and other life, the large will cause harm to relatives and society.