Man arrested in DR accused of kidnap and fathering 8 children with her
By Gerard Couzens From Daily Mail
The Caribbean Fritzl: Man arrested in Dominican Republic accused of kidnapping teenager and fathering EIGHT children with her during 12-year captivity
Maribel Altagracia Lopez spoke yesterday after escaping isolated house
One of her children died while Jose Altagracio Lantigua held her captive
Claimed he took the youngster away from her son could be buried
The eight children are said to be between eight months and 11 years old
All were born in the property in the municipality of Pedro Band
Police in the Caribbean have arrested a man accused of kidnapping a teenager and fathering eight children with her during a terrifying 12-year hostage ordeal.
Maribel Altagracia Lopez spoke for the first time yesterday after escaping from the isolated house in the Dominican Republic she claims to have kept in.
In echoes of the nightmares suffered by Elizabeth Fritzl in Austria and the three women kidnapped in Cleveland by Ariel Castro, she revealed how one of her children died while she was kept captive.
Maribel Altagracia Lopez spoke for the first time yesterday after escaping from the isolated house in the Dominican Republic she claims to have kept in
Maribel, now 26, said her alleged kidnapper – named as Jose Altagracio Lantigua – took the youngster away from her to bury in nearby wasteland.
She told Dominican Republic newspaper El Dia: ‘I was in the house when my son died.
‘Jose prepared the burial and took him away.
‘He locked me in with my other children and buried him in land near to the house.’
All eight children, aged between eight months and eleven, are said to have born at the isolated house in the municipality of Pedro Brand.
Maribel said her alleged kidnapper stopped her seeing family and friends after persuading an aunt to let her go with her him so she could work as his maid.
She said: ‘I went with him because I thought I was going to work but he took me to a house that was being built and has always been abandoned in a community called Loma de los Cocos in Pedro Brand where he sexually abused me.’
She claimed Jose forced her to hide in a locked room whenever anyone came to the house and said none of the children had ever been to school.
She escaped during a row between her alleged kidnapper and a daughter he is said to have fathered with another woman.
Similarities: The case in the Caribbean has similarities to the Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro (left), who killed himself in prison last year, and Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter captive in Austria for 24 years
‘I just want to be left alone with my children, not suffer anymore and not have to return with him,’ she said from the shelter where she is now living with her kids.
Her alleged kidnapper, who is protesting his innocence, is currently being held on remand in prison.
Elizabeth Fritzl was held captive for 24 years in the basement of her large family home in the town of Amstetten, Austria.
The abuse by her dad Josef resulted in the birth of seven children and one miscarriage.
Four of her children were raised by their mum in captivity and the other three were raised by Josef, now serving life imprisonment, and his wife Rosemarie in the upstairs home.
Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro killed himself in prison last year after being sentenced to life plus 1,000 years for imprisoning three women in his Cleveland home for a decade while repeatedly raping and assaulting them.
He fathered a girl with one of his victims.
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