Hi LadyLee, I've been following this story since last night...I agree, this is extremely sick...
I have a real problem with the idea that the wife had no idea her husband was keepin ghis daughter downstairs.
From what the article said last night, he had control over his wife (through mental and physical abuse) that when he told her not to go near the cellar she "obeyed".
Who bought the clothes? Who bought the food? Diapers? What about paying for the extra heat required down in the cell where they lived?
There was a toilet, a tub, a sink. I can hear when my neighbors flush the toilet or fill the tub with water. Couldn't she hear these things? How could she NOT know? Or was the vault so sound proof that running water could not be heard?
The article from last night said that it was sound proof and they were investigating to see how sound proof it was. I was thinking last night...but how did he sound proof it without people knowing?
My speculations are, (this is assuming the mother is actually innocent) that he constructed it while she was out of the house. The thing with that would be, how would the neighbors not know...though, him constructing something may have not been that "big" of a deal since people do work on their houses from time to time.
She had to know when he went down there or disappeared for a while/ Wouldn't you be curious what he was doing down there?
Where did she think he got those 3 babies from that he got her to raise? A note that they were from her daughter who didn't want them?
He could have went during the time his wife was out...(speculations only)
As far as the 3 babies are concerned...apparently (from what the article said) his daughter tried to run away when she was 15? or 18? years old because he had abused her. She left a letter saying she was leaving and not to look for her. He hand cuffed her in the cellar and hence this all started. He used her letter and told police she had ran off to be with a cult and he had no idea where she went to. When she had one of the babies (I think it said in '94) he made it look like she had "dropped" the baby at their door and so the creep and his wife "adopted" the baby...he did this two other times hence making it possible for them to "adopt" the three. There was a total of 7 but one baby died at an infant age...one of the twins... (now this makes me sick) he tossed it in the furnace.
The child that ended up being sick was one of the ones living upstairs, going to school, playing musical instruments...then when she fell sick they HAD to get to the real mother (the one stuck in the dungeon whom supposedly had ran off to a cult)..so he had to bring her up in order to save one of the ones that was living up around them.
I'll try to find that article from last night...it is VERY sick and disturbing...from what the article said, they were physically healthy other than they were extremely pale. I can't imagine how they are going to help her mentally though.
She had agreed to help the police (not sure if it was saving the other child or what...) if they kept him away from her and made sure her children were safe...So sad!