An Austrian Tragedy

The following story of a 42-year-old woman held prisoner and repeatedly raped by her father for the past 24 years has shaken the core of a serene Austrian nation. The tragedy is being portrayed by the media as a symptom of national illness. The newspaper Die Presse asks: "How can it happen here?". Der Standard writes: "An entire nation must ask itself what is going so wrong." The questions do not only pertain to Austria, of course. The town of Amstetten, where the woman was held, is another quiet, "ordinary" town so typical of horrendous incidents such as the school and neighborhood shootings in the US and all over the world. The citizens of Amstetten will have to answer many uncomfortable questions in the coming months, among them the question of how could a community be so fundamentally broken as to not look after the well-being of its own members? After all, twenty-four years is an awfully long time to not ask any questions.

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Austrian woman says father held her in cellar for 24 years

By VERONIKA OLEKSYN

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him.

The 73-year-old father was taken into custody, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, on Sunday.

Authorities found the woman Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, Lower Austria police said in a statement.

The 42-year-old woman told police that her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984.

During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused and gave birth to six children, the statement said. She said she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later; police said they were investigating.

Police said in the statement the woman appeared "greatly disturbed" psychologically during questioning. She agreed to talk only after authorities assured her that she would no longer have to have contact with her father and that her children would be taken care of.

DNA tests are expected to determine whether the man is the father of the six surviving children, according to police.

Police said three of the children were registered with authorities and lived with the grandparents. The other three children were apparently held captive in the cellar with their mother, Polzer told reporters in broadcast remarks.

The Austria Press Agency said the three boys and three girls range in age from 5 and 20. One of the children, a 19-year-old woman, was being hospitalized in very serious condition, according to Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Sunday's developments recalled another case that shocked Austrians in the summer of 2006, when a young woman escaped after being largely confined to a tiny underground dungeon in a quiet Vienna suburb for more than eight years.

Natascha Kampusch was 10 years old when she was kidnapped in Vienna on her way to school in March 1998. Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, threw himself in front of a train just hours after her dramatic escape.