Residents in Amstetten, where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter hidden in a
cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, are still in shock
as more details of the case emerge.

AMSTETTEN, AUSTRIA (APRIL 30, 2008) REUTERS -

Residents of Amstetten, the town where Fritzl constructed his
"house of horrors", were on Wednesday (April 30) still wondering
whether the small town will ever recover from the shocking discovery.
    "Life goes on. There will be another case no doubt. But you can
see that there was something wrong with those people," said Juergen
Mayer.
    Austria's justice minister presented a bill on Tuesday to strengthen
the country's "victim protection law", particularly in matters of
sexual abuse.
    In a case that has shocked Austria and the world, Elisabeth, now 42,
spent nearly a quarter of a century without seeing sunlight with her daughter
aged 19 and two sons aged 18 and 5.
    The three other children -- two girls and one boy -- lived in the house
above the cellar with Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie, who also had seven
children of their own.
    DNA tests confirmed that Fritzl, a 73-year-old retired electrical
engineer, was the father of all six surviving children his daughter had born.

    "What should I say, it's impossible to imagine the whole thing -
with his own daughter, seven grandchildren with his own daughter. It brings
tears to your eyes," Werner Pilz said.
    Prosecutors were now investigating him over the death of the seventh
child, whose remains he had burnt in a furnace, and said he could be charged
in connection with the child's death.
    "Amstetten and everyone else won't forget this. No-one really
knows what goes on inside such people," Tanja Waegl said . "Words
fail you. If you live nearby and then you are confronted with this. It's hard
to deal with."
    Detectives were still combing the 60 square metre (645 sq ft) cellar
beneath Fritzl's home, Franz Prucher, head of security in Lower Austria, said.

    Fritzl appeared before a judge in St Poelten, the provincial capital of
Lower Austria, on Tuesday, and was ordered to be held in detention while
police inquiries continued.
    Elisabeth Fritzl says her father lured her into the cellar in 1984 and
drugged and handcuffed her before imprisoning her.
    Her fate came to light when the 19-year-old daughter became ill and was
taken to hospital. Doctors appealed for her mother to come forward to give
details of her medical history.
    Fritzl brought Elisabeth and her remaining two children out of the
cellar after the young woman was hospitalised, telling his wife their
"missing" daughter had chosen to return home.
    Elisabeth and three of the children were kept in a complex which was in
some places no more than 1.7 metres (5 ft 6 in) high and contained a padded
cell, according to authorities.
    Photographs show a narrow passage leading to rooms that included a
cooking area, with children's drawings on the walls, a sleeping area and a
small bathroom with a shower.