The Hinterkaifeck Murders

On the evening of March 31, 1922, as darkness fell over the isolated farmstead of Hinterkaifeck in Bavaria, Germany, one of the most chilling and perplexing murder cases in European criminal history was about to unfold. What makes this case particularly disturbing isn't just the brutal slaying of an entire family, but the terrifying circumstances surrounding their deaths and the fact that, a century later, the murders remain unsolved.

Andreas Gruber, a 63-year-old farmer, had noticed strange occurrences in the days leading up to the tragedy. On March 28, 1922, he mentioned to neighbors that he had discovered footprints in the snow leading from the edge of the forest to his home, but none leading back. Even more unsettling, he had heard footsteps in the attic and found an unfamiliar newspaper on the property. Small items had gone missing. Keys disappeared. Someone had been inside their home.

Despite these warning signs, Andreas never reported anything to the authorities. Perhaps he dismissed his concerns as paranoia or was too proud to admit his unease. This decision would prove fatal.

The Gruber household consisted of Andreas; his 72-year-old wife Cäzilia; their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel, 35; Viktoria's children, Cäzilia, 7, and Josef, 2; and their new maid, Maria Baumgartner, 44, who had just arrived at the farm hours before the murders occurred.

On April 1, 1922, neighbors became concerned when young Cäzilia missed school for several days and no smoke rose from the farmhouse chimney. When they arrived to check on the family around 9:00 AM on April 4, they discovered a horrific scene that would haunt the region for generations.

The bodies of Andreas, his wife, their daughter, and her daughter were found stacked neatly in the barn, covered with hay. Each had been killed by blows to the head from what appeared to be a mattock—a tool similar to a pickaxe. Inside the house, investigators found the body of the toddler, Josef, killed in his crib, and the new maid, Maria, murdered in her bedroom.

Inspector Georg Reingruber from the Munich Police Department arrived by noon and immediately noticed something that sent chills down his spine: someone had fed the cattle after the murders. Food had been eaten from the kitchen. Smoke had been seen coming from the chimney over the weekend.

"The perpetrator or perpetrators remained at the scene for days following the crime," Reingruber noted in his initial report dated April 5, 1922. "They slept in the beds, prepared meals in the kitchen, and tended to the livestock as if they belonged there."

The post-mortem examination, completed on April 6, 1922, by Dr. Johann Baptist Aumüller, determined that the family had been murdered between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM on Friday, March 31. The cause of death for all six victims was trauma to the skull, likely from the same farm tool. Most disturbing was the detail that young Cäzilia had torn out chunks of her own hair while lying in the barn for hours after the attack, indicating she had survived the initial blow only to die slowly beside her slain family members.

Local farmer Lorenz Schlittenbauer, who discovered the bodies with other villagers, came under brief suspicion. At 10:30 AM on April 4, 1922, he had separated from the search party and entered the house alone, claiming later he wanted to check on little Josef. Some investigators found his familiarity with the farmhouse suspicious, particularly since he may have once had a relationship with Viktoria and believed Josef might be his son.

Over 100 suspects were eventually questioned, but no one was ever charged. The murder weapon was never found. No motive was ever established with certainty. Was it robbery? Revenge? Something more sinister?Adding to the mystery, on September 15, 1922, investigators learned that shortly before the murders, Andreas had told a neighbor about seeing the former maid around the property. This maid had left six months earlier, claiming the house was haunted.

By October 1922, with no conclusive evidence and no confessions, the case grew cold. In a final, macabre twist, the victims' heads were sent to Munich for further study but were lost during the chaos of World War II. On April 1, 1923, exactly one year after the discovery, local pastor Emanuel Burgartz noted in his diary: "The shadow of Hinterkaifeck hangs over this community like a shroud. The children have nightmares. The adults lock their doors. No one walks alone after dark." The farmhouse itself was demolished in 1923, as no one would live there. The site where it once stood remains empty to this day.

In 2007, students from the Police Academy in Fürstenfeldbruck reexamined the case using modern criminal investigation techniques. Their conclusion, released on November 11, 2007: they knew who the killer was but would not reveal the name out of respect for the perpetrator's descendants, who still lived in the area.

The massacre at Hinterkaifeck stands as a grim reminder that sometimes the most terrifying stories are not fiction but reality—cases where evil enters a home, commits unimaginable acts, and then walks away, leaving behind nothing but questions that echo through the decades.