AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- A 73-year-old man has confessed to
holding his daughter captive in his home cellar for nearly 24 years and
fathering seven children by her, Austrian police say.
Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN, the man, known as
Mr. F., admitted holding his daughter hostage in a windowless cell in
the basement of his home for more than two decades.
Mr. F. also told police that one of the children he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth F. was a twin who died.
Mr. F. also admitted he burned the body of the dead child in an oven, according to Polzer.
Further DNA tests will now be carried out to confirm fatherhood, Polzer said.
Elisabeth F., 42, is described as "very disturbed" and having trouble
talking to police about her ordeal, reports CNN correspondent Fred
Pleitgen.
She went missing in 1984, when she was 18 years old, police said at a news conference Sunday.
The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a
19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized in
Amstetten after falling unconscious, according to police.
She
was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her
grandfather with a note from her biological mother requesting help.
Amstetten is a rural town about 150 km (93 miles) west of Vienna.
But police said a DNA test later revealed her grandfather, Mr. F., was
also her father, according to ORF, Austria's state-run news agency.
That sparked a police investigation, which revealed that Mr. F. may
have fathered at least six children with his daughter, forcing her and
three of the surviving children to live in the cellar of his house,
according to ORF's Peter Schmitzberger.
The children are now between 5 and 19 years old.
Polzer told ORF that the 73-year-old led police to several hidden rooms
in his cellar accessible only by an electronic passcode that he
provided to police. 
Watch a report on the discovery ยป
On Sunday, police searched the hidden rooms where Mr. F. admitted he kept his daughter and their children, Polzer told ORF.
The rooms included sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a bathroom, which Mr. F. told police he built, Polzer said.
Conditions in the 50-60 square meters cellar were described as "very dark, narrow and damp, " reports Pleitgen.
Kerstin, 19; Stefan, 18; and Felix, 5, remained locked in the basement
with their mother, according to police. None had seen the light of day
during their entire time in captivity, she told police.
Shocked residents of the neighborhood -- a tidy, middle-class district
of homes -- said there were no indications of the horrors taking place
in the house.
The suspect "was friendly -- that's why this is
so unbelievable," said Franz Redl, 56, who owns a shop across the
street. "I'm sure the authorities did all they could. He planned
everything so perfectly," he told The Associated Press.
While a
woman identified as Gabriele H. told Austria's Kurier newspaper she
thought Mr. F. was a devoted grandfather doing his best to look after
his abandoned grandchildren.
"One who looks after their
grandchildren whilst their mother just ran away. We were all asking
ourselves what kind of mother would do that to their children?," she
said.
Another local, Berhard E , who lives opposite the family,
told Kurier: "I am appalled, this is unimaginable and simply not
comprehensible."
Mr. F. and I grew up together" said Erika
Manhalter who lives a few meters away from their house. "We thought
this would be a family just like others, but you cannot look through
people," she told Kurier.
News of the cellar captivity case
has also prompted much soul searching in a country still reeling from
the 2006 case of teenager Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped and
imprisoned in a basement cell outside Vienna.
Kampusch was 10
years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in
March 1998. She was held for more than eight years by Wolfgang
Priklopil, who later killed himself when Natascha escaped.
"How is it possible that no one has ever heard or seen anything?" Der Standard newspaper asked.
"What does it say about the neighbors, relatives, family and friends,
but also those who had to deal officially with the family? How could he
have been successful keeping people fooled?"
"The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong," the paper said in a commentary.
Amstetten police say they apprehended Mr. F. and Elisabeth F. on
Saturday near the hospital for questioning, after receiving a
"confidential tip." Once police assured the daughter that she would
never have contact with her father again, "she was able to tell the
whole story," Schmitzberger said.
Mr. F. lived upstairs with his
wife, Rosemarie F., who police said had no idea about her husband's
other family living in the cellar.
Mr. F. and Rosemarie F. had
adopted three of the children that he had with his daughter, according
to police. He told his wife that his missing daughter had dropped the
unwanted children off at the house because she could not take care of
them, police said.
After she was detained Saturday, Elisabeth F.
gave police a "psychologically and physically disturbed impression,"
police said in a statement.
She said her father began sexually
abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 -- weeks before she was
reported missing -- her father enticed her into the basement, where he
drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told
police. For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father,
resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according to the
police statement.
She also told police she gave birth to twins
in 1996, but one of the babies died a few days later as a result of
neglect, and Mr. F. removed the infant's body and burned it.
She
told police that only her father supplied her and her children with
food and clothing, and that she did not think his wife knew anything
about their situation.
When Kerstin fell ill earlier this month,
Mr. F. apparently told his wife and the hospital that his "missing"
daughter had dropped off the sick girl on his doorstep.
In an
effort to find out what might be ailing 19-year-old Kerstin, the
hospital asked the media to put out a bulletin requesting any
information about the girl or her missing mother, attorney general
Gerhard Sedlacek told NTV.
Sometime later, Mr. F. brought
Elisabeth F. out of the cellar, telling his wife that she had returned
home with her two children after a 24-year absence, police said.
He took Elisabeth F. to the hospital to talk with doctors about
Kerstin's condition, and at that point, authorities became aware of her
situation, Sedlacek said.
Authorities are considering federal charges against a passenger who became belligerent aboard a flight from Hong Kong. By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register
Passengers and crew members aboard a flight from Hong Kong used duct
tape to restrain an Orange County man after he allegedly became
belligerent aboard a plane headed to Los Angeles on Wednesday,
authorities said.
FBI agents took the man into custody when the
United Airlines flight from Hong Kong landed at Los Angeles
International Airport just after 10 a.m., said Laura Eimiller,
spokeswoman for the FBI.
The man, whose name has not been
released, was taken into custody on suspicion of interfering with
flight crew members, a federal offense. The FBI is consulting with the
U.S. Attorney's office to review what charges, if any, will be pressed.
Authorities said the man became belligerent aboard the plane.
When he didn't calm down, passengers and members of the plane's crew
used duct tape to restrain him in his seat.
The U.S. Attorney's
Office has been in contact with the FBI but has not yet received the
case, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los
Angeles.
The man was released Wednesday.
