You Must Be Crazy

So by now we all have heard about the crazy dude who locked his daughter in the basement for over 20 years, fathered all seven of her children, kept half of them in the basement dungeon with her and half he brought up to the real world to be raised by he and his wife, who by the way had no idea her daughter and grandchildren were being held hostage in her basement. For over 20 YEARS.

So rather than repeat the exciting details of this story, just click here for the whole shebang.

What I'd like to ponder here is how, exactly something like this happens. I'd like to know how a sprightly young 15 year old who probably has a set of lungs on her like a yodeler manages to remain a secret with no one - not even her own mother living above her - figuring out the truth. I'd like to ponder how in 24 years, not a single escape is attempted. There are rapists and murderers in the toughest maximum security prisons who manage to escape - c'mon, Prison Break anyone? - but this girl can't even escape from her own basement?? She's not chained down. They show those freakish pictures of a little mini apartment down there in dungeon land. A tiny bathroom, a dollhouse kitchen...showers, cooking...where the hell is the smoke from the stove going? No aromas coming from that pot, hmm? She births seven children down there. No screams, no audible cries from the babies, money being spent on clothing and food and necessities one might assume he was providing them with to some degree, and wifey doesn't notice any weird bank depletion's? Like, wouldn't you kinda know if you were feeding 9 mouths instead of five? Or at that point does it just all sort of blend together.

I just don't get it. If someone were in my basement, I'd know about it. If my daughter and 3 of her children were down there, FOR OVER TWO DECADES, I think there would have been some moments here or there where I would have suspected such a crime. Who doesn't go in their basement for 24 years?

Some thing's rotten in Austria.