THE GRUESOME TRUE STORY OF THE UNSOLVED HINTERKAIFECK MURDERS

On March 31, 1922, a mysterious killer murdered a German family of five — Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber, their daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria's children Cäzilia and Josef — and the family's maid Maria Baumgartner. To this day, the killer has never been identified.

The family farmhouse where the Hinterkaifeck Murders would take place.

About a week before March 31, 1922, farmer Andreas Gruber noticed something strange on his farmstead, known locally as Hinterkaifeck. Outside, he found footsteps leading from the woods behind the farm leading towards the home — but none leading away from it.

Gruber never reported the footsteps to the police, as the small German farm, located about 43 miles north of Munich, was a relatively quiet and safe place. If he had, the Grubers might have avoided the gruesome and mysterious crime that befell them.

On March 31, an unknown person — or potentially multiple people — killed each of the six members of the Gruber household. Andreas, his wife Cäzilia, their adult daughter Viktoria, and their granddaughter Cäzilia Gabriel were all lured to the barn and slaughtered inside with a pickaxe. The family maid, Maria, and their baby grandson Josef were murdered in the home in their bedchambers.

And over 100 years later, the mysterious Hinterkaifeck murders remain unsolved.

The Strange Events At The Hinterkaifeck Farm

Prior to the Hinterkaifeck murders, there had been a number of strange occurrences on the farmstead that could have indicated that something was afoot.

The year before, the family’s maid had quit, with rumors spreading that she left out of fear that the house was haunted after hearing odd noises in the attic, according to Mental Floss.

Then, in March 1922, Andreas Gruber found a newspaper from Munich on the farmstead — one that he had no recollection of buying. At first, he believed that it may have been a mix-up on the part of the postman, but it was later revealed that no one nearby subscribed to this specific paper.

Of course, there were also the footprints that Gruber found less than a week before the murders. Neighbors later recalled that Gruber had also been complaining about hearing footsteps in the attic, though when he went to investigate, he found no one.

Still, no one could have predicted the horrific events that would soon follow.

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Eventually, the Gruber family found a new maid. Maria Baumgartner arrived at the family’s farm on the ill-fated day of March 31, 1922, dropped off by her sister — likely the last person to have seen the family and their new maid alive.

That very evening, the members of the Gruber family and Maria Baumgartner would be murdered, but it was days before this horrific scene was discovered.

The next day, a couple of locals stopped by the Hinterkaifeck farm but did not find it overly suspicious that the family did not answer — they had a reputation for keeping to themselves.

Days passed. Mail continued to pile up. Alarmingly, young Cäzilia Gabriel had failed to show up for school, with no excuse from her parents. The family, who would normally be found at church every Sunday, also failed to show up for worship.

Eventually, word began to spread, and on April 4, according to an archived post from the German site Donaukurier, a neighbor by the name of Lorenz Schlittenbauer arrived at the property along with two other men to look for the Grubers.

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