A 42-year-old woman, named Elisabeth F, has told Austrian police about how she has been held captive in a cellar for the past 24 years. In 1984 her own father drugged and handcuffed her, dragging her into a cellar adapted into a dungeon. Over the next 24 years Josef F, now 73-years-old, repeatedly raped her daughter and actually made her pregnant six times. Three of these children were kept in the cellar with their mother for their whole lives, including a 19-year-old woman and two boys aged 5 and 18. This is one of the most disturbing stories we’ve ever heard!

Three lucky children of Elisabeth F were allowed to attend school and see sunlight after being “adopted” by Josef F and his wife in Amstetten, central Austria. Two twins were born in 1996, but one died because of mistreatment, eventually being burned and disposed of by Josef F. Josef F is now being charged with incest and keeping his daughter in captivity, but police stumbled upon the circumstances 24 years too late to stop the devastation of several lives.

The underground cellar/dungeon was a complex maze of rooms, locks, trapdoors and corridors that gave police grief as they searched the building. The father provided an entry code to the electronic lock, but police had no idea what they would find in there. The cellar had multiple rooms, a bedroom, a semi-kitchen, and sanitation facilities. The people “living” in the cellar never saw the sun, and were malnourished, pale, and obviously deeply disturbed because of the ordeal.

The cellar was discovered only after the 19-year-old daughter was sick enough for the father to take her to the hospital. Doctors couldn’t figure out the illness, but the woman into an artificial coma, and enlisted police to help find the mother for a better medical history. Questioning at the house by police revealed that even though Elisabeth was registered as living there, she was nowhere to be found. A search warrant was issued and the cellar discovered.

Neighbors said it came as a complete shock, as these things always do for neighbors.

Imagining how scary and traumatizing the ordeal was is impossible. How could people act this way?

This is the house which imprisoned Elisabeth F and many of her children

[Telegraph]

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