Behind Closed Doors: The Girl Who Survived 24 Years Locked in Her Father’s Basement

Elisabeth Fritzl was just 18 when she went missing from her home in Amstetten, Austria in 1984. At the time of her disappearance, it seemed like it was going to be just another of the world’s tragic unsolved mysteries.

Her father, Josef Fritzl, convinced the family and the police that Elisabeth had run away from home. However, he knew exactly where his daughter was, and the answers were lying literally beneath their feet. Twenty-four years later, Elisabeth not only survived to tell the tale, but she summoned the courage to share the unimaginable horrors she went through at the hands of her own father.

An Ordinary Family

Josef Fritzl was born in Austria in 1935, shortly before the start of World War II. Living in Amstetten he fell for a woman named Rosemarie who was four years younger. In 1956, they got married. The pair lived a tranquil and unassuming life in Lower Austria, welcoming three sons and four daughters together. Their daughter Elisabeth was born on April 6, 1966.

Josef worked as an electrical engineer as he and made a name for himself in the industry as an engineering equipment salesman who was always building. Though Rosemarie and Josef Fritzl had seven children to care for, Elisabeth appeared to be the most problematic—in the eyes of her father, at least.