This story is just incredible--and sickening.

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It just boggles the mind - I can't imagine the torture the woman and her kids have gone through Actually it is one of those kinds of stories that I'll change the channel when it comes on 'cause I find it so disturbing.

Could the old man's wife really not know what was going on? Or at least suspect something was amiss? Although if the man was capable of doing this to his own children and grandchildren then there is a possibility the wife was abused in some way as well.

He had quite a few other children by the wife in addition to those he had with his daughter.

I am wondering how in a modern European country that registers births and the progress of children throughout their lives, no one noticed anything amiss. Birth rates are lower in Europe than elsewhere so children do not go unnoticed. The father had to be purchasing things for the secret family all that time from merchants and no one suspected? The social service people are the ones who must be asking themselves how they managed to overlook this and also, how they managed to happily sign over those children who were supposedly left at the door by the errant daughter. I've read he took the ones who cried the least! So someone was visiting them regularly because of the 'adoptees'.

I've visited Austria for my profession and met Austrians from my age group and similar background. They appeared to have more benefits than even the French coworkers which is saying a lot. I can't believe that the children slipped through the net. In a country that supposedly protects children and encourages births for a waning population, they give family benefits and regular checkups and keep records. How did they slip through a loophole?

I have read some of the commentary on the net about this and I know that in some places, neighbors are so discreet that you could spend twenty years next door to someone without ever seeing inside their home, ever. I know I was surprised to see neighbors who'd seen the births and deaths of my in laws, who were invited to weddings and funerals, but almost never inside the house.

Even if neighbors are discreet there must have been someone who covered this up at one point.

I really cannot come up with any words to describe how that story horrifies and appalls me. Absolutely unbelievable that there could be, as Bruyere put it, a "loophole" that huge for them to fall through. I also agree there had to be a cover-up, it's just not conceivable otherwise.

I agree, someone somewhere had to have some knowledge of what was going on in that home. It's been suggested the man would have needed help putting the door in so there's an investigation underway to see if anyone comes to light. How this could carry on under his wife's nose for a quarter of a century just makes me wonder what kind of marriage this was. It's been stated that going downstairs into the basement was completely verboten, could this man have been that terrifying to everyone?

I've been following this story closely and reading European newspaper sites, such as Austria's "Kronen Zeitung," so I've picked up much information.

To answer a few questions: this story unfolded in an apartment building owned by Josef Fritzl. He apparently rented out a few apartments on the first floor (the second in American parlance), while he and his wife lived on the top floor. The basement was off-limits to everyone, only he went down there, by his decree. Apparently, he was a "despotic patriarch" (says Frankfurt's 'Allgemeine Zeitung") who ruled his family with an iron hand, and his adult children by his wife have confirmed this. No one was allowed to enter the basement, which was heavily soundproofed. The space where the daughter, Elisabeth, and three of her children lived was evidently so well-hidden that the police couldn't find it even after being told about it. They had to get Fritzl to show them the entrance.

The children/grandchildren who lived with Fritzl and his wife on the top floor were taken from their mother as infants. Now aged 12, 14, and 16, they have no memory of her, or of the basement prison, or of their other three siblings, aged 5, 18, and 19. Fritzl apparently forced the 18-year-old Elisabeth to write one note claiming that she'd run away to join a religious cult; and others later, claiming that she'd given birth to babies for whom she couldn't care and asking her parents to look after them. Austrian social services granted legal guardianship to Fritzl and his wife, despite now-admitted concerns about the legality of doing so, given that mother wasn't available to grant permission.

This man sounds like a narcissistic sociopath of the first order. He's been married to his wife for 52 years, and my guess is that she is a very weak and malleable woman who was virtually beaten into submission decades ago. Fritzl bought all the extra food and clothing supplies outside of Amstetten, so no questions would be asked, and he surely handled all of the family finances, so his wife would not have seen any bills.

And, as a number of articles in various European media have pointed out today, Austria is a country with draconian privacy laws, a direct heritage from World War II, when people were forced to inform on one another. Today, the Austrians guard their privacy very jealously. If you see nothing of obvious concern, you are not going to look any closer.

Thank you, Ianfranco, for all the additional information. I am going to keep an eye on this story as it unfolds and will be checking to see what all of you come up with about it. I personally have heard nothing, other than what I have seen on here. Perhaps I missed it on the news, don't tend to watch it much, and haven't seen an article in print here either.

What a hideous occurrence. I just wonder how long before he started on the children hidden with their mother - or had it already started ? Only hope and pray they are able to rebuild their lives in the freedom most of us take for granted.