Austrian police: Suspect´s dungeon plans date back to 1978

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER
Associated Press Writer

An Austrian man came up with the idea for a windowless warren under his apartment building years before locking his daughter in a cell secured by sophisticated electronics, locks and a half-ton door, authorities said Monday.

Josef Fritzl may have been plotting the design of the basement dungeon six years before authorities say he took his daughter Elisabeth captive in 1984 when she was 18, investigators said. He is accused of detaining and raping her for 24 years, and fathering seven children with her.

"We can´t just look back to 1984," Police Col. Franz Polzer said. "The logic says the idea was already there, or an obsessive thought played a role, to build this jail, dig out these rooms and later to equip them and imprison the daughter there."

Local building authorities by 1978 had approved expansion plans for the apartment building Fritzl owned in Amstetten, 75 miles west of Vienna.

"We are working with certainty on the idea that already in the planning phase he had the intention to build a small space, a small secret, a small dungeon unknown to the building authorities," Polzer said.

The half-ton door guarded the main entry. Investigators uncovered a second entry involving multiple doors, including one made of steel and protected by an electronic code, he added.

The underground area was enlarged after Elisabeth had her fourth child, Polzer said.

Police claim Fritzl, 73, has confessed. He has not yet been charged and remains in pretrial detention. Prosecutors said they planned to meet with him for the first time this Wednesday or Thursday.

Fritzl´s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, indicated he is preparing an insanity defense.

In a broadcast interview, Mayer said he believes Fritzl has a serious mental disorder and that anyone with that kind of psychological illness "didn´t choose" to do what police allege he did.

Mayer said experts will have to determine Fritzl´s mental state and decide whether the suspect can be considered certifiably insane. If that is the case, and Fritzl is convicted, he would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison, he said.

"I believe that the trigger was a mental disorder, because I can´t imagine that someone has sex with his own daughter without having a mental disorder," Mayer said.

Berthold Kepplinger _ director of the psychiatric clinic that has been counseling and caring for Elisabeth, Fritzl´s wife and the children he had with his daughter _ said the victims are slowly learning how to live as a family.

He said the children were given a fish tank and the youngest _ a 5-year-old boy _ received a teddy bear.

"Both sides of the family are slowly growing together," Kepplinger said. "What is nice is to see how the family is starting to organize daily life. Mother and grandmother are preparing breakfast and dinner together. The children are making their beds themselves."

Authorities first began to unravel the complex story on April 19, when a 19-year-old girl whom Fritzl fathered with his daughter was admitted to a hospital suffering from a lung infection.

Doctors, unable to find any medical records for the girl, appealed on television for her mother to come forward. Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital on April 26 and opened up to police.

The 19-year-old remained hospitalized Monday in critical but stable condition. Officials said she is still being kept in an artificial coma to help her breathe.

Investigators have said they believe Fritzl concealed his crimes from his wife, and Polzer on Monday reiterated officials´ belief that the retired electrician acted alone.

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Associated Press Writer William J. Kole contributed to this report.