Six freed after years living in Dutch cellar 'waiting for end of time'

A group described by local media as a man and his adult children have been found after spending several years living in the cellar of remote farmhouse in the north-eastern Dutch province of Drenthe “waiting for the end of time”.

The group of six were discovered after the oldest son, 25, visited a local bar, the Kastelein cafe. On the first occasion, 10 days ago, he “ordered and drank five beers on his own”, the owner, Chris Westerbeek, told broadcaster RTV Drenthe. When the man reappeared last Sunday, he “looked confused”, Westerbeek said. “He was unkempt, with long tangled hair. We got talking. He said he had run away and needed help, and that he had never been to school. Then we called the police.”

There was no indication of how long they had lived there or the whereabouts of their mother. The Algemeen Dagblad (AD) newspaper reported that police were considering the possibility that she may have died and been buried on the property.

The bar owner told the local Dagblad van het Noorden newspaper that the man had said he had younger brothers and sisters living in the cellar, they all “wanted to end the way they were living”, and he had not been outside for nine years.

Drenthe police confirmed in a tweet that they had visited a house in the nearby village of Ruiner-wold after “being alerted to concerns about the living conditions of a number of people living there in an enclosed space”.

Six adults were removed and were being taken care of, police confirmed, while a 58-year-old odd-job man who was renting the farmhouse was arrested after refusing to cooperate with their inquiry.

Named by local media as Josef B, he is not the father of the young adults, according to police.

Several neighbours in the village of 4,000 inhabitants told RTV Drenthe they had only ever seen a man who drove an old Volvo car on the property and assumed he lived there alone, although one said they had seen young children there some years ago and several reported hearing noises from the farm even when the man was absent.

One neighbour told the Telegraaf newspaper that the man spoke German and was known in the village as “the Austrian”. The man, who reportedly moved in nine years ago, was “very sharp”, the neighbour said. “You only needed to go near the place and he’d send you packing. He watched everything through binoculars.” While Dutch media said the group were a family, a police spokeswoman refused to confirm the exact relationship or that the young adults’ father was among them, saying the investigation was ongoing.

“Our primary concern is for the family members,” she said. “What exactly happened in the farmhouse is still very unclear. We are exploring all possible scenarios.”

Citing unnamed sources, RTV Drenthe said that police had found a hidden staircase leading to the family’s hiding place behind a cupboard in the living room. The 58-year-old father was bedridden having suffered a stroke some years ago, it said. The children were aged between 16 and 25.

Dutch media said the group appeared to have had little or no contact with the outside world and lived a largely self-sufficient life, apparently growing their own vegetables and keeping a goat and geese.

The farmhouse owners, Klaas and Alida Rooze, told AD: “We knew absolutely nothing of this. We had rented the house for years to an individual and now we learn that a man was living there with children. We have no idea who this can be.”

The local mayor, Roger de Groot, told a press conference the situation was extraordinary and that he could give few further details. “For the moment, the police have a lot of unanswered questions,” he said, adding that most of the family appeared not to be registered with local authorities.

Police had “assessed the situation and found a number of rooms with makeshift furnishings where a family was living an isolated existence,” he said.