Obscure Occurrences : The Hinterkaifeck Farmhouse Murders

 It was the 31^st of March 1922. Snow had blanketed the fields of Kaifeck, a remote hamlet in South Germany, and Hinterkaifeck, a remote farmstead in Kaifeck, was no exception. The farmstead was made up of one main house and a number of outbuildings, and this looked picturesque against the snowy backdrop.

Hinterkaifeck Farmstead (Source: Medium)

 He had found footprints in the snow leading from the tree line bordering the rear of the farmstead, despite no one from the family venturing out that way. Strangely, there were no footprints leading away. The thought of a possible trespasser, who seemingly vanished without a trace, had left him anxious about the safety of his family. Moreover, strange happenings had been plaguing the farmstead for the previous six months.

Background

 The odd occurrences at the property had commenced in the winter of 1921, and they were first noticed by the live-in maid. One day, while cleaning the house, she noticed strange tapping sounds emanating from the walls around her, seemingly coming from within. In a few moments, a combination of footsteps and disembodied voices originating from the attic adjoined the eerie reverberation. Soon afterwards, Andreas walked into the attic after the complaints of his maid, but he found neither an intruder nor signs to indicate human presence.

 In the days following the incident, the maid often complained about a presence in the attic but Andreas’ inspections proved otherwise, causing the maid quit her job citing the strangeness in the house. However, soon after the maid’s resignation, Andreas and his family also began hearing odd noises emanating from the attic and the walls of the house. Other reported worries included items being moved around, an unfamiliar newspaper arriving at the farm and a set of house keys constantly disappearing.

 Andreas had confided to a neighbour about bewildering occurrences in the house, but he had refused the offer of a gun for protection.

Discovery and Initial Investigation

 Unheeding to these potential warning signs, the Grubers prepared for bed. But unbeknownst to them, they along with Maria Baumgartner, their new maid, would be cruelly slain in cold blood later that very same night.

(Source: Medium)

 Four whole days passed by before the neighbours found the lifeless bodies, concealed under a pile of straw in the barn. Stripped and soaked in each other’s blood, they had been piled one on top of the other. Unfortunately, the time lost between murder and subsequent discovery would hamper the investigation, thus making it impossible to determine the accurate time of their death.

 Information was soon passed to the Mayor of Wangen and on the 5^th of April, the police were finally able to collect their evidence. The police efforts were led by Georg Reingruber, an inspector who had arrived from Munich, and the on-site autopsy was conducted by Dr Johanne Baptist Aumeller. The heads of the victims were sent for special examination but they garnered no significant results. Crime scene evidence suggested that the killings were intended to be quick and precise. Each victim had suffered odious skull, head and facial wounds. Andreas in particular had his cheekbones protruding through the pounded flesh.

 In the cases of the wife Caillia and the daughter Viktoria, strangulation was also discovered to be a factor. The strangulation suggested that either something had not gone as planned, that there could have been the presence of more than one killer, or that the killer was driven by personal motives connected to the women of the house.

 It is reported that Josef, the youngest child, was killed in his bassinet, while the rest of the family were somehow lured into the barn before meeting their demise. Similar to Josef, the family’s maid was also killed in her bed. After the attack, all the bodies were then concealed under the straw, thus hidden from view. Chillingly, one of the children had not been dead by this time.

 Cazillia, Viktoria’s daughter, is believed to have lay bleeding under the straw for a brief period before her death. The poor seven-year-old, whose jaw had been shattered completely, had pulled out clumps of her own hair, possibly due to appalling pain and confusion.

Investigation

 Upon arriving at Hinterkaifeck, inspector Georg and his crew realised that the crime scene had been compromised. Objects had been moved and a number of visitors had been and gone in the past four days. However, the police were still able to record and collect some valuable pieces of evidence from the house.

 Large sums of money were discovered in the house, thus ruling out the possibility of robbery being the primary motive. Also, the lack of food in the household suggested that the killer had been eating meals there. Furthermore, there was evidence of recent disturbance in the attic space, but it was unclear whether the cause was humans or small animals.

 The police also discovered that the cows in the farm had been milked and other animals of the household had been fed even after the murders, suggesting that somebody had been staying in the house afterwards. Statement given by the neighbours further solidify this speculation; they had reported seeing smoke rise from the house’s chimney in the days between the murder and discovery. Georg discovered that visitors to the farm since the murder included a postman who visited on the 1^st and 3^rd of April and a mechanic who had come to repair the feeding machine in the barn on the 4^th of April. In fact, it was the mechanic himself who notified the neighbours about the oddity in the Grubers' household.

 Investigation revealed evidence of an incestuous relationship between Andreas and his daughter Viktoria. The fact was already well-known to the local community and both of them had already been jailed for the offence a few years before. Thus, Andreas’ neighbours disliked him and his family for the shame they had brought upon the region. Furthermore, Andreas was allegedly very outspoken about the incestuous affair, thus making more enemies than friends.

 Despite an extensive search, police initially failed in their attempts to locate a murder weapon and even the use of canine dogs seemed to be less than useful. Almost one year later, when the site was being further cleared, a farmhand named George Siegl identified the weapon as a mattock, a long-handled pickaxe, made by Andreas himself.

Suspects

 It is said that inspector Georg had been haunted by the murders and was determined to nab those responsible. He and his detectives had questioned over 100 people in connection to the murders and the broad spectrum of people included vagrants, travellers and even people of neighbouring villages.

Lorenz Schlittenbauer

 With robbery ruled out as a motive, Georg began to narrow down his options and identify his prime suspects. One of them was Lorenz Schlittenbauer, one of Greg’s first interviewees. Lorenz was the only neighbour to whom Andreas had confided about the strange occurrences in his house.

 By all accounts, both men had had some bitter neighbourly disagreements, not just because Lorenz wished to marry Viktoria, but because he had been refused blankly. Viktoria had allegedly admitted copulating with Lorenz on five different occasions and Lorenz believed that Josef was his son until incest allegations resurfaced. Despite this, Lorenz was asked to pay alimony even though he was denied access to the child. This betrayal, continued incest, and bitterness over alimony could have been a driving factor for Lorenz Schlittenbauer to commit the crime. During the interrogation process, Lorenz could have fabricated his story to divert attention from his bitter relationship with Andreas.

 Lorenz was also one of the first neighbours to arrive at the crime scene, giving him the possibility to meddle with the evidence. Furthermore, some reports suggest that one of the Gruber family dogs barked and snarled angrily at Lorenz each time he passed.

 However, with no solid evidence to prove his involvement in the crime, Lorenz was never arrested. Also, until his death in 1941, he successfully won several civil claims for slander against those who accused him.

Karl Gabriel

 Another speculated suspect is Karl Gabriel, Viktoria’s own husband. Though it is believed that Karl was struck by a mine in the winter of 1914 while away in a war, his body was never recovered.

 After tests revealed that Josef was the offspring of Viktoria and her father Andreas, Karl could have been driven by the rage of betrayal. This could have caused him to return unannounced and kill Andreas and his family.

Political Motivation

 The residents of Bavaria were traditionally Catholic and politically conservative. However, the Anif Declaration of 1918 led some extremist groups to favour the region as a hotbed for growth. Andreas was himself a Nazi supporter who desired to bring about changes in the region and he was quite vocal about it. Considering that the local community was primarily made up of liberal voters, he did not help his case.

 In 1922, Wangen was due for local and mayoral elections, thus raising speculation of political motivation. Andreas and his family could have actually been murdered in an attempt to stop the growth of extremism in the region. In line with this speculation, Adolf Gump was listed as a suspect due to his political activities with the Freikorps Oberland.

 The Freikorps Oberland were a group with the intent of rooting out Communists and Polish insurgents, but several of its members, including Adolf, began to turn their attention towards the Nazis. Unfortunately, neither could he be traced nor sentenced for the crime.

Attacked by the Nazis

 Extremist groups including the Nazis could have considered the farmstead as a remote hideaway. Similar rural Nazi hideouts have been discovered all over Germany, with many found in and around Bavaria. Although Andreas was a supporter of the group, the value that the farmstead held to them could have been far greater.

 The Nazi theory is also in accordance with the belief that there was more than one perpetrator. Perhaps, the killers could have looked after the farm and its animals after killing the family, with intentions of discreetly taking over the farmstead.

Joseph Bartle

 Perhaps the family was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Joseph Bartle, a violent mentally ill man, had escaped from a hospital in Gunzburg in 1921, where he had been institutionalized. The man had already been connected to mass homicide and he is believed to have been near the farmstead during the time of the murders.

Conclusion

 There had been concerns about the usage of decapacitated heads for analysis, citing that valuable information could have been found in the victims’ torsos. However, considering the fact that this method was a common practice in the 1920s, the investigators cannot be blamed. The decapacitated heads had eventually been lost with time.

 Despite the plausible speculations and inspector Georg Reingruber’s unprecedented efforts, the identity of the perpetrators was never known and the case had currently run cold. The police re-investigation in 2007 concluded that important evidence in relation to the case was now missing. Furthermore, they stated that the chances of the case ever being solved are less than possible. As Andreas left no legal will, the buildings of the murder site were demolished and redeveloped in the years that followed. This makes it hard for new researchers to make helpful findings, thus making it more likely for the case to remain on the unsolved pages of history.