Amstetten, Austria: The wife of an Austrian man accused of holding their daughter captive for 24 years fought to keep the troubled family together but never knew their child was in a soundproofed cellar beneath the apartment, the wife's sister said.

In an exclusive television interview with The Associated Press, a woman who identified herself as Josef Fritzl's sister-in-law provided intimate details of the oppression inside the Fritzl home, describing him as a "tyrant".

The woman, who has pictures of herself with the family, asked only to be identified as Christine R to avoid public attention and throngs of journalists seeking interviews.

Christine R painted the most complete picture to date of her sister Rosemarie and her belief that daughter Elisabeth ran away from home as a 17-year-old to join a cult. That was about six months before police say she was locked into the windowless cellar.

"We spoke about it often when we met," the woman said of her 68-year-old sister. "And I would say, Rosemarie, where can Elisabeth be? I even told her myself, she is definitely in a cult where you can only have a certain amount of children, or they don't want sick children."

The sister, 12 years Rosemarie's junior, recalled searching for Elisabeth in train stations and where homeless people hang out. "We really did detective work all around as to where the cult could be," Christine R said. But why was the cult story so easily accepted?

Such questions have puzzled Austrians, who have grappled with whether Rosemarie might have had knowledge of the crime.

Source : PTI