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Sex offender who locked up daughter for 24 years, fathered her 7 children may be released
Josef Fritzl, eligible for parole this year under Austrian law, may be moved to home care as he is not expected to pose future threats to public
By Audrey Conklin Fox News
Published January 16, 2024 11:23am EST
Josef Fritzl, an Austrian man who held his daughter captive in his basement as a sex slave for 24 years, fathering seven of her children, could be moved from prison to an elderly care home, according to global reports.
Fritzl, now 88, reportedly has dementia and is physically weak after several falls, meaning he is not expected to pose any future threats to the public, Austrian news outlet ORF reported.
An Austrian court will determine whether Fritzl's condition makes him eligible to be removed from a high-security prison and placed in a care home.
Fritzl is also eligible for parole this year under Austrian law, which allows prisoners sentenced to life in prison to apply for parole after serving 15 years.
Defendant Josef Fritzl is pictured during proceedings on the last day the last day of his trial at the court of law in Sankt Poelten in Austria's province of Lower Austria March 19, 2009. An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced Josef Fritzl to life behind bars for rape, enslavement and murder for locking up and raping his daughter in a cellar over 24 years and causing his son's death. The 73-year-old Austrian had said he was sorry from the "bottom of my heart" over the case, in which he fathered seven children with daughter Elisabeth.
An Austrian court in 2009 sentenced Josef Fritzl to life behind bars for rape, enslavement and murder for locking up and raping his daughter in a cellar over 24 years and causing his son's death. (Reuters/Pool/Robert Jaeger )
Fritzl's daughter, Elisabeth, disappeared in 1984 when she was 18 years old. She was found in 2008 after 24 years of captivity and brutal abuse in a windowless basement.
When asked about her whereabouts, Fritzl would reportedly say she ran away. Authorities charged Fritzl in 2008.
Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison a year later for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide after he killed one of the sons he fathered with his captive daughter soon after the baby was born, as The Associated Press and Reuters previously reported.
Investigators said in 2009, when Fritzl was 73, the incestuous killer burned his son's body in a furnace.
"He forced Elisabeth into slave-like conditions... shut her away in the cellar and made her totally dependent on him, forcing her into sexual acts and treating her as if she was his own property," the St. Poelten provincial prosecutors’ office said in a 2009 statement, according to Reuters.
Prosecutors also alleged that Fritzl threatened to kill Elisabeth and gas their children to death.
AH: Just execute the guy as should have been done when he was found guilty 15 years ago.
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