Elisabeth Fritzl, who was held captive by her father Josef Fritzl for 24 years, has found love with a bodyguard and is living a secret new life.
Elisabeth, now 57, was kept in a cellar from the age of 18 to 42, where she suffered daily abuse from her father and gave birth to three of his children.
Living without sunlight, fresh air or human interaction, Elisabeth’s horrific ordeal shocked the world when she finally escaped.
Joseph, who fathered seven of her children, was exposed when one of their children had to be taken to hospital.
Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in a high-security prison for mentally disturbed offenders in 2009. Now aged 88 and nearing 15 years into his sentence, he is soon eligible to apply for parole and has been granted conditional release.
The serial rapist is no longer a threat to public safety, according to a recent psychiatric report. Today, he was seen arriving at the Landesgericht District Court for a hearing.
His lawyer, Astrid Wagner, said after the hearing: “We were successful. It was a long hearing. He told again how he regrets what he did. He was actually close to tears.”
“‘In summary, the court came to the conclusion that my client is actually no longer dangerous.” Many wondered how Elisabeth would ever manage to rebuild her life. But she surprised many by overcoming her ordeal and finding happiness.
Elisabeth, who was given a new name and identity after her trial, now lives with her six children in a small, colourful house in an undisclosed location in Austria, known only as ‘Village X’.
The kids, aged between 21 and 35, sleep in rooms with doors always open, following weekly therapy sessions to help them overcome their traumatic past. Their home is under constant watch, with CCTV cameras and security guards, and any strangers nearby are quickly dealt with by the police.
The residents of ‘Village X’ also help keep the family safe. One photographer who visited the village said: “There are only a few villagers and they are all in with the police. I was quickly surrounded by people who told me: ‘They don’t want to talk to you, they don’t want to see you – please get out of here.”
A local restaurant owner shared: “The family is doing more than fine. They come often to my venue and we treat them like any other guests. Everybody in the village knows them.” Another villager mentioned: “Given what they have been through, they are very polite, happy and smile a lot.”
In 2009, it was discovered that Elisabeth found love with Thomas Wagner, a bodyguard from AandT securities, who is 23 years younger. He moved in with her and her family.
A psychiatric carer noted that Elisabeth’s new relationship has helped her heal from her past, saying: “This is vivid proof of love being the strongest force in the world.”
Elisabeth has stopped her therapy sessions to focus on normal life activities, as one psychiatrist explained: “With the approval of her doctors she has ceased psychiatric therapies while she gets on with her life learning to drive, helping her children with their homework, making friends with people in her locality. She lost the best years of her life in that cellar; she is determined that every day remaining to her will be filled with activity.”
Another person close to the medical team added: “It may seem remarkable but they are still together. Thomas has become a big brother to the children.”
In 2011, Josef Fritzl’s sister-in-law, known as Christine R, shared how Elisabeth is getting back to a normal life after her ordeal. She revealed: “Elisabeth likes to go shopping a lot. She couldn’t do that while she was locked in the cellar for those 24 years.”
“She loves jeans with glitter pockets and she passed her driving test without difficulty. Now she’s looking for a car. The kids are all going to school and working hard. Felix, the smallest one, has got a PlayStation.”
Christine R also mentioned that Elisabeth doesn’t have money worries because the Austrian government gave her £54,000 in child allowance that she missed out on while trapped. After being rescued in April 2008, Elisabeth showed great strength to adjust to her new freedom.
She and her three children from the cellar were looked after by experts at a clinic near Amstetten, enjoying rooms with views of trees and a lawn. Felix was fascinated by the grass, touching it in amazement.
Berthold Kepplinger, who was the clinic’s top doctor then, said: “For them a passing cloud is a phenomenon.” Elisabeth also became very keen on staying clean, showering up to 10 times a day, reports say.
Elisabeth slowly got familiar again with her three “upstairs” teenagers, Lisa, Monika and Alexander. These were the siblings that her own cellar kids never knew about. Her relationship with her mum, Rosemarie, was harder to restore as Elisabeth struggled to accept that she had no hint about her being trapped below her house.
After the shocking event, Rosemarie apparently escaped the home she lived in with Fritzl and now tries to make ends meet by selling homemade paintings and bags. Christine R revealed that she drops by at least once a week to visit Elisabeth and her brood, saying “whatever suspicion there was has gone”.
For the last 15 years, Fritzl has been kept at Austria’s Stein prison. He even adopted a new name, Josef Mayrhoff, perhaps as a hopeless effort to dodge his notorious past or recast himself as the wronged party. It’s currently believed that he is suffering from dementia.
Mark Perry, a UK journalist who had an interview with Fritzl in his jail cell, exclaimed that the man feels no guilt for his atrocities. He recalled: “He kept saying, ‘Just look into the cellars of other people, you might find other families and other girls down there.’ He doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong at all. He thinks it’s a failure of justice and that he’s been wrongly locked up.”
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