Horrific abuse in Tyrol: Three-year-old child dies of starvation
In Tyrol, Austria, the death of three-year-old Elias M. led to a life sentence for his parents after a shocking case of torture, starvation, and confinement. Elias, who was supposed to have recently turned five, died in May 2024 due to severe malnutrition.
The trial in the Innsbruck Regional Court revealed that the parents, both 27 years old, isolated and abused their son for five months. Prosecutors described the child's suffering as "hellish," as he was held in dark rooms, beaten, restrained with plastic straps, and given very little food. Surveillance cameras were also installed to monitor his suffering.
The parents' motivation came from a sick imagination: they believed that a demon named "Dorothea" lived inside Elias. They thought that feeding or dressing him made the demon stronger, so they left him to starve and freeze to death. Text messages and chats showed that they continuously reinforced this belief and mocked the child, referring to him as "it" and other derogatory names that stripped him of his humanity.
Medical experts testified that Elias, despite being a physically healthy child, had become so emaciated that he weighed only four kilograms, the size of a four-month-old infant. Forensic doctor Elke Duberentz described his face as "the face of an old man" and his body as "just bones and skin," with only slight irritation on his wrists and ankles. His sisters showed no signs of abuse or malnutrition.
The court sentenced both parents to life imprisonment, and the mother was detained in a forensic psychiatric hospital due to her ongoing and severe mental disorder. Experts concluded that both were capable of distinguishing right from wrong, although the father acted under emotional dependency on his wife and actively participated in the abuse of the child. This case shocked the Tyrol region and highlighted the extreme consequences of child abuse and neglect.