Austrian Woman Held Prisoner By Father For 24 Years:

Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him.

The 73-year-old father was taken into custody, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, on Sunday.

Authorities found the woman Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, Lower Austria police said in a statement.

The 42-year-old woman told police that her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984.

During the 24 years that followed, she said she was continually abused and gave birth to six children, the statement said. She said she gave birth to twins in 1996 but one died several days later; police said they were investigating.

The photo above shows the house where it all went down. I can't even begin to imagine the emotional scars that this woman bears. She was held for nearly a quarter century. From age 11, to her current age of 42, she was abused on a daily basis. She had six children, inbred of course, with her own father. The room where she was forced to live for all of those years is said to be narrow and no more than five feet in height. Police said she appeared 'greatly disturbed' psychologically and agreed to tell her story only after it was guaranteed that she would never have to see her father again.

Her surviving children range in age from 5 to 20 years old. I'm amazed the older children weren't able to assist her in any way but it appears only three of them lived with her in the tiny cellar. Her father claimed the others had been dropped off on his' doorstep with a note and sent them to live elsewhere. Police only discovered the disturbing situation after one of the older daughters, nearly dead, was dropped off at a local hospital. The children have never seen sunlight or received any sort of education. BBC News has a time-line of events and the disturbing details are all over the wires.