Thin Air In Austrian Dungeon Slows Probe

The investigator leading the probe of an underground dungeon where an Austrian man allegedly held his daughter captive for 24 years said Friday that officers can only work one hour at a time because of the severe lack of oxygen.

Franz Polzer, Austrian Police Colonel, head of criminal the criminal investigation, said the entrance to the windowless rooms where Josef Fritzl, 73, held his daughter captive, fathering her seven children, was protected by two steel doors that locked electronically.

"They are open now, but we are trying to get another way out of this room because the working conditions in this prison are so exceptional," Polzer said.

"Investigators wearing special clothes and masks ... can work there only one hour and during this hour they try, one team after the other, to gather everything available in this living space and search particularly for DNA-traces to establish if the alleged criminal really committed this on his own."

"Not until then can we start with technical investigations like sonar probes, cavity and sound measurements, and also to comprehend all the electric and electronic systems," Polzer said.

Leopold Etz, chief of homicide investigations for Lower Austria province, said investigators also are questioning more than 100 people who lived in Fritzl's house during the time of Elisabeth's captivity and others who have come forward saying they knew him.

"We're casting a wide net. ... It's a lot of work," Etz said.

Authorities said that what appears to have been an elaborate crime by Fritzl came to their attention April 19, when Elisabeth's eldest daughter, 19-year-old Kerstin, was admitted to a hospital suffering from 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 then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital April 26, and her story came to light, authorities said.

Klaus Schwertner, a spokesman for medical issues relating to the family, said Kerstin remains in critical condition "but has stabilized somewhat in recent days."

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

Elisabeth's three other children by Fritzl - a son and two daughters - were removed from the cellar by him as babies, police said. Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie, who was told Elisabeth had abandoned the children, adopted one and had effective custody of two others. A seventh child died as an infant, and police say Fritzl has confessed to burning its body in an incinerator.

Josef Schloegl - head of the Amstetten district court, which 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.

"There was no reason to suspect that something was wrong," 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. He said: "The grandmother cared for the children in an exemplary manner."

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 is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.