Girl in the Basement: Is the movie based on a true story?

Find out if Girl in the Basement is based on real events!
Girl in The Basement is available to stream here. Girl in the Basement is the sad and terrifying story of Sara, a teenager about to turn 18 years old. As soon as she is of age she will want to get away from her father, Don, who controls and mistreats her. But her life is turned upside down when Don imprisons her in the basement of his house. While trying to manipulate his wife Irene into believing she has run away, he would sneakily visit her and torture her in the basement. After twenty years, this painful case is finally exposed to the family.

It is a new film based on the moving case of Elisabeth Fritzl, a young woman who has been held captive by her father for almost 25 years. Like many recent Lifetime films, Girl in the Basement dramatizes the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl , while adding, omitting, and rewriting certain elements of her story.

Regardless of its inaccuracies, Girl in the Basement is a poignant sight, and the true story is even more devastating. What is the true story of Girl in the Basement? Where is Elisabeth Fritzl now? Here is everything you need to know.

The true story of Girl in the Basement
Girl in the Basement is based on the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl, une jeune femme autrichienne qui a été emprisonnée par son père, Josef Fritzl, from 1984 to 2008. Selon Oxygen, le 28 août 1984, Josef a attiré Elisabeth dans le sous- sol de leur maison et lui a placé a chiffon imbibé d'éther Facial. After she passed out, he handcuffed her and locked her in the underground prison. Josef then forced Elisabeth to write a letter to her mother, Rosemarie, telling her that she had left her hometown of Amstetten, Austria, and did not want to be found.

For the next 24 years, Josef sexually assaulted Elisabeth almost every day. In 1988, she had her first child, Kerstin, and then gave birth to six more children, but sadly Michael died three days after birth.

Over the years, Josef pulled some of the children out of the basement and told Rosemarie that Elisabeth had sent them, that she needed help raising them. Rosemarie believed it and they began to receive the children as foundlings.

On April 19, 2008, Elisabeth left the basement for the first time when her eldest daughter, Kerstin, lost consciousness. She returned to the basement shortly after Kerstin was taken to the hospital, but a week later she was taken to the police for questioning after hospital staff expressed their concerns to authorities. After many hours, Elisabeth detailed her moving story, and on April 26, her father was arrested.

Less than a year after his arrest, Josef pleaded guilty to murder charges for his negligence in connection with Michael's death. In addition to the charges related to slavery, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment of Elisabeth. He was sentenced to life in prison at Garsten Abbey, where he still resides today.

Where is Elisabeth Fritzl today?
Elisabeth Fritzl received a new name after the trial to ensure her privacy, and now lives with her six children in an unidentified town in Austria known to the media as 'Village X'.

"The children, now 17 to 31 years old, sleep in rooms whose doors are permanently open after having undergone weekly therapy sessions to eliminate the trauma they have suffered inside the cellar." “His two-story family home is kept under constant surveillance by CCTV cameras and patrolled by security guards, while any stranger caught loitering can expect to be stopped by police in the surrounding areas. Minutes later".

elisabeth Fritzl is an Austrian woman who survived the abduction of her father, Josef Fritzl, before escaping in 2008. Her story inspired the Lifetime movie "The Girl in the Basement." Her father was sentenced to life in prison in 2009. Elisabeth Fritzl, who was raped and assaulted by her father, gave birth to seven children while she was detained in the basement.

The Lifetime movie “The Girl in the Basement” was inspired by real events and the story of Elisabeth Fritzl, but some details were changed. The film was released on February 27, 2021. According to Lifetime, the film tells the story of Sara, who was imprisoned by her father before she turned 18, and was secretly raped and tortured by him for 20 years after he he would tell his wife that he had run away from home. "After decades of captivity, Sara finally escapes and her family discovers the devastating truth about what had been going on for more than 20 years right under her feet," according to Lifetime. The film is set in a city in the United States, rather than Austria.

In real-life horror, Josef Fritzl admitted to holding his daughter captive at his home in Amstetten, according to The Guardian. Elisabeth Fritzl, born April 6, 1966, was held captive from 1984 to 2008, the newspaper reported. Just like in the movie, she had just turned 18. Her father had abused her since she was 11 years old, she told police.

Three of the children she gave birth were locked in the basement with her, while one died right after birth and the other three were raised by Josef and his wife, Rosemarie, after he told her they were orphans that he had found. The Guardian reported. After Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter fell ill, Josef took her to the hospital for treatment, raising suspicions, according to Time.

Police began investigating, learned of the abuse, and Josef was arrested. A year later, he pleaded guilty to charges of incest, rape, coercion and incarceration, according to The Guardian. He is still serving his life sentence, but in 2019 he was reported to be ill, according to a local newspaper, Österreich.