Exclusive: Dungeon girl Elisabeth Fritzl first words revealed - Sunday Mirror
First words tearful Elisabeth said during reunion with her sister She tells family that all she longs for now is normal life with children
Dungeon victim Elisabeth Fritzl, the woman caged for 24 years by her rapist father, has told her family: "I never want to see his face again."
Elisabeth - who gave birth to seven of depraved Josef Fritzl's children - fell into her mother Rosemarie's arms when she was finally released and said: "I can't believe I'm free - is it really you?"
Weeping and clinging to her mother, Elisabeth told her: "I can't believe I'm out. I didn't think I would ever see you again. It's all too much for me. I don't ever want to see him again."
When she met the three children who were taken away from her in the dungeon to live a normal life upstairs, she held them close to her, stroked their faces and said: "My babies. You are so beautiful."
Her sister Gabriele Helm, speaking for the first time, revealed Elisabeth's dramatic first words.
Gabriele, 36, told how she broke down when she met her sister after she was freed from the windowless dungeon beneath her family home in Amstetten, Austria.
Elisabeth, now 42, vanished when she was 18. Warped Fritzl told his family she had run away to join a cult. Gabriele, who is undergoing therapy after the revelations, said: "None of us can believe how normal Elisabeth seems. She is healthy and very chatty and doing very well.
"Every day she gets a bit stronger. I can't say what the family is going through. It's more than anyone can believe. It has devastated us.
"We are working together to support Elisabeth. She is overjoyed to see her children. She told them they were beautiful and she is spending all the time getting to know them."
The family say she now longs to feel rain on her skin after her long captivity. But experts warned it may be months before Elisabeth and the dungeon children can be released from the clinic where they are receiving specialist treatment.
She is being cared for in a darkened flat with five of her children and her mum. Kerstin, 19, is still critically ill in a separate hospital in an induced coma.
They spend their time watching Disney DVDs and have been allowed to see letters of support from all over the world.
Elisabeth and her youngest son Felix, five, have to wear dark glasses because their eyes are so sensitive to light. But while Elisabeth says she can never come face-to-face with the monster who raped and abused her for years, sources close to the family said she still loved her father in a twisted version of the Stockholm syndrome, where hostages come to identify with their captors.
Her lawyer Christoph Herbst said: "Elisabeth is very happy to be re-discovering the world. She is very keen to go outside and feel the rain on her skin. But it is important for them to adjust slowly.
"For now they just talk to each other. But Elisabeth and her children who lived in the cellar have no concept of time and of the future. Some people who hear the story think Elisabeth is like something from a horror film. But rumours that she has no teeth and cannot talk are not true. If you met her you would not realise what she has been through, as she seems just like every normal person.
"She tells her family that all she longs for is a normal life - or as normal a life as they can get. That's her only wish."
Life is also difficult for the three children who were living upstairs because they are now in darkness at the clinic.
Mr Herbst said: "But they are all happy and there is a lot of laughter, which you might not expect. Felix makes everyone laugh. They are teaching him to run because inside the cellar he could not run.
"It is really brilliant how Elisabeth has reacted to the outside world. They are all rather fine. Elisabeth is really an impressive person. She is very strong. She's happy now for the first time."
Local priest Peter Boesendorfer said: "No one can believe how normal she appears but I suspect it hasn't really hit her yet."
Rosemarie is still reeling over what happened to her daughter. Frank Polzer, the officer in charge, said: "When she found out her daughter was in the cellar she had a nervous breakdown."
Prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said they were gathering evidence to charge Fritzl with murder - he incinerated a baby who died after being born in the cellar.
THE HERO DOC'S STORY
The doctor who blew the whistle on Fritzl has spoken for the first time - to reveal how he saw through the monster's web of lies.
Dr Albert Reiter refused to believe Fritzl's explanation when he took his critically-ill granddaughter Kerstin to hospital.
He told how Fritzl had claimed that he had found the girl on his doorstep. He said that she had been abandoned by her mother who was part of a bizarre sect.
"I did not like his tone and something did not seem right," said Dr Reiter.
"What made me particularly suspicious was that he did not seem to think it important to answer any of my questions, simply demanding we make Kerstin better so that he could take her away again."
The Austrian medic launched a campaign to track down Kerstin's mother Elisabeth - which eventually revealed the shocking truth that she had been held in a cellar for 24 years and that her children had been fathered by her rapist dad Fritzl.
Dr Reiter said: "I am amazed this all finally came out. I obviously had no idea this would be the end result - who could have predicted that - but I'm glad I followed my instincts." He revealed that on Saturday April 19 he received the emergency phone call which would spark the beginning of the end for Fritzl.
He was told that a critically-ill teenage girl had been brought unconscious into the hospital by her grandfather.
Dr Reiter noticed that Kerstin was deathly pale, not just from her illness but with an unnatural pallor that suggested something more sinister. A closer examination revealed that the teenager had almost no teeth, and Dr Reiter found a secret letter written by Elisabeth stashed in the girl's clothing.
He realised it did not tally with what Fritzl had told him about how her mother had abandoned the sick girl.
He said: "I could not believe that the mother of a seriously ill 19-year-old girl would simply load her off at the hospital and disappear. From the tone of the letter the mum had sent it was clear that she cared very deeply for her child."
As Kerstin's condition worsened, the concerned doctor launched a media appeal for the mother to come forward.
"I was certain of only one thing, that the mother was the only one that could help," he said. "I contacted the grandfather again, and told him we desperately needed to speak to the mother. I was convinced she had information that was the key to the mystery illness. I could not understand why he was so reluctant to help, but he did agree."
The doctor asked the hospital's public relations department to put out an appeal to the local media and even got Fritzl to provide a photograph of Elisabeth from before she went missing.
Dr Reiter also gave out his personal mobile number so that anyone with information could get in touch.
When journalists arrived at Fritzl's house expecting his co-operation in the appeal, they were stunned to be turned away.
One said: "I was shocked. Instead of being the concerned father I expected, he told me to clear off. He was shouting and swearing and really furious.
"He said he had wanted nothing to do with the appeal, but that the 'bloody doctor' had forced him into it."
Special police officers were dispatched to Vienna in a desperate bid to track down Elisabeth. But she was just a few miles away - watching the evening news from her dungeon.
She begged Fritzl to let her go to her daughter. He agreed only on condition she did not betray him. But worried that his evil regime would be revealed, Fritzl called ahead to the doctor and said: "Elisabeth has returned. I am bringing her to the hospital and she wants to see her daughter.
"We do not want any trouble - do not call the police."
But the suspicious doctor immediately did call the police, and when Fritzl led disoriented Elisabeth into the hospital to see Kerstin, they were waiting for him.
In dramatic scenes, officers swooped, handcuffed him and forced him into a police car while a separate team took Elisabeth off to safety.
Only after two hours of careful persuasion did she tell them her incredible story.
The following day police frogmarched Fritzl to his house where he was forced to show them the cellar.
Kerstin is still in an induced coma. The biggest fear now is that a lack of oxygen caused by severe cramps may have led to brain damage.
Doctors are giving her time to regain her physical strength before they try to wake her.
I thought that girl was kidnapped somewhere and over years - that girl had babies and then father raped that daughter. I got it mixed up but it's too repulsive. gota delete it out of my memory. and now.... this sick pedophile wanted by Interpol just got arrested recently... lives 20 min away from me
SICKO!
