Have you ever been alone and had the feeling you were being watched?
It's easy to let your imagination get carried away, and to imagine yourself falling victim
to a killer hiding in the shadows.
But this nightmare scenario became a reality for the Gruber family in 1922, when they were
murdered by someone who had possibly been secretly living in their home.
The murders at Hinterkaifeck Farm have become one of the most infamous crimes in German
history, but the case remains unsolved.
Over the years, dark details have emerged about this seemingly normal family that point
to the possible identity of the suspect, but who really killed the Grubers?
The Hinterkaifeck Farm was located in what is now Bavaria, Germany.
It was inhabited by the Gruber family: Andreas Gruber, his wife Cazilia, their daughter Viktoria,
Viktoria's son Josef and her daughter Cazilia, who was named after her grandmother.
The family lived in relative isolation and were not well liked by the community.
It was well known that Andres was abusive to both his wife and his children, and there
were rumors that he had had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Viktoria, which
resulted in the birth of young Josef.
The Grubers had a maid who one day quit unexpectedly.
When asked why she quit, she stated that she thought the house was haunted.
She would hear noises in the attic, footsteps, the sound of a man talking, and other strange
noises.
At first Andreas dismissed the maid's claims as hysteria but eventually he began to hear
the noises himself...
During a snowstorm in early March of 1922, Andreas discovered large footprints in the
snow.
They originated from the surrounding forest and led all the way to the farm.
He frantically searched the house for an intruder but found no one.
What he did find, was a strange newspaper on his porch that belonged to no one in his
family.
One day he also saw a man standing at the edge of the woods looking toward the farm.
On March 30, Andreas found scratches on the lock of his toolshed, as if someone had tried
to pick it.
On March 31, 1922, the family's new maid arrived.
Her name was Maria, and along with the rest of the family, she would be dead in a matter
of hours.
The dead bodies of the family were first discovered on April 4th, when the townspeople became
concerned after having not seen any of the Grubers for days.
The bodies of Andreas, Cazilia, Viktoria and young Cazilia were found stacked on top of
each other in the barn and covered with hay.
They had all suffered severe blows to the head, but Viktoria seemed to have taken the
most damage.
There were also signs that Viktoria had been strangled.
Maria was killed in her bedroom, and Josef was bludgeoned while sleeping on a cot in
his mother's room.
The murder weapon was a mattock, which is a digging tool similar to a pickaxe, although
this was not discovered until later when the farm was being torn down.
It was found hidden in a secret compartment.
It's unclear in what order the family members were killed, but it's believed that the killer
lured each family member into the barn one by one.
They all likely succumbed to their injuries quickly, except for young Cazilia, who likely
lived for hours after being attacked.
She tore out tufts of her hair as she lay next to the dead bodies of her family members.
Whoever killed the Grubers stayed in the house for days after the crime.
Although the deaths were though to have occurred on March 31st, neighbors saw smoke billowing
from the chimney for days after, and someone had tended to the animals.
There was also evidence that someone had recently been eating meals in the house.
Some reports even state that one of the beds was still warm when the house was first searched.
There's been many theories about the identity of the killer.
Robbery wasn't a motive, since all of the Gruber's valuables were undisturbed.
Suspicion fell on a former lover of Viktoria called Lorenz Schlittenbauer.
Viktoria claimed that Schlittenbauer was the father of Josef, even though most people,
even Schlittenbauer himself, knew that Josef was likely the product of Viktoria's incestuous
relationship with her father.
Viktoria had been asking Schlittenbauer for alimony and it's possible that he lashed out
in an act of revenge.
Schlittenbauer was one of the members of the search party that found the bodies, and other
members recalled how he seemed unaffected by the carnage.
But if Schlittenbauer was the killer, wouldn't his family and other members of the community
have noticed him missing?
After all, in such a small town, word travels fast.
It seems unlikely that Schlittenbauer could have stayed at Hinterkaifek for days after
the murder without anyone knowing.
And how would Schlittenbauer have known about the secret compartment where Andres kept the
mattock?
They were not close friends by any means, and even relatives of the Grubers were unaware
of it.
It's possible Viktoria could have told Schlittenbauer about the compartment while they were dating,
and the fact that Viktoria received the most damage also indicates that whoever the killer
was had a personal grudge against her.
Another theory is that all of the noises and strange occurrences at the farm in the days
before the murders point to the possibility that someone had been staying at Hinterkaifek
without the Gruber's knowledge.
Could it be possible that this unseen stranger committed the murders?
Some people have even suggested that the intruder could have been Viktoria's ex husband Karl
Gabriel, who was supposedly killed in WWI but his body was never discovered.
Years after the crime a couple of witnesses would come forward with a story about meeting
a mysterious soldier who claimed responsibility for the murders.
However, Karl Gabriel's fellow soldiers reported seeing him die, so it's unlikely that he faked
his death.
Authorities questioned almost a hundred suspects, and the heads of the bodies were even decapitated
so that they could be examined by psychics.
To this day, the murders at Hinterkaifek remain unsolved.
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