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Austrian investigators Monday released more details about the elaborate underground cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, along with three of their children. Investigators believe Fritzl planned to build the cellar as early as 1978, shortly after, according to his daughter, he began raping her at age 11 or 12, said police spokesman Franz Polzer.

The 73-year-old Austrian began building the dungeon as part of an addition to his home that year, and simply added the hidden space — which was not recorded in any building plans — Polzer said. It took Fritzl until 1983 to finish the addition, Polzer said.

Investigators recently discovered another door to the dungeon prison, which was blocked by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) steel and concrete door that Fritzl probably stopped using when he later constructed an electronic door for a second entrance, Polzer said.

Fritzl, who police believe was the only one with access to the cellar, had to travel through an elaborate maze to get to the prison.

“You would have to open up a total of eight doors, and … (for the) last door which would go into this space (where the family was imprisoned), you would also have to use electronic opening apparatus,” Polzer said.

“We will have to find out perhaps later from now if perhaps there are other spaces we haven’t discovered yet, and perhaps maybe there is something else interesting.”

Fritzl was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in the dungeon under the Fritzl home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children — six of whom survived. Three of the children were adopted by Josef Fritzl and his wife after he concocted the ruse that Elisabeth had left the babies on their doorstep.

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The story of the family’s imprisonment began to unravel more than two weeks ago, when one of the children still in the dungeon, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions.

The father agreed to take her to a hospital, the first time she was allowed out of the prison where she had spent her entire life with her mother and two brothers.

Dr. Albert Reiter, who is treating Kerstin, said Monday that while her condition is still “grave,” it “has improved somewhat.”

“She has become more stable, but despite that we have to continue to keep her under sedation and give her respiratory help,” Reiter said, noting it is not clear how long she will be kept under sedation.

Elisabeth and her two sons were reunited with her mother, Rosemarie, who police say knew nothing about the basement prison. They were also reunited with the three children that Josef had taken from Elisabeth. The reunited family is living in secluded quarters at a psychiatric clinic, where they are finding a daily routine and adjusting to sunlight — something the two boys had never seen — according to the clinic’s chief doctor.

“The mother and the smallest child have, in just the last couple of days, increased their sensitivity to light,” Dr. Berthold Kepplinger said. “So we have been able to equip them with protective sunglasses.”

Five-year-old Felix is “getting more and more lively,” Kepplinger said.

“He’s fascinated by everything that he sees around him — the fresh air, the light, and the food — all of these things are helping them,” he said. “Slowly the color of their skin is changing back to a more normal (shade).”

He also said the family members are still getting to know each other and live together as a family.

Kepplinger praised Elisabeth for having provided a daily living routine for her children during their captivity. He said the family is getting into a new routine in which the mother and the grandmother make breakfast for the family, and the children make their beds.

However, he said there is a noticeable difference between the pace of life of the children held in captivity and that of those who grew up in Fritzl’s home. He said the mother, Elisabeth, takes breaks and naps several times a day.

The health of the family members is satisfactory and hospital staff have been able to let more and more light into the rooms where the family is staying, Kepplinger said. Kepplinger said the children, after being confined to a small space their entire lives, are finding it increasingly easy to be in larger spaces.

Initially the dungeon where Fritzl held his daughter was only 35 square meters. In 1993, around the time Elisabeth was pregnant with her fourth child, Fritzl decided to add to the dungeon, building another room that increased the entire living space of the family to about 55 square meters.
On Wednesday or Thursday, prosecution authorities will attempt to question Fritzl — who is no longer talking to police following his initial confession, state prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said.

A warden at the St. Poelten jail, where Fritzl is being held, Fritzl appears to be doing well, but he is refusing to go on walks outside the building where he is detained

By VERONIKA OLEKSYN

AMSTETTEN, Austria — Investigators plan to use sonar technology to probe the yard of an Austrian man who held his daughter captive for 24 years to ensure that no more underground dungeons exist on the property, police said Friday.

Leopold Etz, chief of homicide investigations for Lower Austria province, said investigators are also questioning more than 100 people who lived in Josef Fritzl’s house.

Those people lived in the building over the years that Fritzl held his daughter Elisabeth prisoner in a secret dungeon, fathering seven of her children.

Others who have come forward saying they knew the 73-year-old Fritzl are also being questioned.

“We’re casting a wide net,” Etz said. “It’s a lot of work.”

He said officers were combing the entire property, photographing, filming and mapping it. They also plan to use sonar to determine if there are any more secret underground spaces on the property, Etz said.

Fritzl’s elaborate crime came to the attention of authorities on April 19 when one of Elisabeth’s daughters, 19-year-old Kerstin, was admitted to a hospital suffering from an illness linked to an unidentified infection.

Baffled doctors appealed on TV for Kerstin’s mother to come forward because they needed information about the girl’s medical history. Fritzl accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital on April 26, and her story came to light.

Klaus Schwertner, a spokesman for the family’s medical issues, said Kerstin remains in critical condition “but has stabilized somewhat in recent days.”

He declined to confirm a report that she is suffering from multiple organ failure, but said she remains in an induced coma at the Landeskrankenhaus Amstetten.

Etz also said authorities were trying to verify whether a mechanism existed to pump gas into the dingy, windowless rooms where Elisabeth lived with Kerstin and two of her sons, as Fritzl had claimed during initial police questioning.

Authorities have said the house had an official gas line, but for now they believe Fritzl’s threat was nothing more than an attempt to keep his captives from trying to escape.

Police Col. Franz Polzer, who heads the criminal investigation, said investigators have determined that the entrance to the dungeon was protected by a reinforced double steel door that opened and closed using a remote control.

Investigators working in the underground rooms had to take frequent breaks due to a lack of oxygen.

“We are trying to think of some way to improve the air circulation,” Polzer said.

Former tenants of the house have said that Fritzl told all residents of the apartment house that the basement was off limits and that they were not allowed to take photos in the area. Anyone who broke that verbal agreement was threatened with eviction.

A son and two daughters of Elisabeth by Fritzl were removed from the cellar by him when they were babies. He and his wife, Rosemarie — who was told that Elisabeth had abandoned the children and was in a sect — officially adopted one and were granted custody over the others. A seventh child died as an infant and Fritzl has confessed to burning its body in an incinerator.

Josef Schloegl, head of the Amstetten district court that approved the Fritzl’s adoption of the first child in 1994 and awarded them custody of a second several years later, said the couple had no criminal records and appeared entirely normal.

“The grandmother cared for the children in an exemplary manner,” Schloegl said.

The Fritzls never formally applied for legal custody of the third child, but were allowed to keep it, he said, noting all three children were “inconspicuous,” “popular” and well taken care of.

Fritzl faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offenses. However, prosecutors said Tuesday they were investigating whether he can be charged with “murder through failure to act” in connection with the infant’s death. That crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.