There is still great ambiguity about the family that, for many years, seems to have lived in isolation on a farm in the Dutch Ruinerwold. On Wednesday, a 58-year-old man of Austrian origin was arrested by police, suspected of keeping the family locked in Smot's will.

But now the police are reversing the original information.

"It doesn't seem like the six people were held captive," police spokesman Gretje Hartstra told German Focus.

However, the police do not know why the family, which consists of five siblings aged 16-25 and their father, lived for many years isolated from the outside world. The police also do not want to confirm information that they should have belonged to a sect, which the Austrian newspaper Krone previously reported.

It is unclear if they could move freely

The story was told after a 25-year-old man - the eldest son of the sibling - appeared on Sunday night at a pub in the Ruinerwold community. He then told the bar owner that he, along with other family members, had been kept locked up in a secret room on a farm for several years.

Police were alerted and when they visited the farm they found the man's siblings and two other men, one of whom was reported to be the sibling's father. According to media reports, he was asleep after a stroke, but police have yet to confirm paternity or his possible medical condition.

The other man, a 58-year-old of Austrian origin known in the Dutch media as "Josef B", was arrested by police and later arrested on suspicion of human rape and bodily harm. According to the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, this is a carpenter with a workshop in the nearby town of Meppel, who has been a tenant in the farm.

According to the Reuters news agency, the 58-year-old will face a judge sometime during Thursday. It is still unclear how the new data will affect the detention.

"Put in the same room"

Another question mark is whether the family lived in a smaller area of ​​the farm or whether they have moved freely in the house and in the yard.

- When we came to the house last Sunday they all sat together in the same room. But we do not yet know if this is where they have lived all these years, says police spokesman Gretje Hartstra.