Brazil's Josef Fritzl: Wife kept in cellar 16 years
A CHEATING husband allegedly locked up his wife of 40 years in a “filthy dark” cellar while he lived upstairs with his girlfriend in a case which echoes that of Josef Fritzl.
Joao Batista Groppo, 64, was arrested after his wife Sebastiana, also 64, was found nude, lying on a concrete bed behind a padlocked iron gate in her home’s basement.
The floor of the dungeon in south-east Brazil, where she was kept for up to 16 years, was littered with faeces and dead cockroaches, while shuttered windows were covered in mould.
Police in Sorocaba were tipped off by an anonymous caller, who said she heard crying.
He said he did it as his wife was mentally ill and he feared she would wander off and get lost.
Police said: “The walls were covered with spider webs. It was unfit for animals.”
Fritzl, 75, was jailed for imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in Austria.
