The Dutch police have found six people in a remote farm in the northeast of the country who may have stayed indoors for nine years. It is about a father and his five now grown-up children. Another man who rented the farm was arrested. It is now being investigated whether that man from Austria has locked up the family for all those years. The family would have waited for & #8220; the end of time & #8221 ;.
The police were called in after a tip from a café boss who had a conversation with a 25-year-old "strange customer" who said that he was one of the residents of the building, that he had not been outside for nine years, and that he and his family needed help.
The police searched the farm. There was a staircase behind a cupboard in the living room to an enclosed space where six adults were found. It turned out to be a father and five children from 18 to 25 years old. The father appeared to have had a cerebral infarction a few years ago and was lying in bed. The family had separated itself from the outside world and lived fully self-sufficient, thanks to a large vegetable garden and a goat.
In the case, the 58-year-old tenant of the house was also arrested because he refused to cooperate in the investigation. According to Dutch media, this is a man of Austrian descent who worked as a handyman who also occasionally went shopping. What his precise relationship was with the family is now being investigated.
The mother of the family would have died a long time ago and would not have moved to the remote house on the farmyard in Drenthe nine years ago. The family has been housed in a recreational park for the time being. Many questions remain for the authorities. For example, it is still unclear whether the family was detained or voluntarily on the farm.