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Josef Fritzl, the Austrian rapist who imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered her seven children, may face a murder charge over the death of one of his newborn sons, whose corpse he admitted "getting rid of" in a boiler furnace.
Yesterday, judges ordered that Fritzl, 73, who was remanded in custody at the end of last month, should be detained for a further month while Austrian prosecutors complete the list of charges they intend to press against him.
Fritzl has confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, hostage underground from the age of 18 onwards and to fathering her children by raping her almost once every three days because he was sexually obsessed with her.
He has also told police one of his children, a baby twin named Michael, died of a mystery illness.
In his first confession after his arrest, he told police that the boy was born - like all the other children, without receiving any medical attention - on April 28, 1996.
Fritzl said he died three days later and has admitted that he incinerated the baby's corpse in the wood-fired boiler that supplied his heating system to "get rid of it".
Gerhard Sedaleck, a spokesman for the Lower Austrian state prosecutors' office, said Fritzl would be formally questioned over the next few days. "If we establish that he could see that the child was severely ill but still failed to summon help, then there are grounds for bringing murder charges against him on the basis of criminal negligence," he said.
- INDEPENDENT
