Fritzl’s victims slowly reclaim their lives

VIENNA – Three months after gaining their freedom, Josef Fritzl’s victims are slowly being exposed to a brave new world of sunlight, storm clouds, prosecutors and paparazzi.

Investigators said on Friday they have begun questioning the daughter they say Fritzl held in a cellar for 24 years, and Austrian media reported that one of the children he fathered with her spent last weekend incognito at a youth camp. “A big step toward a normal life,” the daily Kurier headlined.Judge Andrea Humer, who will preside over Fritzl’s incest-imprisonment trial, said medical experts have pronounced the victims in “relatively good health” considering their ordeal in the windowless cell police say he built beneath his home.Prosecutors for the first time interviewed Fritzl’s 42-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, in a secret location.Friday’s session was videotaped so it can be shown in court to spare her the trauma of having to testify, they said, adding that the questioning would resume next week.In a poignant sign of the remarkable progress the family has made since Fritzl finally released his captives late in April, one of Elisabeth’s daughters – a 15-year-old girl – attended a summer camp organised by firefighters last weekend, public broadcaster ORF said.It said the girl enjoyed four carefree days of outdoor fun under an assumed name with 4 000 other young campers.Armin Blutsch, who commands Amstetten’s fire brigade, and Hans-Heinz Lenze, a local official, said camp organisers took it upon themselves to include her after she said it was her “ardent desire.”Other family members also have ventured – always in disguise – from the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic where they have been recovering to make day trips, including swimming outings, Kurier said.The clinic remains under police guard to shut out the paparazzi who have laid siege to the building in an effort to photograph Elisabeth and her children.”Fortunately, everything is going very well,” said Christoph Herbst, a lawyer representing the victims.He said they were spending some time each day trying to answer the hundreds of letters sent by well-wishers from around the world.Fritzl, 73, is expected to go on trial before the end of the year.He is being held in pretrial detention in St.Poelten, 80 km west of Vienna, pending the filing of formal charges.Investigators say Fritzl confessed to taking Elisabeth prisoner shortly after she turned 18, sexually abusing her and fathering seven children with her, including one whose body he allegedly tossed into a furnace after it died in infancy.They say subsequent DNA tests confirmed he is the surviving children’s biological father.Nampa-AP”A big step toward a normal life,” the daily Kurier headlined.Judge Andrea Humer, who will preside over Fritzl’s incest-imprisonment trial, said medical experts have pronounced the victims in “relatively good health” considering their ordeal in the windowless cell police say he built beneath his home.Prosecutors for the first time interviewed Fritzl’s 42-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, in a secret location.Friday’s session was videotaped so it can be shown in court to spare her the trauma of having to testify, they said, adding that the questioning would resume next week.In a poignant sign of the remarkable progress the family has made since Fritzl finally released his captives late in April, one of Elisabeth’s daughters – a 15-year-old girl – attended a summer camp organised by firefighters last weekend, public broadcaster ORF said.It said the girl enjoyed four carefree days of outdoor fun under an assumed name with 4 000 other young campers.Armin Blutsch, who commands Amstetten’s fire brigade, and Hans-Heinz Lenze, a local official, said camp organisers took it upon themselves to include her after she said it was her “ardent desire.”Other family members also have ventured – always in disguise – from the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic where they have been recovering to make day trips, including swimming outings, Kurier said.The clinic remains under police guard to shut out the paparazzi who have laid siege to the building in an effort to photograph Elisabeth and her children.”Fortunately, everything is going very well,” said Christoph Herbst, a lawyer representing the victims.He said they were spending some time each day trying to answer the hundreds of letters sent by well-wishers from around the world.Fritzl, 73, is expected to go on trial before the end of the year.He is being held in pretrial detention in St.Poelten, 80 km west of Vienna, pending the filing of formal charges.Investigators say Fritzl confessed to taking Elisabeth prisoner shortly after she turned 18, sexually abusing her and fathering seven children with her, including one whose body he allegedly tossed into a furnace after it died in infancy.They say subsequent DNA tests confirmed he is the surviving children’s biological father.Nampa-AP