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19. 08. 09. - 16:30

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19. 08. 09. - 16:30

'Ghost' picture taken at Fritzl house

By David Rogers

A British mum who made a pilgrimage to fiend Josef Fritzl's "House of Horror" has told how ghostly images have appeared in photographs she took of the home.

Single mum Annette Walker, 43, made a photographic record of her visit to the property in Amstetten, Lower Austria, where monster Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth imprisoned for 24 years and two of his cellar children died.

But she was horrified when she looked at the snaps of the trip and found what look like ghostly figures peering out from the windows of the house.

"It looked so normal and although I'm not someone who has ever before thought about ghosts or spirits the whole scene made my hair stand on end," Manchester-based Annette said.

"I just had the feeling I was being watched. It was a really eerie feeling although I stood and stared at the windows for several minutes I couldn't see anybody but I really had the feeling I was being watched.

"The house is empty with old newspapers piled up outside and it's clear there is nobody there. But I couldn't shake off the feeling.

"I didn't see anything at the time and I asked my son to stand over the other side of the street and take a photograph.

"It was only when I got home and looked at the photos that I realised there was a face in the window of a baby. It's so clear it's impossible to deny it's there," she added.

Annette had been in Austria visiting family when she decided to go to the notorious Fritzl family home.

This picture - taken as a curtain in a shut window billowed to one side - shows what looks like a baby's face seemingly peering out at Annette.

It was taken by her son Oliver, 13, who was on the opposite side of the street.

Annette - who works for Victim Support - said: "I was really shocked like millions of others when I read the story. I couldn't stop thinking about what Elisabeth Fritzl had gone through and the incredible will to survive that she must have had.

"In my job I come across victims of crime but nothing could prepare me for the feeling at this house."

Annette is the same age as Elisabeth and her young son is the same age as the twin son Michael, who Fritzl allowed to die in the underground jail after he was born with breathing complications.

Fritzl - who was jailed for Michael's murder - tossed the infant's body into the incinerator rather than give him a dignified burial. Another child died when Elisabeth miscarried during her decades in the dungeon where she gave birth to seven children by her pervert father, now in jail for life.

Annette told how she felt drawn to the house by her bond with Elisabeth.

"I was in Austria to visit my family and I knew I had to go to the house and see it. I walked from the train station and when I reached Ybbsstraße my heart started pounding and my legs turned to jelly.

"Although it's supposed to be a busy road I didn't see any traffic while I was there. It was as quiet as a grave," she explained.

"I looked down the street and I could see the house instantly. It just looked so normal," she said.

Austrian Times

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