﻿Whenever the topic of cold cases comes up, there are a number of creepy crimes that can come
to mind. If you look into modern-day Waidhofen, Bavaria, Germany, and travel back about a century,
you will find what can be described as one of the grisliest unsolved crimes in German history.
The Hinterkaifeck Murders is a case that’s been seeking justice since its opening in 1922.
A century has come and gone with no leads, leaving this gruesome tale at a standstill,
doomed to stagnation. There have been over 100 people questioned, with the most recent being
in the 1980s, but nothing has led to a break or conclusion in this unsolved mass murder.
There seem to be no answers to the mysterious and heinous deaths of six people.
The monstrous use of a mattock, an unknown culprit living in the farmhouse for days after his act,
this horror story really occurred to one household, recorded in the history of a once small
town in Germany. With a lead-up that reads almost like a traditional horror film, the Gruber family
learned all too late that the bumps and steps in those unexpected places should be investigated.
This murder-of-six case has remained unsolved for a century presents more questions than answers.
The most prominent question of all in this case bears into you and pushes you to wonder:
Who killed the Gruber household? During the time prior to the crimes,
with investigations suggesting up to 6 months prior, there had been signs something wasn’t
quite right with Hinterkaifeck and the property it resided on. In what now is obvious in hindsight,
it was 6 months before the event the former maid quit her position suddenly.
She claimed to have heard sounds in the attic and voices, the disembodied sounds leading her
to believe the property was haunted. Between the maid quitting and the horrific deeds,
Andreas Gruber – the patriarch of the Gruber household – told neighbors about
the noises resembling footsteps he had been hearing in his attic.
For many, this would lead them to check their attic for intruders because, in modern-day times,
it is easy to imagine someone doing something that bizarre. However, these were different times
and the town was small and quiet, so the Gruber household paid it no more than a passing glance.
Andreas would also mention finding a newspaper he did not remember purchasing, nor did it belong to
anyone in the house. He even checked to see if it belonged to a neighbor, but no one was subscribed.
It became equally concerning, if not more so, when a pair of the household keys went missing.
It was about a week before the crimes when Gruber mentioned a situation most concerning to his
neighbor, citing an occasion that had occurred around the time. Gruber told a neighbor about
footprints leading from the woods to the farmhouse in the snow, but none leading away from it.
He was offered a gun by a neighbor but declined the offer. Gruber was convinced the area was too
safe and quiet to hold trouble like that. He didn’t even bother reporting the circumstances
to the police, leaving his concerns stagnant with his neighbors until after his demise.
In the house on March 31st, 1922, there were six people – four adults and two children. The
owner of the property was Viktoria, the widowed daughter of Andreas and Cazilia.
She was widowed when her husband died in World War I. On the property with Viktoria and her
parents were Viktoria’s two children. One was a 7-year-old daughter who was named after her
grandmother, bearing the name Cazilia as well, and the other being a 2-year-old son
named Josef. The sixth person was a maid who had just begun working that day, Maria Baumgartner.
The Gruber household had already been under the town’s judgment before this brutality.
Viktoria and Andreas were locked away for an incestuous relationship in 1915
and detained again before the start of the 1920s. Though they may have been the center
of town gossip, no one could recall anyone who would want to cause the family any harm.
Back in the 1920s, the collection and processing of evidence for criminal cases were early in
development. While things such as eyewitnesses and plausible theories had been around,
the first police laboratory wasn’t established until 1910, and modern-day options like DNA
testing weren’t due for another six decades. Due to the lack of these tools, the details
provided on the case aren’t as detailed as they would be today. There is no exact detailing for
a time of death found in the records, and no evidence of use is associated with the case.
The details we do have for the Hinterkaifeck Murders are as follows:
Between the evening of March 31st, 1922 and the morning of April 1st, 1922, an unknown assailant
murdered all six occupants of the Gruber home in cold blood. While the time of death is not
specific, it is assumed three of the adults and one of the children were lured out into
the barn and attacked. After these four attacks, the assailant went into the home and murdered the
fourth adult and the second child. All victims were believed to have died quickly except one.
The three adults to have met their untimely demise in the barn were Andreas Gruber, his wife Cazilia,
and their daughter Viktoria. It’s believed the murder weapon of choice was a mattock,
a farm tool with one end similar to a pickaxe and another to an ax.
Andreas suffered severe injuries to his face, with bones protruding from the damage. He is
believed to have died during or after the crime. His wife Cazilia suffered seven blows to the head,
body showing signs of strangulation and bruising near her right eye.
The matriarch is believed to have died either during or after the assault.
Viktoria was subject to a savage attack, the assailant brutalizing her with multiple
wounds to the head, including mattock wounds alongside blunt force damage. The assault led
to her skull smashing, and she is believed to have died during or after the attacks.
The fourth victim in the barn was a child, Viktoria’s young daughter Cazilia.
Like her elders, young Cazilia would receive severe injuries to her head, the horrors truly
unspeakable. Unlike her elders, Cazilia would not die quickly. She would be alive for hours
afterward, traumatized and helpless, proven by the clumps of her own hair found within her fingers.
After these savage attacks, the assailant covered the bodies in hay
and went into the home to murder the two remaining people. The fourth adult, Maria Baumgartner,
had just begun working at the residence that day and was murdered in her bed-chamber with
blows to the head. The sixth victim was the second child of the household,
Viktoria’s son Josef. Baby Josef would meet a similar fate as the rest of his family,
suffering a heavy blow to the head while asleep in his bassinet.
For days after these crimes, the monster behind it all would live in the home of their victims.
They would keep the chimney running while also attending to the farm chores,
keeping the dog fed and the cows milked. The community began to note how they hadn’t seen
their neighbors when the family failed to appear at events. When young Cazilia missed a second day
of school with no excuse and the mail began to pile up, a team of neighbors went to inspect.
The three men who went to inspect were Lorenz Schlittenbauer, Jakob Sigl, and Michael Poll. They
went to check out the home on April 4th, four days after the attack is assumed to have taken place.
The bodies in the barn were the first bodies found, soon followed by the discovery of Josef
and Maria in the home. Lorenz was a close neighbor, and many sources speak of him
being the father of young Josef, having had a relationship with Viktoria before the events.
When police arrived, they initially suspected a burglary took a dark turn, but this theory would
fall apart when large sums of money were found in the home, all undisrupted from the searching
of any thief. The police arrived at a contaminated scene, anyway, with neighbors being unforgivably
nosy on the matter. The perpetrator was either long gone or blended in with the
crowd by the time authorities got on scene. After the discovery of the brutalized bodies,
police would go on to question over 100 people. They worked hard trying to solve
the case but would gain no traction. A century later, this case remains unsolved visually.
Many have their own beliefs of what happened and who committed these heinous acts. Many ponder an
unlikely theory involving Viktoria’s late husband, a man who died during his service in World War I.
This theory presents a tale in which the man survived his time in the war and made his
way home. He became enraged upon arriving home to find his wife with a child by another man.
This theory has no base, though, as many servicemen have accounted to seeing the body of
the widow’s deceased husband mangled by a mine. A second theory involves Andreas and Viktoria’s
incestual relationship, painting the scene as a murder-suicide. This theory explores
the idea of Andreas snapping and murdering his family before killing himself as well. While it
tells an interesting story, the investigation proved none of the wounds were self-inflicted,
destroying that theory before it truly began. A third theory, one many view as the most likely,
involves neighbor Schlittenbauer. There are some recounts of Viktoria threatening to sue
Schlittenbauer for support of Josef, mentioning Schlittenbauer as angry after these threats.
It is reported that Schlittenbauer didn’t even think Josef was his. This would certainly give
a motive for Schlittenbauer to murder the family to leave no witnesses.
Despite the hard work the police tried to do and the number of people around the property, the
case was quick to go cold. About a year after the crime, the farmhouse was torn down and replaced
with a memorial commemorating the family. It has been a century since the atrocities
were committed, but we are genuinely no closer to a conclusive answer.
Due to the lack of development in evidential testing and crime scene investigation,
it is incredibly likely the Hinterkaifeck Murders will never be officially solved.
That isn’t to say it has not been reopened and revisited by detectives in the century since.
There have been many times that they followed up on tips, including over a half-century later.
During the reexamination of the case, experts seem to come to the same decision conclusively, but
out of respect for living descendants, the prime suspect’s name has never been made publicized.
Even if someone was expected today, there is no possible way of proving guilt beyond doubt
in this long-cold case. Because evidence such as DNA wasn’t tested until the 1980s, there was no
need for crime scene investigators to collect or preserve the scene at all besides photos.
Often reported is that the Gruber family was buried without their heads. It is said the
heads were removed post mortem to be sent for further inspection, including being investigated
by psychics. Police were trying to get any leads they could. Unfortunately, their heads would fail
to make their way back to their bodies and got lost in upheaval during World War II.
Fading more and more into obscurity with every generation born,
the mysterious unsolved murders of the Gruber family may forever remain as such until the end
of time itself. As of today, it is amongst Germany’s creepiest unsolved murder cases.
Who do you think killed the Gruber household? Do you think it was someone
they knew or a complete stranger? Do you think this case will ever be
solved? Comment what you think down below and subscribe for more true crime content!