In 2021, the scary Lifetime movie Girl in the Basement told the heartbreaking story of a girl whose father locked her in the basement and wouldn’t let her out. Based on true events, the movie shows how sad it was for the main character, Sara, to be held captive and abused. Many other people had the same nightmare she did. Elisabeth Fritzl, the daughter of the notoriously evil Josef Fritzl, also had a similar one. Girl in the Basement is like a toned-down version of the horrible things that Josef Fritzl did in Amstetten, Austria. This is one of the scariest true crime stories in recent memory because of how horrible his crimes were and how big the tragedy was.
Who Was Josef Fritzl?
Josef Fritzl was born on April 9, 1935, in Amstetten, Lower Austria. He had a terrible life that ended in horrible crimes. He was the son of Josef Sr. and Maria Fritzl, and he had a hard and sad childhood. His alcoholic father left the family when Josef was only four years old, leaving his mother to raise him by herself. After that, his dad was a soldier in the German army during WWII and was killed in action in 1944. Fritzl’s early life was not stable at all. His father was not present and his mother was probably too busy to deal with everything.
He married Rosemarie, who was 17 years old at the time, when he was 21 years old. They had seven children together, and Elisabeth was born on April 6, 1966. Even though Fritzl seemed like a good family man, his worst urges came out when Elisabeth was only 11. Beginning in 1977, he began sexually abusing his daughter, and he did this for many years.
After Fritzl got out of the house, his life seemed to go in the usual direction. He finished his education at a technical college in electrical engineering and then worked at Voestalpine in Linz and at a company that made building materials in Amstetten, among other places. He later worked as a salesman for technical equipment and went all over Austria. Fritzl continued to do some business activities after he stopped working full-time in 1995. For example, he managed rental properties. He and his wife also ran a guesthouse and a campground at Lake Mondsee until 1996.
What Josef Fritzl do?
Fritzl was committing horrible crimes, mostly against his daughter Elisabeth. He begins sexually abusing his 11-year-old daughter Elisabeth Fritzl lured Elisabeth into the basement of their house when she was only 18 years old in 1984. He would keep her there for more than 20 years. He built a cave under the house that was hidden and soundproof and locked Elisabeth in it. He then told his wife, Irene, a lie that Elisabeth had run away.
Over the years, Elisabeth went through unimaginable terrible things. Her father raped her many times, which caused her to have several children. In 1986 Elisabeth Ppregnat. The youngest died soon after birth. Fritzl didn’t take the child to the hospital; instead, he burned the baby’s body in an incinerator. Kerstin lives in the cellar until she is 19 years old, in 2008. Stephan is born on February 1, 1990. He also stays in the cellar until 2008, when he is 18 years old. Lisa is born on August 29, 1992.
In May 1993, she is nine months old when she is found outside the family home in a cardboard box. Elisabeth is said to have left the box there with a note asking someone to watch the child. In 1993, Fritzl lets the prison get bigger after Elisabeth asks him several times. This means that Elisabeth and her children have to work for years digging out dirt by hand. From 380 to 590 sq ft the prison got bigger. In 1994 The fourth child, Monika is born.
Monika, ten months old, is in a pushchair outside the house. Shortly after, Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie is called to watch the child. The caller sounds like Elisabeth, but Fritzl probably recorded her. Rosemarie called the police, surprised Elisabeth knew their new, ex-directory phone number. On April 28, 1996, Elisabeth gave birth to twin boys, Michael and Alexander. Fritzl cremates the first one after three days. Alexander, the surviving twin, is “discovered” upstairs at 15 months old. On December 16, 2002, Felix was born. Fritzl stated that he kept Felix in the cellar with Elisabeth and her two oldest children because his wife could not care for another child.
Other Crimes
Fritzl didn’t stop committing crimes when he locked up and abused his daughter sexually. In 1967, he attacked a 24-year-old nurse and raped her while threatening her with a knife. This was the first crime in his long criminal history. He was caught and given a year in prison. Even though he did these things wrong, Austrian law erased his criminal record after 15 years. This meant that his past crimes would not follow him around. In the end, this legal loophole helped him adopt kids, even the ones he had with Elisabeth while he was abusing her.
Fritzl was also thought to have killed Martina Claudia Posch, a 17-year-old girl who was found dead near his property at Lake Mondsee in 1986. Fritzl was never officially charged with the crime, but his involvement was called into question, and Posch and Elisabeth had some things in common. A second young woman’s body was found in Linz in 1966, and the police also looked into Fritzl’s possible connection to her death. Fritzl was questioned about these possible murders, but he was never found guilty.
The Crime was Found
Fritzl locked Elisabeth up and controlled every part of her life for more than 24 years, abusing and degrading her over and over again. Fritzl was able to hide the truth for a long time. He even got people in the area to believe that Elisabeth had run away to join a cult. He lied to the police as well, because he adopted or cared for three of his grandchildren while the others were locked up with their mother in the cellar. One of the kids getting very sick was the first sign that something wasn’t right.
After almost 24 years in jail, the truth finally came out in 2008. In 19 April 2008, The oldest child of Elisabeth got very sick, so Fritzl took 19-year-old Kerstin to the hospital. The medical staff knew right away that something was wrong. The girl was not getting enough oxygen and her kidneys were failing. Her condition was so bad that she had to be put into an artificial coma. The police were called by the hospital staff, and their investigation led them to the secret cellar.
When the police arrived, they were shocked to see that Elisabeth and her six kids were living in terrible conditions. It was very lonely for the kids because they had never been allowed to leave the basement. Elisabeth and her kids were taken to a clinic and got medical and mental health care there.
Trial and Sentence
The case made people all over the world very angry and shocked. Josef Fritzl was caught and charged with many crimes, such as incest, rape, enslavement, murder by neglect, and coercion. During the trial, Fritzl was said to be emotionally distant and bossy. He was diagnosed by a forensic psychiatrist with a personality disorder and a sexual disorder, but it was found that he was aware of everything he was doing the whole time.
At the trial, Fritzl first denied the murder and slavery charges, but after seeing evidence like Elisabeth’s harrowing video testimony, he finally admitted guilt. His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said that Fritzl had been motivated by a strong desire to control and dominate other people. He said that Fritzl’s behavior had become totally out of control because of a “addiction.”
As of March 2009, Josef Fritzl was given a sentence of life in a mental hospital. Fritzl’s lawyer said that he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison because he wouldn’t be able to get out until 15 years, and because of how bad his crimes were, it was very unlikely that he would ever be free.
Where is Josef Fritzl Now?
Today, Josef Fritzl is serving his life sentence at Garsten Abbey, a high-security prison that used to be a monastery in Upper Austria. He is 89 years old now. Fritzl was given a life sentence, which means he will spend the rest of his days in prison. However, his future is uncertain. According to Austrian law, he might be able to get out of jail after 15 years. But because of the seriousness of his crimes and the fact that he is a high-risk offender, it is almost certain that he will stay in jail.
Fritzl was said to have changed his name to “Mayrhoff” while he was in prison in 2019. People think that he is doing this to avoid the media attention that is still on his case. Even though things have changed, he is still a feared figure in Austria and around the world.
In January 2024, he asked to be moved to a nursing home because his health was getting worse, but his request was turned down. Fritzl is still in jail, even though his health is getting worse. Fritzl is said to have said he was sorry for what he did, but that hasn’t made what he did any less horrible. During his time in prison, he is mostly alone. Because his crimes were so bad and so many people are upset about his case, he probably won’t get any special treatment.
As shocking as the crimes were, what happened afterward was even worse. After being given new names, Elisabeth and her children who are still alive have tried to rebuild their lives away from the media’s prying eyes. Elisabeth, who was in her 40s when she was freed, hasn’t been seen in public very often. She did, however, write a book about her ordeal, which came out after the trial.
Reports say that Elisabeth has been to therapy and medical care for the trauma she went through. There hasn’t been much news about her, and her kids are now in care, out of the public eye.
Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, was crushed when she learned of her husband’s crimes. She had no idea for years what was going on in the basement and later said she was shocked and saddened.
A lot of people were also very interested in how such a horrible crime could go unnoticed for so long. People criticized the local government for not looking into suspicious events like the children who mysteriously showed up at the Fritzl home sooner. Even so, Fritzl’s careful planning and ability to control the people around him made it hard for anyone to think the truth.
Read More: The True Story Behind Lifetime’s Girl in the Basement (2021)
