When truth came to light

A 73-year old Austrian man had admitted to imprisoning and sexually abusing his daughter Elizabeth for 24 years in a dungeon that he built underneath his house. During the period, the daughter even gave birth to 7 of his children, 3 of whom stayed with the mother in the cellar and never saw daylight. Even his own wife is unaware of his deeds.

The truth only came to light when one of the children fell seriously ill and was admitted to hospital, but the hospital could not trace the birth record of the child. Thus the police had to appeal for the mother to come forward. It was only then that the father released his daughter and her other 2 children from the dungeon. When news of the incestuous tragedy broke, the whole country was shocked and plunged in disbelief.

The local people in the town Amstetten where the family has been living found it hard to come to terms with the horror. According to the BBC, “The town of Amstetten looks prosperous and respectable. It is full of comfortable looking cream and yellow painted houses. At this time of year their well kept gardens are full of blossoming trees and tulips. It is hard to reconcile the prettiness of the place with the cruelties which are said to have been inflicted on Elisabeth Fritzl and her family over the last quarter of a century. The police revelations have thrown this well-ordered community into confusion.”

The main questions that prick the Austrians’ conscience are probably: How could this happen in a neighbourhood where people do know each other, maybe for years, and say hello? How is such a thing still possible today and how can the authorities be duped so easily into believing the father’s story that Elizabeth disappeared 24 years ago to join a cult group and never returned home?

I personally find this news very unsettling. No doubt that the Austrian man has some underlying psychopathology (his relatives said that he ruled his household with tyranny), but it just makes me wonder how the social context and environment actually facilitated him to perpetrate his acts of terror against his daughter for so many years. I’m sure some people’s suspicion or curiosity had been aroused when he started his construction of the dungeon, or when he purchased huge loads of groceries at night, or when 3 babies started appearing on his door-step over the years, supposedly abandoned by Elizabeth. What about the technicians who helped him with the dungeon construction; what about the tenant who had been noticing strange sounds coming from below his room for 12 years; what about the neighbours, the man’s wife and other relatives? Why didn’t anyone pick up signs of peculiarity for the last 24 years?

I’m not sure if this can be termed the bystander effect or even social apathy. A simplistic answer is residents of the neighbourhood are probably too polite to be willing to meddle in other people’s business. But I find it hard to believe that nobody bothered to investigate the strange disappearance of Elizabeth and the happenings in the man’s household. How could responsibilities be so diffused in this small provincial town?