Joseph Fritzl's neighbour says he noticed nothing usual about the family
when he saw them and questions whether noises could really be heard from the
basement.

AMSTETTEN, AUSTRIA (MAY 02, 2008) REUTERS -

The plight of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was imprisoned and repeatedly
raped by her own father for 24 years in a windowless cellar, has set a new
standard for criminal depravity in postwar Austria following the case of
Natascha Kampusch, who escaped in 2006 after being held for eight years in a
basement.
    While the Kampusch case was widely regarded as the exceptional crime of
a twisted loner, Austrians are now faced with a case even more unfathomable
within less than two years.
    Hours after the case came to light in the town of Amstetten, officials,
police and even the victims' lawyer lined up to say that no one but the
suspect could possibly be at fault; Josef Fritzl, now 73, had simply
outsmarted them all.
    A neighbour, who owns a bakery in the same building where Josef Fritzl
lived, says that both Fritzl and his wife had regularly come to their bakery
with their children and nothing had appeared unusual about the man or his
family.
    "They were always very well dressed, the children were always in
good form. There was never any indication that such a thing could have been
possible," Gunther Bramretter said
    "I can't imagine that people could hear noises, with all the noise
from traffic and so on. The son Alexander used to come round in the morning,
barefoot and in shorts if the weather was nice like it is now, and we all used
to laugh. We would give him cheese-sticks and that always made him happy.
There was nothing to indicate that something like this might have been behind
it," he added.
    How Fritzl managed to build the 60 sq metre (650 sq foot) basement
prison, including sanitation facilities, a refrigerator, freezer and washing
machine, without attracting attention is still being investigated, one door
alone weighed 300 kilogramms.
    It is the reinforced concrete walls and the heavy door which makes
Bramretter question the validity of some reports coming out from people who
had lived in the house hearing noises.
    "I don't know, think it is a bit dubious all this about the
noises, I don't believe it. How would you hear knocking on a 300 kilogramm
door. There are a lot of people wanting to present themselves in this,"
Bramretter said.
    Franz Polzer, head of the criminal investigation unit in the province
of Lower Austria, on Wednesday (April 30) urged those who had lived at some
point in the unremarkable two-storey block owned by Fritzl to come
forward.
    But it seems to many that Austrian officials might have some way to go
before they are ready to have a close look at where the system might have
failed Elisabeth.