Austrian police have arrested a man they believe imprisoned his daughter in a windowless basement for 24 years, abused her and fathered seven children with her, they said on Sunday.
Police said the woman, identified as 42-year-old Elisabeth F, told them her father Josef had lured her into the basement of the block where the family lived in Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up in the dungeon. Authorities were still trying to piece together details of the case, which is reminiscent of that of Austrian Natascha Kampusch who spent eight years locked up in a windowless cell before dashing to freedom in August 2006.
Police said Josef was in custody and had told investigators how to enter the basement prison through a small hidden door, operated by a secret code which only he had known.
"There is not only one, but a number of rooms: one room to sleep in, one to cook, and there are also sanitation facilities," Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria, told broadcaster ORF.
Josef's wife Rosemarie had been unaware of what happened to her daughter and it was assumed Elisabeth had disappeared voluntarily when her parents received a letter from her saying they should not search for her.
Elisabeth gave birth to seven children during her ordeal, one of whom died shortly after being born, police said.
They said three of her younger children were each left in the house, the first accompanied by a letter saying Elisabeth was unable to care for the baby herself. All were taken in by Josef and his wife as foster or adopted children.
"Apparently, Josef arranged for the children to have the proper papers on them when they were left in the building, and forced the mother to write the accompanying letters," Polzer of told a news conference.
