AUSTRIA:DNA test results confirmed the suspicions of Austrian police yesterday that retired engineer Josef Fritzl (73) fathered his captive daughter's seven children.
A "calm and collected" Fritzl appeared before a remand judge yesterday, police reported, a day after he admitted sexually assaulting his daughter for 24 years in a windowless, soundproofed cellar under his home.
"These results prove clearly that Fritzl is the father of the children born to her in the cellar," said Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria.
Forensic investigators worked short shifts yesterday in the claustrophobic 60m2 cellar Fritzl constructed under the grey apartment building in the town of Amstetten, 130km west of Vienna.
One team secured DNA evidence from the reinforced steel entrance to the cellar, to check Fritzl's claim that he acted alone.
Another team of men in white jumpsuits and latex gloves carried out tagged objects in boxes: pieces of a puzzle without equal in Austrian criminal history, which has left even experienced investigators struggling for answers.
When 18-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl vanished in 1984, her family received letters from her claiming she had joined a cult. In fact her father had forced her to write the letters from the secret cellar where he sexually abused her on a regular basis, just metres from a wife who says she knew nothing.
Three times in the 1990s Fritzl said his daughter returned, each time to leave young babies on their doorstep with a note asking her parents to care for them. Fritzl now admits he removed the three - now 12, 14 and 16 - from the cellar, reportedly because "they cried too much down there", and raised them with his wife.
Police were unable to answer a claim in Die Presse newspaper yesterday that Fritzl was convicted of the attempted rape of a work colleague at a Linz concrete company where he worked in the 1960s.
Police said they were searching for the relevant files, but confirmed that he was convicted of arson in the 1970s. The conviction has since been stricken from his record due to the passage of time and social workers had no knowledge of this or any crimes when they decided to give him and his wife custody of the three "abandoned" children.
Senior police officials in Amstetten said yesterday they stand by their investigation into Elisabeth's disappearance.
"We didn't search the cellar of the family home because there was no suspicion to allow this legal possibility," said Mr Polzer.
Police were unable to locate the entrance to the hidden cellar on Sunday until Fritzl told them to remove the wooden panelling behind a bookshelf. The reinforced steel door was secured with an electronic lock, opened after Fritzl revealed the code.
Yesterday police revealed Fritzl's last, desperate attempt to escape detection. After 24 years without medical attention, Elisabeth's eldest daughter Kerstin became seriously ill two weeks ago.
On April 19th, Fritzl agreed to bring her to hospital, explaining to hospital workers that Elisabeth had abandoned Kerstin on his doorstep. With the sick Kerstin in hospital and pressure growing for her mother to come forward, Fritzl agreed to allow Elisabeth visit the hospital.
But first she had to write a letter, addressed to her parents, saying that she was prepared to return with two children after 24 years living with a cult.
"Fritzl said he received this letter with pretty stamps and presented it as proof his daughter was in parts unknown," said Mr Polzer.
"Forensic tests prove clearly that the letter was posted by him. It seems that all the letters originated in this way. Right to the end, he did everything to conceal his deeds."
Apart from Elisabeth's original two-hour confession last Saturday night, when police detained her outside the hospital, little is known about day-to-day life in her windowless prison.
"This is vital because only then will we be able to judge the scale of the crime and pitch appropriately the case for the prosecution," said local prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek.
Fritzl could spend the rest of his life behind bars, with a likely list of charges including sexual assault, imprisonment, incest and murder through negligence.
Documents seen by The Irish Times suggest that Fritzl's imprisonment of his daughter may have been premeditated. The Amstetten land register shows how, in 1977, Fritzl entered the name of Elisabeth, then just 13, into the land deed, legally guaranteeing her the right to live in and use his home.
"It's not unheard of for parents to do this. What is unusual in this case is that he named Elisabeth and not his other six children," said a town official, who requested not to be named.
"It's difficult not knowing the circumstances, but it certainly gives the impression that he had plans for her."