Amstetten, Austria - Austria's most horrifying crime of recent years is "more or less solved", authorities said on Monday. Josef Fritzl, 73, admitted to having fathered seven children with his daughter whom he kept imprisoned in a dungeon for 24 years.
"This crime is more or less solved," provincial police chief Franz Pruchner said. "This crime is unique in the criminal history of Austria. It is beyond all dimensions I know of."
Fritzl, a retired electrical engineer from Amstetten in eastern Austria, confessed to having locked his daughter, Elisabeth, 42, in the basement in August 1984.
He abused and raped her repeatedly, authorities said at a press conference.
During her captivity, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children, results of continued sexual abuse by her father.
One infant died shortly after birth, three of her children were imprisoned with her, three others were taken by the father and grew up with the "grandparents."
Fritzl claimed the children were left at his doorstep by his errant daughter, who was reported missing after her "disappearance".
The four prisoners were kept in several small basement rooms, accessible via an electronically locked steel door. The dungeon was equipped with cooking and washing facilities, beds and a TV set, their only window to the outside world.
The crime came to light last week, when one of the imprisoned children, Kerstin, 19, was hospitalized by the grandfather, claiming her mother had abandoned her.
Police started looking for the mother. Josef Fritzl was arrested on Saturday after Elizabeth persuaded him to let her out of the dungeon to look after her daughter.
Fritzl confessed to the crimes after his initial refusal to cooperate with authorities, they said.
Other victims or sexual abuse of the other children was unlikely, as the man seemed fixated on "having a new, second relationship with his daughter," police said.
Local authorities rejected any responsibility for the tragedy. Josef Fritzl had led a perfect double life, they said.
"He deceived everyone," Pruchner said. His wife, Rosemarie, 69, and other family members did not notice anything, authorities said.
District head Hans-Heinz Lenze stressed that all the legal aspects of the adoption of one child by the "grandparents" as well as leaving the other two in their care, were in order.
Authorities expect the results of DNA testing aimed at verifying the suspicions of incest later on Monday, but said after the confession this was more of a formality.
"The man confessed to having fathered the children and said that no-one else had access," Pruchner said.
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