Hinterkaifeck Farm is located in the Bavarian town between Ingolstadt and Schlobben Hausen, about an hour's drive from Munich.
The Andreas family live on a farm. Family members include Andreas Gruber (63) and his wife Ka Zelia (72).
Their widow daughter Victoria (35) and her two children, Kaasila (7) and Joseph (2) also live here.
Most city residents have a bad impression of Andreas. In addition to Andrias's eccentric and difficult to get along with, he also has a serious tendency to abuse and often fights with his wife, Ka Zelia. Besides abusing his wife, Andreas abused his own children, among whom Victoria was the only survivor.
Victoria is the most popular member of the church choir. She is famous for her beautiful voice. Rural residents generally believe that Andreas' youngest grandson, two-year-old Joseph, is the product of incest between him and his daughter Victoria (although this is illegal, it is not uncommon in rural areas at that time).
Strange things happened at Hinterkaifeck Farm, starting with the resignation of the maid.
A maid in Hinterkaifeck farm, she suddenly resigned and wanted to leave the farm at once.
When asked why she suddenly decided to leave suddenly, Maria explained with a pale face that she heard strange noises in the room and around the farm, and there were often horrible footsteps in the attic.
Six months later.
Andreas inspected the farm after the snowstorm. He found a strange set of footprints in the thick snow. This set of footprints is not from his family members, but a strange footprint. This set of footprints finally entered the house. Horribly, Andreas did not find the traces left by this set of footprints, which means that a potentially dangerous intruder may still be hiding in his home.
In shock, Andrias began to search the house, even thoroughly searched the barn and tool shed, but found nothing.
On the same night, Andreas was awakened by the terrible footsteps coming from the attic.
Andrias remembered the maid's words. Although he was very scared, he went to the attic for a thorough inspection, but he didn't find anyone hiding there.
No one hid in the farmhouse, and no footprints of intruders were found in the snow. The man seemed to mysteriously disappear into the air.
Soon after, on March 30th, 1922, a set of keys of the house suddenly disappeared and could not be found anywhere. While looking for the key, Andreas found a scratch on the lock of the tool shed, as if someone were trying to open it.
1922 on March 3 1 day, a new maid Maria baumgartner (44 years old) came to work on the farm. She never thought that this day would be the last day of her life.
1April 4, 922, people in the town found that Andreas' family had not gone out for several days, and his grandson Casella had not gone to school for several days.
Several townspeople decided to go to Hinterkaifeck Farm to see what happened.
When they arrived at the farm, they didn't find the Andreas family, and the whole farm was silent.
They decided to check the barn. When they opened the door, a terrible sight appeared in front of them:
Andrias, Zelia, Victoria and Kaasila were lying in a pool of blood, their bodies piled together and covered with hay.
The body in the barn
The frightened townspeople began to frantically look for other members of the family. Finally, they found Joseph dead in the cottage bed, and Maria, the maid, was also found dead in her bedroom.
The Andreas family and a servant, six in all, were brutally killed by the murderer.
The Maid's Room
Hinterkaifeck farmhouse
Joseph's crib
People in the town immediately called the police, and a few hours later, investigators from the Munich Police Department arrived at the scene.
Investigators conducted a preliminary autopsy on the body, and all the victims were hit in the head with a blunt axe and died of excessive blood loss. Presumably, the murder weapon was a pickaxe.
The police speculated that the murderer was very familiar with the pickaxe, because all the wounds hit the victim's head accurately, and there were no extra wounds.
Victoria and Zelia were wearing ordinary clothes when they died. The fact that the other victims were wearing pajamas and the maids Maria and Joseph were killed in bed shows that the murder happened while sleeping at night.
After investigating the crime scene, the police concluded that the murderer led Andreas, his wife and his daughter Victoria into the barn one by one, and then killed them. After that, the murderer entered the farmhouse and killed little Joseph and the maid in the bed.
Victoria and Ka Zelia were probably the first people who arrived at the barn and were attacked by the murderer, because they were not wearing pajamas. When they went out to check, they came to the barn, or the murderer knocked them unconscious and took them to the barn.
It is worth mentioning that all the bodies are covered with objects.
The bodies piled up in the barn were covered with hay, the body of the maid was covered with sheets, and Joseph's body was covered with his mother's skirt.
The date of death was determined to be Friday, March 3 1922, but the neighbors near the farm expressed doubts because they all saw smoke coming from the chimney from April/KLOC-0 to April 4, and the cows and livestock on the farm were not hungry. Obviously, from April 1 day to April 4, they may still be eating normally.
These findings puzzled the investigators. If the Andreas family died on March 3rd1,who was on the farm, or did the murderer stay on the farm for a few days to feed the cattle?
After the murder, the murderer did not flee the scene, but stayed at the victim's home.
Why would anyone do that?
At first, the police thought it was a simple robbery. Because Hinterkaifeck farm is very rich, but they soon gave up the idea because a lot of gold coins and jewels on the farm have not been touched.
Strangely, however, the police found that Victoria had withdrawn all the money from her bank account a few weeks ago, leaving only 700 Garmark to donate to a church, which she called "missionary work", and the rest of the money was gone.
Excluding robbery and murder, the police began to suspect that it was a love murder.
The murderer is a man named Lorenz Schlieter Bauer, who is a suitor of Victoria. Victoria always claimed that Joseph was the son of Lorenz Schrett Bauer, but because everyone in the village thought Joseph was the product of incest between Andreas and Victoria, Lorenz Schrett Bauer was very angry and jealous, so he retaliated and killed someone. Maybe Lorenz Schlieter Bauer is trying to avoid paying alimony, because he has remarried, and it makes sense to kill for his own interests and reputation.
Other small details seem to point to Lorenz Schlieter Bauer.
First of all, Lorenz Schlieter Bauer happened to be one of the townspeople who went to Hinterkaifeck Farm to check the situation. The dog chained to the barn didn't like him very much and kept barking there.
In addition, an eyewitness later said that Lorenz Schlieter Bauer seemed very calm about the bleeding body and was able to move the body calmly in the barn without any signs of disgust.
When he was asked why he moved the body before the police arrived, he said that he needed to find his children.
In the face of such bloody death and violence, in addition to this amazing calmness, Lorenz Schlieter Bauer showed extraordinary familiarity with the farm, as if he had spent a lot of time there.
All these doubts point to Lorenz Schlieter Bauer, but the police don't have enough evidence to arrest him.
In fact, until today, the murderer is still a mystery.
No matter who the murderer is, there are still many doubts in this case.
Why did the killer hide in the farm for so long before committing the crime? Of course, the footsteps in the snow and the attic must be the murderer's, but these events happened long before the murder. If it is counted from the time when the resigned maid left, it means that the murderer has been hiding in the farm for at least six months.
Besides, why did the murderer stay on the farm for four days after killing, eat normally and even feed the cows? Is there any purpose in this?
The police investigation of Hinterkaifeck's murder will last for many years, but it is still an unsolved case, which makes this case one of the most famous unsolved cases in Germany.