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Little oxygen in horror dungeon
02/05/2008 22:55 - (SA)
Amstetten, Austria - The investigator leading the probe of an underground dungeon where an Austrian man allegedly held his daughter captive for 24 years said on Friday that officers can only work one hour at a time because of the severe lack of oxygen.
Franz Polzer, Austrian Police Colonel, head of criminal the criminal investigation, said the entrance to the windowless rooms where Josef Fritzl, 73, held his daughter captive, fathering her seven children, was protected by two steel doors that locked electronically.
"They are open now, but we are trying to get another way out of this room because the working conditions in this prison are so exceptional," Polzer said.
"Investigators wearing special clothes and masks ... can work there only one hour and during this hour they try, one team after the other, to gather everything available in this living space and search particularly for DNA-traces to establish if the alleged criminal really committed this on his own."
"Not until then can we start with technical investigations like sonar probes, cavity and sound measurements, and also to comprehend all the electric and electronic systems," Polzer said.
Leopold Etz, chief of homicide investigations for Lower Austria province, said investigators also are questioning more than 100 people who lived in Fritzl's house during the time of Elisabeth's captivity and others who have come forward saying they knew him.
"We're casting a wide net. ... It's a lot of work," Etz said.
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