Secrets in the Cellar (17 page)

It would be another two weeks until she could finally be taken off the respirator and start the next stage of her recovery.

Later that day, Chief Inspector Franz Polzer revealed that Josef Fritzl had been cruelly bluffing Elisabeth and his children for years, and there was no mechanism to release lethal gas into the cellar. He had also not installed any mechanism to open the cellar doors in the event of his death.

Chief Polzer said the investigation was almost complete, and police would soon be inspecting the 600-pound steel-and-reinforced-concrete door.

“It is clear,” said Polzer, “that the suspect displayed a high degree of professionalism when he assembled it.”

Police also released a postcard from Rosemarie Fritzl, dated April 21 during her Italian vacation, proving that her husband had delayed taking Kerstin to the hospital until she had left—which could have meant the difference between her life and death.

It also strengthened the police view that Rosemarie had absolutely no knowledge of what was going on under her nose.

A forensic search of Fritzl’s paperwork had also shown that his real intention in bringing Lisa, Monika and Alexander upstairs was monetary gain. He was making at least $60,000 a year in perfectly legal Austrian state subsidies.

“They were cash cows for him,” an investigator close to the case told the London
Sun
. “Everything he did was not out of concern for them, but to get money.”

By Saturday, it was clear that the European paparazzi were ignoring Dr. Kepplinger’s pleas to leave the family alone. Late Thursday night, one British photographer, seeking the reported $1 million bounty, almost succeeded in scaling the third balcony next to the sealed area where the family lived. But he was spotted by a nurse, whose screams alerted security staff, who caught him after a struggle, during which one guard fell from the balcony and was severely injured.

Shortly afterwards, a male nurse was caught attempting to sell a cell phone photograph to a magazine for $442,000. This led to the clinic banning all fifteen hospital employees with access to the family from carrying any phones or cameras. A letter was sent to all clinic staff, warning of immediate legal action if anyone was caught abusing their position.

It was also revealed that Elisabeth, Stefan and Felix had disguised themselves, managing to slip past photographers and spend a few hours playing in a nearby park. After seeing trees for the first time in his life, Felix had announced that when he grew up, he wanted to become a gardener.

“He was simply so fascinated by them,” said one of the family’s security guards, Franz Prankl, “and could not believe how huge they grew.”

During the trip, which was closely monitored by doctors, the two boys, wearing dark sunglasses, marveled at the trees and grass and a fish pond.

On the way back to the clinic, they all stopped off at McDonald’s—which Felix had only seen on television advertisements in the cellar, always being told it did not really exist and was only fiction. The little boy was ecstatic, eating his first Happy Meal.

The family had also received a personal invitation from Austrian-born movie superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, to visit him in Hollywood, as soon as they were well enough. The California governor had reportedly read about the tragedy and wanted to do something to help.

“He will pay for it privately, and Elisabeth and the children will be personal guests,” a Schwarzenegger source told London’s
Daily Star
. “These children have been prisoners all their lives. Can you imagine how they’d react to Disneyland or a trip to Universal Studios?”

And movie star Ben Affleck had also weighed in about the Fritzl case. During an interview to promote his directorial debut in a movie about child abduction called
Gone Baby Gone
, he was asked what should happen to people who criminally abuse children.

“Emotionally, I think the Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl should be killed,” he declared.

Exactly a month after Josef Fritzl had brought Kerstin out of the cellar, Austrian police announced that they were investigating him for a third unsolved sex-related murder. Nine months earlier, 42-year-old Czech prostitute Gabriele Supekova had been found dead near the Austrian border, a few miles away from where Fritzl had been vacationing at the time.

Miracle

On Monday, May 19, Austrian newspapers announced that Elisabeth Fritzl would give a television interview about her twenty-four-year cellar ordeal. It was reported that she would tell her story to Christoph Feurstein, the same Austrian journalist who had conducted the landmark 2006 interview with Natascha Kampusch.

It was also reported that after “marathon negotiations” between ORF TV and Fritzl family lawyer Christoph Herbst, Elisabeth’s interview would be broadcast the following Monday night. According to the report, the family stood to make millions of dollars from global syndication.

But less than twenty-four hours later, attorney Herbst totally dismissed the reports as erroneous, saying that Elisabeth hadn’t even spoken to the police yet.

“At this stage, there are no plans whatsoever,” he said. “A TV appearance by Elisabeth Fritzl is not planned at all. I am receiving many offers from various international media, but it is not in the family’s best interest to go public.”

Two days later, as investigators began staging “scream tests” from Josef Fritzl’s soundproofed dungeon, to ascertain if anyone could have heard anything upstairs, reports from St. Polten jail suggested that he was now showing some remorse, after his first exploratory interviews with Dr. Adelheid Kastner.

“Fritzl’s mood has changed dramatically in the past three weeks,” London’s
Daily Mirror
quoted a source inside the jail as saying. “When he first arrived, he was arrogant and unrepentant. But now he’s a broken man. He cries all night and has lost a lot of weight—he’s wasting away.”

Since his arrest, Fritzl’s only visitor had been an unidentified family friend. But now, through his attorney Rudolf Mayer, he had again requested Rosemarie and Elisabeth visit him.

“He told his legal team,” said the source, “ ‘I want to see my family to explain things and find out how they are. I’m worried about them.’ ”

Elisabeth’s lawyer Christoph Herbst said that she was now considering trying to recoup some of the estimated $1.5 million in therapy his family will need to recover.

“We have discussed if we want to sue him for damages,” confirmed Herbst. “This is a decision that has to be taken by Elisabeth. It is quite difficult to understand Herr Fritzl’s financial affairs, as he alone was in charge of his business. He owns several properties in and around Amstetten, but there are mortgages on some of them amounting to several millions. We are now trying to determine whether the sale of these properties would leave some profit after covering the debts.”

Herbst speculated as to whether Fritzl had a secret fortune cunningly stashed away, saying it might be many months until he could be questioned about his financial affairs.

“If he was able to keep such a dark secret from the world,” said Herbst, “he could also have been able to keep his financial dealings confidential.”

Soon after regaining consciousness, doctors gave Kerstin a CD player and headphones to help motivate her, as well as some CDs by Robbie Williams, whom she had first seen on television in the dungeon.

A few nights later, Dr. Albert Reiter discovered the teenager “almost dancing” in bed to the English rock star’s music, although she was still attached to breathing tubes.

“She listened to Robbie Williams until three a.m.,” Dr. Reiter recalled, “until I had to put a bit of a dampener on it. But that was the point in time where I said we should go ahead with steps to get her mobile.”

Three days later, at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 1, Amstetten hospital doctors removed the breathing tube from Kerstin’s mouth, as her mother Elisabeth looked on nervously. As Kerstin took her very first breath of fresh air outside the dungeon, she gave an angelic smile.

“I said to Kerstin, ‘Hello, Kerstin,’ ” recalled Dr. Albert Reiter. “And Kerstin told me ‘Hello’ back.”

This was a giant first step in Kerstin’s miraculous recovery from the edge of death, and from then on, things moved fast.

During the next critical phase of her recovery, Elisabeth assumed the role of life coach to her daughter. Every day she encouraged and motivated her to follow the doctor’s instructions, to start using her muscles again and get stronger.

After more than six weeks in a coma, Kerstin was suffering from serious bed rest syndrome, and it was vital she exercise, to prevent bone and muscle atrophy.

“After the removal of the breathing tube,” said Dr. Reiter, “things were progressing rapidly. [Her mother’s presence] had an immensely positive effect.”

Kerstin now had to be taught how to swallow food and speak again, having been connected to the respirator for so long. And several days later, she enjoyed her first meal, tasting fresh fruit for the first time in her life.

Dr. Reiter said that, although there was some damage to her internal organs, Kerstin was now expected to make a complete recovery.

“This is quite astonishing and a great relief after everything that she has been through,” he said.

But although she was making good physical progress, her fragile mental condition would be another thing entirely.

That night, Natascha Kampusch debuted her own Austrian cable television show, featuring former Formula 1 world-racing champion Nikki Lauda as her first guest. To promote her new show, she gave what was billed as her first-ever major newspaper interview with the London
Times
, again drawing parallels between herself and the Fritzls. In both horrific cases, she believed, the perpetrators were “blind with mother love.”

“[Josef Fritzl] idolized his mother to an abnormal degree,” she explained, “and that’s what my abductor was like. He was very attached to his mother. Regardless of what I did, he would always say, ‘My mother does it better.’ ”

On Friday, June 6, Josef Fritzl appeared in St. Polten court, where a judge remanded him in custody for a further two months. At a closed-door hearing, the state prosecutor’s office said that more time would be needed to complete the investigation. It was also disclosed that DNA evidence conclusively proved Josef Fritzl had acted alone without an accomplice.

Meanwhile, sources inside St. Polten prison revealed that “Das Inzest Monster” had received more than two hundred love letters from women. Many of them offered romance, telling him he was “good at heart” and just plain misunderstood. But the love letters were being far outweighed by the sacks of hate letters also arriving each day.

Fritzl now stayed in his cell twenty-three-and-a-half hours a day, for fear of being attacked by inmates. He exercised his right to go outside for thirty minutes each day to sunbathe.

A week later, the narcissistic Fritzl requested a supply of anti-aging cream from prison officials, and also complained of chest pains and stomachaches.

“Herr Fritzl usually sits there watching television all day, especially news programs about him,” said prison spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Erich Huber-Guensthofer. “To be honest, other than the trips to the doctor, and the request for face creams, he gives us no trouble.”

On Saturday, the much-anticipated European Soccer Championships started, as co-host Austria hoped it would divert the eyes of the world from the embarrassing Fritzl case.

“Josef Fritzl . . . caused a scandal that shamed the nation,” wrote the Associated Press. “Euro 2008—an event that’s second only to the World Cup across this football-obsessed continent—will provide a welcome opportunity for some desperately needed merrymaking.”

Like everyone else in Austria, the Fritzl family were all fanatical supporters of the home team. And down in the dungeon, Josef Fritzl had always enjoyed watching a game with Stefan, Felix and Kerstin, while Elisabeth was washing the dishes and cleaning.

Now a plasma television had been brought into their Mauer clinic ward, so they could watch every game. This was the first time doctors had allowed them to watch any television.

“We felt it wise not to let them view the TV coverage,” explained Dr. Kepplinger, “as seeing reports about themselves could cause considerable distress. The ban is being lifted each time there is a game, so that the family can watch together, as one of the exercises designed to help them become a stronger family.”

And ironically, just forty-five miles away in St. Polten prison, their former jailer, Josef Fritzl, was watching the same soccer games in his cell.

The next morning, Kerstin took her first steps in the ICU department, helped by her mother and Dr. Reiter. A few hours later, she was discharged from intensive care and taken by ambulance to the Mauer clinic to be reunited with the rest of her family.

When they arrived, Elisabeth took her eldest daughter’s arm, helping her walk into the ward, where her brothers and sisters were waiting expectantly.

“For us it was a very special moment,” recalled Dr. Reiter, who’d first admitted Kerstin into intensive care, and had become part of the family. “The mother was able to walk with Kerstin, the two of them literally stepping forward into a new life.”

Now Kerstin met her grandmother Rosemarie and siblings Monika, Lisa and Alexander for the first time since their father had snatched them away as babies. She was also thrilled to be reunited with Stefan and Felix.

“It was a miracle,” said family lawyer Christoph Herbst, who witnessed it. “It was a truly touching and happy moment. It was everyone’s—and especially Kerstin’s—great wish to be reunited. The family can at last come together.”

To aid her recovery, doctors gave her a CD player and headphones, and some CDs by her favorite singer, Robbie Williams. Kerstin had become a huge fan of his music, saying she wanted to go to one of his concerts as soon as she was well enough.

A few days earlier, Austrian newspapers had reported that aging Josef Fritzl was suffering from a heart condition and might not live long enough to go to trial. Prosecutors had warned it could be months before Elisabeth, Stefan and Felix would be able to be interviewed by police, delaying the trial for up to two years.

When Elisabeth learned this, she was horrified, saying that she wanted to talk to prosecutors as soon as possible, vowing to do everything in her power to stop her father from evading justice.