|
|
|
|
Last Updated: May 1, 2008 - 4:37:09 PM |
Alfred Dubanowsky rented a ground-floor apartment at the Fritzl home from 1995 to 2007 and refuted claims by Fritzl that no one else entered the basement that held his daughter captive for 24 years.
He says he saw Fritzl's son, also named Josef Fritzl, enter the cellar — although it is not clear if he ventured into the hidden section that housed Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth and her three children by him, CNN reports.
Josef Jnr, 37, is one of seven children Fritzl fathered with wife Rosemarie, and is Elisabeth's full brother.
Mr Dubanowsky said he heard strange noises coming from the cellar, but was told by Fritzl they were coming from the boiler room heater.
He also described how Fritzl threatened tenants with eviction if they entered the cellar or took photographs in the backyard.
Fritzl has since confessed to keeping his daughter Elisabeth in the basement for over two decades, where he repeatedly raped her and also fathered seven children with her.
His wife and three of the children who were raised "upstairs" claim to have known nothing about Elisabeth's imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Fritzl's sister-in-law says that he would sometimes spend entire nights below ground in the dungeon.
"Every day at 9 in the morning, Josef would go into the cellar," the woman, identified as Christine R, was reported as saying in Austria's Oesterreich newspaper.
"He said he was drawing engineering plans that he would sell to companies.
Fritzl is also alleged to have threatened to gas his prisoners if they tried to escape.
The three imprisoned children, who had apparently never seen sunlight, are reportedly slowly adapting to the outside world.
Austrian officials have also reportedly debunked British newspaper reports that the children cannot walk and communicate with animalistic noises.
The disturbing and complicated story of the Fritzl family began to unravel a week ago, when Elisabeth's oldest daughter Kerstin became seriously ill and was hospitalized.
The 19-year-old girl remains in an induced coma in an Amstetten clinic, suffering from a kidney disorder.
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
