Episode 174: Elisabeth Fritzl

 In this episode Janus and Joyous discuss the intense Survival story of Elisabeth Fritzl and what she went through at the hands of her own father, Josef Fritzl Jr. This one made Joyous cry a little during our closing thoughts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Unsung Murder Ballads is a true crime podcast, and as such, we will be discussing topics that are disturbing, graphic, and often violent in nature. So this is not for children under the age of 13.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

But you know this because you did start playing this episode. So here are some things you might not know about us.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

We are going to be critical of mistakes made by both criminals and law enforcement.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

We're going to express our views on things that you might not always agree with.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

We will occasionally go on an off-topic tangent.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

And we're going to use dark humor to express ourselves now and then.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

So if you're easily triggered, this might not be the podcast for you.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

However, if this is your cup of tea, then raise your pinky finger while you sip and join us for this week's horrific case, you sick bastards. And I'm Joyce Dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay, so this week we're doing another survivor story.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Oh, I love these.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, I I I waited and gave the pause so you could respond. It's a brutal one, but it's a survivor story.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Yeah, they're I mean it has to be brutal as a survivor story to make it onto our podcast. If it was like a nice, like, oh, they just slip right out, then it's not really gonna make it on.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

No, this this one does involve mur suspected murders, maybe not proven murders, um, which we'll touch on briefly because they're not proven. And it's also gonna involve well, it involves the sexual abuse of a teenager. Um, I think there's mention of the possibility of it being younger as well, and incest. So yeah, this is a brutal case. Um, so while it is a survivor story, there is brutality, not brutality, like it's not like you know, but it's not like barbaric. It's just um it's fucked up. There's no there's no better way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, I retract my yay, but also I'm I'm glad for survival.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yes, you'll you'll see. This is um any any of our listeners certainly knows what this case is because they'll see the name. Because this one's fairly famous, although I doubt you'll know it.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Um I won't.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I know you won't. It's uh Joseph and Elizabeth Fritzel.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Doesn't ring a bell.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, that's awesome. Surprising no one's tria in the yeah, you'll see as we go. I won't even tell you a date range yet, although you're gonna get it right away. Okay, there's no real teaser. Um, I've I've realized I'm having trouble finding teasing moments, so I'm just like, eh, whatever. I'm just gonna roll with it.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

It's okay. You give us some tidbits.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Right. Okay, so Joseph Fritzel was born on April 9th, 1935, in Amsteton, Lower Austria. Now he was born to his parents, Joseph Sr. and Maria Fritzel. Joseph Jr. grew up as an only child solely by his working mother, who he claimed regularly subjected him to physical and emotional abuse throughout his childhood. Oh. He referred to himself as a quote unquote alibi child, claiming that his mother only gave birth to him to prove that she herself was not barren and that she could have children.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Well, that is an interesting allegation, I must say. I've never heard of this concept.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

I have never heard anything like that as well. What a bizarre reason to have a kid.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Now I'm I'm inclined to do some research of like, what? Why?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Well, my thing is like of all the reasons to to of all the ways to prove you can have kids. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Well that's the most straightforward way.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Do it.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

But couldn't you just prove that you were menstruating?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Doesn't mean you can bear children.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Okay, fair. You're right. I didn't think that through all the way.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

But And also, they w they wouldn't have known that back then, you know?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Well, this is only the 1930s. You know, you're right. Maybe they wouldn't have.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Yeah, I mean, like It's right on the line of when researched even now.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

That's true. And it's I I don't know enough about Austria in the 30s to really know. Because it's also pre-World War II, if you think about it.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Right. The thing that's coming to mind, and now we're totally off topic, um, is I've been recently rewashing the handmaid's tale. And um in the handmaid's tale, a woman might need to prove that she is fertile in order to have a slightly question mark better quality of life and not be sent to, you know, toxic waste in the colonies.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, that was that show's fucked. I remember reading the book, and then I saw the show. I don't I didn't really care for the last couple seasons. I thought they were dragged out a little, but great show.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yeah, I agree, but I love the book.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, the book was so good.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So, anyway, she had an alibi child.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Yes, yeah, sorry. I was like, yep, let's uh let's continue. So the father, Joseph Sr., was a severe alcoholic, and he deserted his family when Joseph Jr. was only four, and he never came into contact with him again, his own son. Joseph Sr. later fought as a soldier during World War II and was killed in action in 1944, and his name does appear on a memorial plaque in the town of Amsteton. Gotcha. In 1956, at 21 years old, Joseph Fritzel Jr., who from here forward I will pretty much gonna just refer to him as Fritzel because he is our perpetrator, and fuck this guy. At 21, he married 17-year-old Rosemarie, with whom he would have three sons and four daughters.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Jesus, slow the fuck down.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Right? Now his youngest was Elizabeth, and she was born on April 6th, 1966. Now, Elizabeth's siblings believe that their father pretty much treated her differently from the rest of them, as they felt he often handed down less harsh punishments for her than the rest of them got from his strict house rules.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

That's typical for the youngest child or for everyone to feel that way with the youngest child, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

I think so. And the funny part is I think she got it far worse, but we're gonna get into that in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Well, all right.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Elizabeth was quiet, a blue-eyed blonde who often daydreamed of getting away and starting her life someplace new, specifically someplace away from her father. Her dreams of getting out of there wasn't necessarily due to the strict rules, it was rather because of the abuse that she did suffer at his hands. But again, we're gonna touch on this in a moment.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

After the events that we're gonna discuss tonight, this is after Joseph Fritzel is caught, he would be looked into as a suspect in the death of a woman named Anna Newmeyer, who was 17, and she was shot in a field in the city of Linz on August 17, 1966. She had disappeared on her way to the city of Wells, which was about 22 miles from where Fritzel worked at that time. In 1967. At this point, Elizabeth is only one year old. Fritzel broke into the home of a 24-year-old nurse while her husband was away, and he raped her while holding a knife to her throat, threatening to kill her if she screamed.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Oh, fuck this guy. That's awful.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, this guy's a he's a piece of shit. Fuck this guy.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

That same year he was also a suspect in a case of attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman, and he was also known for indecent exposure. He was a he was eventually arrested, but only served 12 months in prison. Now, in accordance with Austrian law, Fritzel's criminal record was expunged after 15 years of not committing any more crimes.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I hate that.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

And basic that and basically as a jump forward note here, as a result of this law, more than twenty-five years later, the local social service authorities did not know of his criminal record when he applied to adopt andor foster the children of his daughter Elizabeth.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Oh God, no.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

And that's an important note, obviously, and you figured that one out.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Fucking crazy. But back to the 1960s. Fritzel, after completing his education with basically a degree in electrical engineering, he obtained a job at a place called Volstlepine in Linz. From 1969 until 1971, he held a job in a construction material firm in Arstetten. And he later became a technical equipment salesman traveling throughout Austria. In 1971.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Well, at least he's gone.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, right. His wife gets some piece with her with her seven kids.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Yeah, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Fuck that.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Rather seven kids than eight, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Right, well. In 1972, Fritzl purchased a guest house and an adjacent campsite at a place called Lake Monste, Monsey, managing the property together with his wife until 1996. On November 12th, 1986, at 6 40 a.m., a 17-year-old named Mart Martina Claudia Posh left her home in Upper Austria to go to a nearby bus stop. When she did not show up to the meeting she had arranged with her boyfriend that afternoon, the boyfriend called Martina's mother, who had assumed that her daughter was with him. And she also learned that Martina had never shown up to work that day. Now it's authorities soon determined through witness statements that she had not made it to the bus stop either.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

On November 22nd, 1986, two scuba divers found Martina's body wrapped in two olive green tarps on the southern shore of Lake Monsey. The forensic examination revealed that Martina had been killed by strangulation two hours after leaving her home.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

So as I said, while there's this is a survivor case, there are murders and there are other horrible crimes.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Not only a survivor story.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Correct. But we can't 100% prove that this was Joseph Fritzel Jr. We're touching on it because it probably was. Now, as a note, Martina basically physically looked very much like his daughter, Elizabeth. So sometime around Elizabeth's 11th birthday, Fritzel had begun physically, verbally, and sexually assaulting her.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Oh, eleven.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Eleven. And by all accounts, she was the only one he was abusing. Which mean, and now you gotta remember, go back, like the siblings think she's getting better treatment.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

It's like no clue. Either they don't know or they don't understand what's happening to her.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

That's my take, that they just don't really know. Like they it's so well hidden. You know what I mean? Oh. So by the time she was 15, Elizabeth had decided that she needed to find a way out. She just couldn't do it. And she started by enrolling herself in a waitressing program. Which gotcha, get some money. Well, to me, it's like I didn't realize you had to go to like school to become a waitress, but okay. I'm not judging. It's Austria in the 60s. Like, I don't really know.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Right. Who knows? Actually, I believe there's the literally the best uh waiting of all time.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Maybe, maybe. I don't know. You're right. I'm there's school for everything, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Two years into the program, however, on January 28th, 1983, when Elizabeth was 17 years old, she ran away from home and went to live in Vienna with a friend of hers that she met in that waitressing program.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Essentially for her, get out of there.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Right. She got tired of the abuse. She was done. Fuck that. She's got she's out. However, three weeks later, into her being gone, because remember she's only 17, her parents had reported her missing, and the authorities found her and brought her back to her family.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Which sucks.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Fucked up. And never no question of why did you run away?

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Yep, no questions asked. Police didn't even dig into it.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

So once Elizabeth was brought back to her family, she felt like she really had no choice. So she went back into that waitressing program and she finished it midway through 1984. And then she was immediately offered a waitressing job in the nearby city of Lenz. After she graduated and got this job, she actually started to feel like things were kind of starting to look good for her. So she started.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Does she move out?

SPEAKER_00 14:05

She starts making plans to move out so she can get away from her father. And on August 28th, 1984, just a few months before her 18th birthday, Fritzel asked Elizabeth for help carrying a door downstairs into their basement. To understand this, he's got a basement that he basically works out of. And he had actually applied with the city to expand his basement. Okay, because he he needs this work area.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Gotcha, it's like a workshop, I see.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Basically. So with no reason to question why he needs help bringing a door down, because he's doing this work, right? She helps him get this door downstairs. And they're in the basement, and Elizabeth is literally holding the door in place as Fritzel is securing it to the frame. Nothing unreally that unusual here.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Once the door is in place, he grabs Elizabeth from behind and puts an ether-soaked rag over her face until she loses consciousness.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

And then she is locked in the room. She just helped him, helped him install a door to.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Oh, that's fucking awful. And I assume none of the other children, like she's the youngest, so they're probably all out of the house.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Most likely, yes. Because she's 17, you hear, almost 18, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Later, once it was realized that Elizabeth was kind of nowhere around, the family became the rest of the family became alarmed and they started looking for her, but obviously to no avail.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Right. They're not thinking, oh, what if she's in the basement hiding?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Right. And Rosemary decided to file a missing persons report with the police, as you do.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

As one does.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Now Fritzel, he does not seem all that worried as he's talking to police about the whereabouts of his daughter. He's telling them that she often talked about running away as she had done in the past. And he talked about the fact that she claimed she wanted to join this religious cult that she had heard about. 80s uh satanic panic, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Of course. Like apparently it was international, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

I mean, at this point, I think Jimmy Jones had been already out there. Like that whole thing had gone down, so it's probably everywhere in the world at this point.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yeah, probably. And man, that's with all with all we haven't talked about like a missing person's case in a while, but yeah. Like especially missing children and runaways. Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

You're right, it has been a little while. That's weird.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah, but I mean we've we've talked about it many times of like often it's just assumed to be a runaway, and then when the parents are like, oh yeah, it's probably a runaway.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

You're right. The cops aren't gonna do anything else. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

No, they're not.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

And because of that very reason, police barely look into it.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Then about a month later, Fritzel provides to police a letter that he claimed arrived at his doorstep. It was postmarked from the city of Brana and written in Elizabeth's own handwriting, where she said that she was tired of living with her family and decided to live with her friends so she could go join a cult. Yeah. In this letter, it also warned that if her parents contacted the police or tried to look for her, that she would leave the country. So obviously at this point, boom, they're not looking into her disappearance.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

But eventually, everybody in the Fritzel home found their way back to normal, so to speak. Except for her Elizabeth, who's literally trapped, feet underneath them. She would be trapped in this basement for twenty-four years.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Twenty four years. Yup. Almost two and a half decades.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

I'm speechless.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah. We're gonna get into it.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Until she's literally in her forties?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yes. During this time, Elizabeth would give birth to seven children. With one with one dying shortly after birth.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Oh his own children he was trying to adopt.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Oh, we'll get into that. We're we're about yeah, I'm just giving you a this is kind of a teaser.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Fuck. Twenty-four years, seven children giving birth by herself.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Oh, just wait, it's fucked.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Oh, fuck.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

So Fritzel, of course, spent much of his time in the basement working. He entered as early as 9 a.m. telling his family to leave him alone while he's down there. He's doing X, Y, and Z. Leave him the fuck alone, basically. So it wasn't odd to the family when he was like, leave me alone. I don't even want you to bring me a cup of coffee. So they let him be. And while he's in the basement, he visited Elizabeth almost every day. However, there were some weeks that he made it down there maybe three times a week, bringing her just enough food and water and supplies to just barely make it.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

But obviously, the main reason he enters that basement is to sexually assault and rape Elizabeth, and it wasn't long before she got pregnant the first time. Yeah. Now her first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at the 10-week mark, which she had to go through completely alone at only 20 years old.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

And also like unmedicated.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Fucking awful.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Now, I I should I guess I should kind of describe what this looked like at the time. There are no photos of this before later things. Okay, and I I don't want to ruin that part. But basically, it's a it's it's like a small studio apartment. He literally put a shower in there. So she's got one room. It's not huge, but it's it's not uncomfortable in terms of like a prison. Okay. So so yeah, so she's there alone, so it's not like she's sleeping on hard packed dirt, right? So I just want to make sure that's clear.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Basically in solitary confinement, except for her father who rapes her.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Correct. 100%. Now she did become pregnant two years after the first miscarriage and gave birth to a daughter named Kirsten in August of 1988.

unknown 21:04

Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Two years after Kirsten, she learned that she was pregnant again and gave birth to a son named Steven.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Oh. So at this point what the fuck's happening?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

So at this point, it's not just Elizabeth being held in the basement. It's now her and two children. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

And these two people Oh, he's keeping them in there too?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yes. They think that that way of life is the normal way of life.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

They think you just live in a room.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yes. They never got to go outside. They never saw other people. They simply lived every day in that small area. In one room where they're probably watching witnessing him assault her. Yes. Because he sometimes he sometimes did it in front of them when she defied him. So fucked up. Through all of this, Elizabeth tried to make life for Her children as normal as possible. She set a routine for them. She set chores and rules. She started homeschooling them to the best of her abilities. Because keep in mind, she was only 17 when she was brought down there.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

She hoped that one day they would see the outside world and she tried to make them as normal as possible.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Oh, I can't even imagine that burden.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Fritzel, of course, continued to do his assaults and what have you, and this ultimately led to her giving birth to five more children. One of those five children.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

In this room?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

In this room. But we're going to get into the changes that are about to happen. One of the five, one of those five sadly died soon after birth from respiratory problems because Fritzel refused to allow Elizabeth to take the baby to the hospital. Yeah. Over the years, the space in the basement became an issue as the children were growing. And she continued to give birth to more. Right. So Fritzel said that the oldest two, Kirsten and Steven, had to stay in the basement with Elizabeth. But that each child she had after that, he would devise a plan to be able to take the child up out of the basement one by one and live with him and his wife Rosemary.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

That is so insanely fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

He would literally take a baby and hide them somewhere on his property, like in a bush or in a bassinet by their front stairs, with notes that he made Elizabeth write to convince Rosemary that she was in this cult having children but couldn't take care of them.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Jesus fucking Christ.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Yeah, we're talking like literally he would ding-dong ditch and leave a baby on their front porch.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

I don't know what to do with this one, man.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

This is just it's beyond fucked.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

It's just like what where does a person even come up with something this awful?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

I this and you should look this guy up. He looks like a fuckhead. Like he he looks like a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, it's it's crazy. Now, however, her youngest child, her her last child, Felix, he had to stay in the basement with her as well because at this point, Fritzel said that Rosemary couldn't take care of any more children.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Right, because they had had seven.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Right. And now she's having six that survive. So you've got the ones the ones that are living upstairs are Lisa, Monica, and Alexander, and Kirsten. Oh my god, I forgot the older boy's name. Steven and Felix and Felix are living in the basement. Yep. Oh fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Just like, oh, it makes you nauseous to just think about it.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Well, just wait, because I wish I could say things get better, but they're they're gonna get worse first. And I want to point out how fucked up is it that you have to like literally pick and choose your children to have a quote unquote better life. Because you know you're just giving them to the care of a guy that's abusing you. And somehow, and somehow Rosemary isn't questioning any of this. She's just taking the the children in, thinking she's helping her daughter who's in a cult.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Right, and I mean she's been married to this psychopath her whole fucking life, so God knows what she's been through and what she's learned not to question.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

That's true. And the fact that there are handwritten notes in Elizabeth's handwriting is certainly convincing.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Right, exactly. And they're like, what are you gonna do? Send your grandchildren away.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Right. It's crazy. And at one point, Rosemary does contact social services because she has to explain where all these children are coming from.

unknown 26:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

And she explains the situation. Right. So she's explaining the situation, and because of the notes, they allow Rosemary and Fritzel legal guardianship of the children. No questions asked. It's even crazier, and I'm gonna touch on this in a little bit, but I'm gonna talk about it right now. At some point, they start renting out rooms in their house as well, and those people hear weird noises.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

But oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

But Fritzel tells them it's like the gas pipes and the plumbing and this and that, and they just let it go.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

They're probably like, this house is fucking haunted.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Who knows? But you gotta understand this this room is is not exactly like it's not like just a normal basement. He he dug a hole. Like when she helped him bring that door down, they went down an extra flight of stairs and down like a little hallway.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Oh, okay. It's like truly a bunker.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

It's yeah, it is like a bunker. That's a better way to describe it. Fucking crazy. So even with three of her children living upstairs, there was not enough room for everyone in that basement. She had three growing children and Elizabeth herself. So she is convincing Fritzel that she needs to expand this basement. If she's, you know, it's just not gonna work. And this motherfucker tells her that he would let her ex build an expansion, but he would not help her. He's not gonna take any part in it, and he's not gonna give them any tools to make it happen. They spend three years hand-digging dirt out of the fucking ground to expand this basement.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And putting it where?

SPEAKER_00 28:12

He's bringing it out for them. But he's literally making them dig holes with their hands.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

With their hands.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Now, once it's done, he helps them with supplies to like board it up and whatever, put walls in place, because I could not believe the photos I was seeing when I saw the because eventually she's gonna get out, right? It's a survivor story.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

And that's when the photos are taken. They literally built another hallway, like a very, very narrow hallway, but they had they each had their own bedrooms. They whoa that they dug with their hands? With their fucking hands. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

This is literally like it doesn't seem like it can be real. This seems like a crazy fucking horror movie.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

I'm not kidding. There were two small bedrooms, a bathroom, a living area, a kitchenette, and a padded soundproof room, which was the initial room.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Now the ceilings are no taller than like five and a half feet tall, right? So if you're tall, you're crouching.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Now, the sideways and the hallway, like to each room were really narrow. I can't, I can't unlike I can't specify that enough. And the floors weren't exactly even. But right.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

I mean, they don't have any tools.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

They pulled it off. They were given a television, a radio, and a VCR. And they were given a refrigerator and a and a hot plate to cook and heat meals.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Basically, he lets- I mean, like logistically, like I don't know what he was doing before, but I'm like, I'm wondering about this grocery bill. I'm wondering about right? How he's hiding, bringing all this stuff in and out.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Like well, again, his wife isn't questioning shit, and he spends a lot of time in that basement.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah, clearly.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Fucking crazy. So at times, Fritzel would punish them by shutting off their lights and refusing to deliver food for days at a time.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

He told Elizabeth and the three remaining children in the basement that if they ever tried to escape, he would gas them.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Oh, God. There's no torture that anyone's ever invented that's enough for this, what this man deserves.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Oh, yeah. He deserves a like lifetimes and lifetimes of like slow, painful tortures. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

I like wish I believed in hell.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Yes. Because he deserves the lowest, hormost horrible version of it.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

It's like the worst thing anyone could imagine. He deserves that.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

At least, yeah. So in 2008, Elizabeth's older daughter, oldest daughter, Kirsten, who at this point was 19 years old and had lived her entire life in that basement.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Oh my fucking God.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

She became incredibly ill. Now to put this in perspective, Kirsten was older than Elizabeth was when she was forced into that captivity.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

As the days passed, Kirsten's condition worsened. And Elizabeth, Elizabeth believed that if she did not get help for her daughter, Kirsten was going to die. Oh she begged Fritzel to take her to the hospital. And after pleading with him, amazingly, she was able to convince him to help. Wow. Elizabeth helped carry Kirsten out of that chamber, and she saw the outside world for the first time in 24 years.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

However, before Fritzel would even call an ambulance, he gave Kirsten very strict instructions that she had to abide by, or he would punish Elizabeth and the other children if she violated them.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

And I'm like, oh my God, what this girl must look like after she's never seen the sun.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

We're gonna get to that in a little bit, too. Now he he gave her very strict instructions not to talk about anything. I mean, you can see what he would be telling her. It's pretty obvious.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Obviously, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

So he then also had Elizabeth write a note telling doctors that it was okay for them to that she was giving consent to treat Kirsten and giving kind of a list of what was wrong with her. Once Kirsten arrived at the hospital, she was admitted in serious condition with life-threatening kidney failure.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Jesus, yeah, I'm not surprised. They must be so malnourished.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Well, immediately the hospital staff was like, something's really fucked up here.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

So obviously they're noting how pale she is, how skinny she is, how fragile she was, and she seemed to lack all normal social skills for someone her age.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

So they decided they were going to admit her for a two-week stay.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

And they wanted She's literally never seen anyone other than her siblings. And her parents.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

And her parents, yeah. So while she was there, they were questioning her about her mother, her living conditions, asking her if something was going on at home, but she absolutely refused to talk to them.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Oh, yeah, this is such a foreign, like she's best basically like on an alien planet right now.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Yeah, basically. So authorities then devised a plan and decided to make a public statement asking if anyone in the public knew who Kirsten's parents were and to please come forward to speak to them about her medical condition. They're basically trying to draw Elizabeth out.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Oh, gotcha. They're not like, but they they know that the guy who brought her in is her father, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Right, but they're trying to put pressure on him, and it works.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

So because no one came forward, basically they're claiming that nobody knows who her parents are. But police are obviously looking at Fritzel. Finally, right? It's probably a resemblance. Yeah, well, they found it awfully convenient that Fritzell would present these letters whenever these children randomly showed up.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

And then this very sick girl arrives at a hospital but doesn't know who her own mother is, according to her, because she's not speaking. Right?

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Right. So And she probably doesn't even know how to lie about some of these things.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

You would, yeah, exactly. She's so terrified that she's not gonna say shit.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Right, she can't, because it's like they could be like, what's your life like at home? She probably couldn't describe a normal home life.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Exactly. So at this point, again, with police focusing on Fritzel, Elizabeth, being at least somewhat intelligent here, realizes that this is the perfect time to get out of her situation. And she is convincing him to allow her to go to the hospital to back up his claim about her being in the cult and that she's Kirsten's mother and yada yada yada.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Right. And she probably also looks fucked up from being in the crap.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Exactly. It's funny, you're definitely already seeing where so much of this is going. But 24 years in a place. Yeah, like what's your cult all about? Are you vampires?

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Yeah, like tell me them about this cult, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Right. So, and she's convincing her father, Fritzel, that the police would back off once she shows up. And again, for the first time in two decades, her and the remaining children in the basement are brought upstairs.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Oh, they're all brought upstairs. I'm surprised.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

When Rosemary realizes that Elizabeth is there, Fritzel simply told his wife that Elizabeth decided to come home finally.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I forget that this woman's probably a victim of abuse as well. And I initially was much harder on her in my head, but I see the problem now.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, she's like, she's been gaslit beyond belief. God knows what other ways she's been abused.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Exactly. So once Elizabeth arrived at the hospital on April 26, 2008, the staff quickly picked up on the fact that once again, something was off. Because you got Elizabeth, pale and skittish. She's mysteriously there after nobody hearing from her for over 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

So they immediately call law enforcement, and Elizabeth is taken in for questioning. Now, initially, when they started questioning her, they're just asking her about Kirsten's health. Like, why is it so bad? Why is she so sick and skinny? Why does she not have any skills that a teenager has? They're asking her, why is she like is she abused? Why is she malnourished? Right? All that shit.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

And then they start asking about Fritzel. Why was he the one that she was contacting over all these years and no one else? Why send everything in letters and just abandon her children?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

So finally, after they promised her that she would never have to see her father again and that absolutely no harm would come to her or her children, she started to tell the authorities the entire truth about what happened over the past two decades.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Can't even imagine what it's like to be the person asking her these questions.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Right, and then get hit with this story.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

I mean, your reaction was bad enough. Imagine the police.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

I mean, I just imagine hearing it from the person who survived it.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Right. Crazy. So that night, police swarm the entire house and they arrest Fritzel. They're able to recover the the other the five children and that were still at the home. And Rosemary, for some reason, fled the house when police arrived.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

She's probably terrified.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Well, they initially thought that she was involved, but once they were able to locate her and actually talk to her, they realized that she was just in a state of absolute shock.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

And yes, she's probably also like, I need to escape.

unknown 38:46

Right. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Especially because it's literally within a day or two of your daughter arriving with these other children you've never heard of.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yes. It's this is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yes, yes, it is. So through the questioning, police were also shocked to find that the Fritzels had been renting out their ground floor to tenants for 12 years of the 24.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Yeah, and we've already talked about the noises they heard and the lies he told, right? Fucking crazy. Kirsten was reunited with her family on June 8th, 2008, and doctors said that she would make a full recovery.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Good. Good.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

In March of 2009, Elizabeth and her children were forced to move out of the family's home, and they were returned to a psychiatric clinic where medical staff started trying to heal their family and you reunite the upstairs kids with the downstairs kids to kind of get them all, you know, re-acclimated.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

That is an insane therapeutic work that I don't know how any professional prepares for that.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

You know what? I give them all the credit in the world.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Right. It's like, how many cases like this are there in like his recorded history of something like this?

SPEAKER_00 40:07

This is just This is the most insane one I've ever seen. Because this is even more insane than the guy who kept those three women in his house.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

Right. That's who I'm thinking about, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Yeah, because he had them in there for like 12 years, I think. And this one's 24 with seven. 24 at some point, Elizabeth reported that she was distraught and close to a breakdown after British paparazzi burst into her kitchen and started taking photographs of her.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Oh, fuck those people. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

I can't even imagine. I the way she had to live her life and someone's gonna kick in her door. Are you fucking crazy?

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Prison for those people. Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

I hope so. I have no information as to what happened to that the paparazzi, but fuck them.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

Definitely not enough. I'm sure the law doesn't have space to prosecute just how heinous that is.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Yeah, that's awful. Now, at the trial of Joseph Fritzel, the jury watched 11 hours of Elizabeth's taped testimony of her account, which went into great detail about the abuse and the fucking horror horrific acts that were committed against her. Oh. And of course, DNA testing proved that Fritzel was the father of Elizabeth's children, which basically proved the incest claims and kind of sealed his fate as if you didn't are as if they didn't already have that.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

And of course, he claimed that he was not the monster they were portraying him to be. That it was all consensual.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Shut the fuck up, dude. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Yep. He tried to paint himself as this fatherly figure about how he would go down and spend time with the children, watching movies and reading books to them and bringing them Christmas presents and shit.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Dude, plead guilty. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Right. Well, he was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with numerous accounts of enslavement, kidnapping, incest, rape, false imprisonment, as well as murder of Elizabeth's baby, Michael, who was the one that died soon after birth.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Right, because, you know, not getting medical care.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Yeah, he didn't take him to the hospital. Exactly. It was also found.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

But they're considering that murder.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Absolutely. So it was also found that Fritzel had been planning to hold Elizabeth captive for years prior to him actually doing it.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Right. He had this space ready.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Yeah, he had built it. I mean, however, I mean, I didn't go back and research exactly how long it took him to build that, but yeah, he knew.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

And oh that it's so fucked.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

And he admitted that he had actually held his own mother captive in their home, in their attic, from 1959 until her death in 1980.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

What?

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah. And he was able to hide it because he simply started telling his neighbors and family or whatever that she just died.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

And he in like their family home?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Yeah, in their attic. Yeah. So basically on the top part of his house, he's cap held his mother captive until she died, and then some years later, he took his daughter and put her in this bunker he built in the basement. Oh so fucked up. Just like what there's no words for this guy.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

No, there's no, just like, what's in June of the year? Conceive of something so awful.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

I wish I knew. Actually, I'm glad I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

Yeah, fair.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

Yeah. So in June of 2013, the city filled in the basement of the Fritzel home with concrete. So they didn't destroy the house though. As of today, apparently it's apartments. So that's weird.

SPEAKER_02 44:20

You couldn't pay me right to live in that.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

Yeah. I do know at some point, I didn't include it here, but at some point they used they offered up that building to be used for like indigenous home, like indigenous people or homeless people. Not indigenous, sorry. Okay. Transient. Um, but now it's now it's apartments.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

I mean, I gotta say, like, I just hope whatever it was, they honored the wishes of the victims.

SPEAKER_00 44:45

Um, well, we're gonna get into it, but there's really not a whole lot that comes up about that.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Okay, in May of 2017, Fritzel changed his name to Joseph Meyerhoff, likely due to the fact that while in prison, he was constantly getting into fights, and at times several of his teeth were knocked out after other inmates set up a fake dating profile with his name and picture. Oh my god. It's so fucking weird.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

However, whatever you gotta do to get this guy, I I fully approve of, you know, the shit when you someone's like a child predator, they get beat up in prison. I'm like, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Fuck yeah, 100%. However, today at 90 years old, he remains incarcerated. He's still alive.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

I hope he's fucking miserable.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

I do too. Now Elizabeth has been living a private life somewhere in Austria. Uh she has a new identity and she is actually provided with security. So good. But basically now she's in her late 50s and she has successfully integrated into a community where she enjoys everyday freedom, but she just wants to live the rest of her life in peace. Which, if anybody deserves that, it's her and her kids.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Right. If it's possible, I I want that for her and her kids.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

That's just like, oh that's the least society could do for her.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Yes, truly.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Yeah, so that is the case of Joseph and Elizabeth Fritzel. Holy fuck.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

I mean, uh, for a survivor story, that was worse than it was like one of the more fucked up things we might have ever talked about.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Well, that's why when you were like, oh yay.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

You were like, oh girl.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

I was like, I gotta just down now. Um yeah, fuck.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

Yeah, that was brutal. And man, just like how many horror movies. Like, I don't know. I was thinking about like 10 Cloverfield Lane, but like that's isn't that just that one woman?

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Yeah, 10 Cloverfield Lane was John Goodman. Um, I can't remember her name. It's Obi-Wan Kenobi's wife there. Um yeah, I can't remember her name.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

And uh there was one other person terrible at actors' names.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

There's one other person in the basement with them. And I I mean I I've I only saw the movie once way back in the day, but that movie came out no, it definitely came out after this was revealed, so there's that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

It's an entirely different story, but it's just making me think about like just Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

I I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

It's too bad to like make a movie or editorialize.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Uh, can you imagine if a fire had broken out in that bunker? Like what would have happened? Like it would have been a fucking oven in there.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Yeah, they would have died.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

Yeah, and the question becomes, would anybody have known? Probably because eventually the smoke would come out the other end of the basement.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

But right, exactly. And they would have but he would, I don't know, it seems like he was really good at making these excuses. He was like, Oh, you know, I just had a small, you know, equipment fire, whatever, I took care of it. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 48:13

Yeah, the whole situation's fucked. I this guy can't be tortured enough in prison. I hope the inmates around him keep doing what they're doing. Fuck this guy.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

Yeah, I I hope hell exists and I hope he's gonna be there soon.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Yeah, but yeah, so that's um, yeah, that's our survivor story of the of the week, month. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Wow, Janice, that fucking sucked.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

So I warned you.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

You did, you did.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

I'm still so would you rank would you rank this case up there with the toy box killer? I know that's one you said kind of lives in your head rent-free.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Yeah, this is definitely ranking up there.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah, this one was brutal. I mean, I've I've known about this one for years, but I decided I wasn't initially gonna do survivor stories, but then I was like, you know what? Let's do this one.

unknown 49:02

Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Right, because it's like being in a living hell, I'm sure. I mean, I'm sure these people don't want to talk about what they went through, but I can't I can only imagine that there were a lot of times they wish that they were dead.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

I just can't fathom the idea of never leaving basically an apartment with no sunlight for 24 years.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

No, I there's no imagining something like that. There's no way you or I could ever imagine that.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

That's true. And I'm just I'm lost. Like I feel my heart breaks for this woman and her children.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Yes, and her children, the children who spent the first 19 years of her life.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Yeah, the oldest. That's crazy. Not knowing anything. They did have a VCR and a TV, so she did sort of get a glimpse of whatever the rest of the world was, quote unquote, to her.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

But like you said, right, but like TV is not the real world, right?

SPEAKER_00 50:00

But like what and I was gonna say, and what you said when she was in the hospital, it's like an alien world. Watching TV must have been like watching Star Wars to her.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

Genuinely, and that might have been what she was told. Like, I can't even imagine trying to be a parent, knowing the situation that your child is in. What do you tell them to try to make it okay?

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Oh, I'm gonna cry thinking about it. That's awful.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Yeah, this fucked up.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

Like, what lies do you contrive to protect comfort?

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Yeah, it's so weird. Like when they're watching something and they see cars and they're like, what even is that?

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Right. It's like, does she say, you know, it's an alien thing? They're not real.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Or do you lie to them and say that the above world had some kind of crazy incident that doesn't exist anymore?

SPEAKER_02 50:51

Right, right, like Tin Clover's Field Later.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Exactly, exactly. It's so fucked.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

But yeah, I mean, hopefully they have their private life. We'll probably never know.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Yeah, I don't think we'll ever know.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

But God does my heart hurt for those people.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah, I'm just glad she's free now. And like I said, by all accounts, she she's happy, so as I guess as happy as you can be.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

So I mean, I hope her mom's okay too.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

You know, I didn't even look Rosemary up. I should have looked, but I'm like, you know what? The whole family deserves their peace, except the fucking asshole.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

Right. Just like imagine as a mother, you're missing your child for 24 years, you think your child ran away from you, and she's been never wanted to contact you again.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

And she's literally feed away from you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

And your husband's been raping her the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

I can't, yeah, you're right. I can't even imagine the pain that woman went through.

SPEAKER_02 51:49

The layers of trauma.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Yeah. For all of them.

SPEAKER_02 51:53

For all, yes. Oh my heart.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Yep. Like, and then those children have to learn. Then those children have to learn that their father is also their grandfather. Like, it's so fucked. It's so fucked.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

It's there's just like, man.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

I'm sorry I upset you so much. I'm sorry. Oh my god, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Well no, it's like it's awful, but like people's awful stories deserve to be heard.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

Because they're real.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Amazingly.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

This really happened to these people, and it's the least that we can do to be a witness to their pain.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

Yes. I mean, that's kind of why we do this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

Right. Like they actually had to go through it. Like, if it causes us pain to think about this thing that they went through, like they actually went through it.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

Yeah, I can't, you know. And as we've said a hundred times, I can't imagine what they went through.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

No. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

Yeah. If we think I'm gonna say this like as a kind of a closing thought. If we think our daily loneliness is bad, imagine that.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Truly that. And I mean, if there's I'm gonna have to look up like, is there a way I could just like send these people money?

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Like, I doubt it. I doubt it, but I mean you could look it up, I suppose. She might have something like that. I mean, her children at this point are are young adults, are actually full-blown adults at this point. Because 2008 was almost 20 years ago, so the 19-year-old is now almost 40.

unknown 53:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

Man.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

Yeah. So yeah, with all that, thank you everyone for joining us. Once again, I'm Janice Dead.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

And I'm Joyce Dead.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

And we'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Bye.