DNA Tests Confirm Austrian Man Fathered Daughter's Children

DNA tests have confirmed that a 73-year-old Austrian who confessed to locking his daughter in an underground cell for 24 years fathered her seven children, police said today.

Josef Fritzl has admitted abducting his daughter, Elisabeth, in 1984. He kept her in a secret cellar under his house in the town of Amstetten, beating and sexually abusing her.

An examining magistrate today remanded Fritzl in custody for 14 days.

Franz Polzer, the head of the criminal investigation unit in Lower Austria, told a news conference: "The result ... shows that the six children which the unfortunate Elisabeth Fritzl gave birth to in the basement have all been undoubtedly fathered by her own father."

Elisabeth had seven children but one of them died shortly after birth. Police said yesterday Fritzl had admitted burning that child's body. Prosecutors said today they were looking into the possibility of charging Fritzl with "murder through failure to act" in connection with the baby's death.

Polzer said Fritzl had "left nothing undone in order to deceive". "In 24 years we have never seen anything like it," he said.

Police said they were investigating whether anyone helped with the delivery of the seven children, five of whom are being cared for by a team of experts.

Contrary to press reports, police said neither Fritzl nor his wife, Rosemarie, who investigators believe was unaware that her daughter was living as a prisoner beneath the family home, had any previous criminal convictions.

Officers have been investigating other houses owned by Fritzl but have found no evidence of any other concealed chambers.

They defended the fact that no suspicions were aroused when three of Elisabeth's children were adopted by Fritzl and his wife after being "found" outside his home with notes he forced Elisabeth to write.

The case began to unravel when Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, who lived in the cellar, was left at a hospital with a life-threatening illness on April 19. The plight of the mother and children was discovered on Saturday night when Elisabeth and her father appeared together at the hospital.

Police said today that Kirsten was still in intensive care and "doctors are doing everything in their power to save her life".

The public prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said Fritzl did not speak in court today and had not indicated whether he would appeal against the decision to remand him in custody.

Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer has said his client was in psychiatric care. Asked whether he had shown any remorse, Mayer said: "I cannot say at this point."