Austria Incest Victim Reunited With Family

Doctors, Lawyer Say 19-Year-Old Daughter Of Abusive Dad Likely To Make Good Recovery

(AP)  One of the offspring of an Austrian man who kept his daughter confined to a basement for decades and fathered her seven children has been reunited with her family and is expected to make a good recovery, doctors and a lawyer said Wednesday.

Kerstin Fritzl met with other family members Sunday, shortly after doctors woke her from an artificially induced coma she had been in for weeks, according to two doctors and Christoph Herbst, a lawyer representing the victims in the case.

She was admitted to a hospital April 19, unconscious and suffering from multiple organ failure.

Albert Reiter, the doctor who treated Kerstin, said she greeted him during a morning visit June 1.

"I say to Kerstin - 'Hello Kerstin' - and Kerstin tells me: 'Hello,"' Reiter told reporters at a news conference in a hotel in Zeillern, several miles from Amstetten.

"For all of us, Kerstin's surprising recovery is a great relief," said Berthold Kepplinger, director of a psychiatric clinic where the reunited family is recovering from their ordeal.

Kepplinger, who described the reunion as a "touching moment," said Kerstin has expressed "many wishes," including going on a boat ride.

Reiter added that she also wanted to go to a Robbie Williams concert and even attempted to dance to his music in bed before her tubing was removed.

Josef Fritzl is accused of raping his daughter repeatedly while confining her to a basement hideaway for 24 years.

The case began to unravel during Kerstin's hospitalization when doctors appealed on TV for her mother to come forward because they needed information about the young woman's medical history.

Fritzl then accompanied his daughter, 42-year-old Elisabeth, to the hospital April 26 and her story came to light shortly after.

On Friday, authorities decided to extend pretrial custody for Fritzl, 73, by another two months. Fritzl was formally placed in custody April 29 and will likely be charged when the investigation is complete.

Three of the children fathered by Fritzl, including Kerstin, were raised in a cellar at his home in the lower Austrian town of Amstetten, west of Vienna, authorities say. Three others were brought up above ground to live with Fritzl and his wife, and one died in infancy. DNA tests confirmed Fritzl is the biological father of the six surviving children.

[abilenechild]

I just finished my first book, "Abilene's Child/Tormented Hope" which is about gross childhood abuse.

I must say that I had terrible experiences with fathers.

My first father was killed at the hands of my mother. Both my parents were driving in a car around 2:00 AM in the morning. From what I understand, my mother was slapping and hitting my father and he was trying to fend her off, when she grabbed the steering wheel. The car flipped in the air and my father was killed instantly.

There were four young children at home all alone that morning. They were ages, 6, 5, 4, and 1. There were three little boys and a one year old girl. That girl is "Abilene's Child/Tormented Hope". My name is Susie and I am that girl that was taken in the night, at age one, into an unknown black world.

After my father's funeral, my mother waited until night, then picked me up and walked to the door. This part I remember. My mother turned and I turned and looked at my three beautiful brothers sitting under the kitchen table. Their parents both leaving them for one reason or another.

My goal is to share what it is like to be a step daughter. I would like to share with men and women the real effects of multiple partners in and out of the lives of children.

I would like to explain how important Step parents are and that they can make a difference.

When I remember watching different men fighting with my mother, and my mother fighting with them, I was certain that both parents had been small babies at one time. That was the only way that I could not hate them.

There are not many people who grow up and discuss the effects of domestic violence, incest, and trauma of battering, upon their lives and in their relationships. I think that it is very important to come together as a team--society--symbolizing the family-and begin to rebuild "family".

As I was listening to Erin Andrew's story of victimization, I became aware that we are no where near understanding "Rape and Respect" . We as parents must truly stop and recognize the effects our choices and decisions make. I am so very concerned about the anger that is flowing through this country. I want so much to reach out to the little grown up adults and hold them as if they were tiny babies. When I speak, I am addressing those who during their childhood, witnessed their parents fighting.

Seems that there is factual proof that if a family is being destroyed by domestic violence, there is a great chance that there is also sexual child abuse going on. Now what relation does incest and domestic violence have in common? The common picture: father physically beats his wife. He is in control. There is a high probability that he is abusing his children, either physically, sexually, mentally, and emotionally. He keeps his family in constant fear and it is supposed to make him feel important. Why is it that this man demands respect and importance from his family? Women suffer from these same needs. How did this dysfunction began in America? How many men and women are in prison because of violence towards their families? Is there more action that we can be taking? How do we encourage and help direct these violators who are acting out the movie that they had seen in their past? What generation started it, if any? Where did the root come from? (Mother's family or Father's family).

The first fifteen years of my life, I had many violators. I was beaten by several men, when I was a little girl. I was sexually violated by many men, as a child. My mother attracted pedophiles. Healthy men who see children as needing protection to not play with violators. There is two different groups of men. The protector and the violator, or maybe their is another type, the uncaring and passive father. By the way, when I say father, I mean mother also. I also mean siblings, for we are family and when we all are loved, we all feel loved. When we are all beaten, we all are beaten.

My first step father thought I was in love with him, gross gross. My second step father had the idea that mind games would break my spirit down, perhaps driving me to him. My first adopted dad didn't ask, he hit me in the face and demanded me to strip. My brother sexually violated my body because he had watched his mother allow men to violate her. She could have taught him how to respect women because she respected herself as a woman.

It is time to lay things out on the table--------I love "RAW Stuff". Secrets ignite violence. Truth causes the poison to drain. Sex is not a hobby. If you have ever loved someone and watched them die from AIDS, you learn a new meaning of respect for the human body.




Susie Hortman

[juliemd]

Re: drmaqazi...
This is a bit more than adultry...it is called INCEST. What does the Bible say about that? (Not that I''d take it literally, anyway).

[susieq_13]

I hope that monster rots in hell for what he did to his own flesh & blood. I still think the mother knew something. How can you not?

[newsjunky5]

Doesn''t this guy Fritzi look like a human version of Bill the Cat? AAaaack!

[shippg-2009]

I wish this kind of crime would merit the death penalty.