Austrian Says Father Held Her Captive 24 Years
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VIENNA — An Austrian woman told police yesterday how she was held captive in a cellar dungeon for 24 years and abused by her father, falling pregnant six times.
The 42-year-old woman — named only as Elisabeth F. — said she had been drugged, handcuffed, and kept since 1984 in an adapted bunker beneath the family home. Her 73-year-old father, “Josef F.,” has been arrested on suspicion of incest and keeping his daughter in captivity.
Of her six children, two of her young boys were said to have been kept with her in the cellar and to have never seen daylight, while another died during childbirth.
Three others — aged 12 to 16 — were allowed to attend school after being “adopted” by Miss F.’s father and his wife who live in Amstetten.
