No one will ever believe me..
Nine years on, cop reveals first words of daughter kept captive for nearly 3 decades by her evil dad Josef Fritzl
WHEN police first asked Elisabeth Fritzl for her story after 24 years of captivity and rape by her evil dad, she said: “No one will believe me.”
Her heartbreaking words are revealed by Willibald Reitner, who interviewed her when Josef Fritzl was arrested.
Reitner – head of criminal investigation in Amstetten, Austria, where Elisabeth’s ordeal first emerged in April 2008 – has spoken about it for the first time in a Channel 5 documentary.
He says: “Elisabeth didn’t say anything. She said, ‘No one will believe me anyway.’
“Then we changed our tack and told her, ‘Well, maybe you are the victim?’ Suddenly Elisabeth had a different expression about her.
“After that, she said, ‘If I tell this exactly how it all happened, no one will ever believe me.’
“Then Elisabeth put down some conditions. She didn’t want to see him again – she meant Fritzl. She never spoke about Fritzl, or her father, she always referred to him as ‘him’.
“And she was really afraid that no one would believe her, and that everyone would only believe the father.”
The story that then emerged was horrifying.
Fritzl had imprisoned his daughter when she was 18 years old in a dungeon he built under his house, telling his wife Rosemarie and police that Elisabeth had run away with a cult.
In the underground prison, he raped his daughter more than 3000 times over the years and fathered seven children by her.
The years of abuse finally ended when one of their children was taken to hospital and a nationwide appeal was put out for the sick child’s mother.
When Fritzl allowed Elisabeth to go to the hospital, claiming she had “returned”, suspicious police interviewed her and the tale of horror emerged.
Psychiatrist Dr Heidi Kastner, who interviewed Fritzl to assess if he was fit to stand trial, tells the documentary he believed he was “born to rape”. She says: “What he described with these rather blunt words was his need to dominate women, to dominate somebody. And to dominate the person sexually.
“It was a need he felt. He couldn’t give a reason for that need but it was something he knew was inside him.
“It was something he had done before, and doing that had brought him to jail and he had decided not to go there any more, in a way that he could do it so that he wasn’t caught.”
Fritzl, now 82, was jailed for life in 2009 after being found guilty of murder over the death of one of Elisabeth’s babies as well as incest, imprisoning Elisabeth and the kids and 3000 rapes.
Elizabeth, now 51, reportedly lives with her six surviving children at a secret location in Austria. She has never spoken
publicly about her ordeal. Asked what he thinks of Fritzl, Reitner says: “In this case you can’t speak of a human being.”
The human touch, after decades at the hands of a monster, clearly had a powerful meaning for Elisabeth.
She was so grateful for the care and support she got from police after her ordeal that she still keeps in touch with Reitner, wishing him “all the best” at Christmas and Easter. He says: “After finishing our inquiries, I received a letter from Elisabeth, the children and grandmother and these words really moved me.” The letter reads: “Thank you for helping us. You were there for us in a difficult situation. When we needed your support most, you took care of us without great fuss. “The experience of someone sticking by us, supporting us unconditionally, was like a gift to us. We are confident that we are not alone with people like you supporting us. “We hope that you have someone supporting you if you ever need help.” Reitner reads the letter regularly. He tells the film makers: “Naturally, I think of Elisabeth. I think of what she went through and above all I think about her thinking of us. “Because policemen like me are always dealing with bad things and these words are the best things that can come back to us. No award would ever be as valuable as these words.” ● Fritzl: What Happened Next is on Channel 5 tonight at 10pm.
She never spoke about her father – she always referred to ‘him’ WILLIBALD REITER