Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Wednesday Weird: The Hinterkaifeck Massacre

On April 4, 1922, in Bavaria, a group of locals went to the Hinterkaifeck farm to see why the family members hadn't been showing up for school or church. To their shock, they found Andreas Gruber, his wife, their 35-year-old daughter, two grandchildren, and a maid had been murdered with a pickaxe.

So, terrible, yes of course. But this is where things start to get weird.

The family had been missing/dead for three days, but the cows had been milked, food had been cooked, and neighbors had seen smoke rising from the chimney. Which meant only one thing:
someone had been living on the farm after they killed the family.





Even before the murders some strange things had been happening. Days before the murders, Gruber told neighbors he had found a strange set of footprints leading from the forest to the farm. There were also strange noises in the attic, newspapers appearing, and a set of house keys went missing.

And these weren't necessarily new weird happenings. Sixth months earlier a maid had quit her job at because she thought the place was haunted.

Investigators determined the killer had lured the adults one by one into the barn. Finally, he entered the house and killed the youngest child and the maid in their beds. But that was all they could figure out. There was no motive. It couldn't be a robbery because a fair amount of cash had been left alone.

Andreas Gruber had been intensely disliked by his neighbors for being a jerk and an ass, but the fact that the killer had seemed to live hidden in their farm for so long pretty much ruled out any local suspects.



The case remained unsolved, mostly because the investigators lost evidence (including the heads of the victims) and because of WWII. Though, one of the stronger theories is that military political extremist may have taken over a temporary secure hideout.

Thoughts or theories?

 

7 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

1922 was not that long after the end of WWI. I bet it was some deserters or something.

There are a lot of them in Velen.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

They lost their heads? That's some lousy police work.

Maria Zannini said...

Obviously these people didn't have a dog. I can't have strangers even a hundred feet from me before my crazy hounds start barking.

Always trust a dog. :)

Rena said...

wait, LOST THE HEADS? now, ikm no expert on the matter, but the police don't generally seperate the heads from the bodies in the course of work. like, were they trying to save space or something? also this is clearly the work of a spy, just sayin.

Rena said...

wait, LOST THE HEADS? now, ikm no expert on the matter, but the police don't generally seperate the heads from the bodies in the course of work. like, were they trying to save space or something? also this is clearly the work of a spy, just sayin.

Crystal Collier said...

Wow. Now that's a mystery. Crazy stuff.

Hart Johnson said...

WOW! I like the idea of spies... maybe somebody hiding out in the barn for a long time and are finally discovered, so they kill that guy... somebody investigates, so they kill her... Then once everyone is dead they can use the house for a while... Definitely interesting.

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