The Hinterkaifeck Murders

On the night of March 31, 1922, the six inhabitants of the Hinterkaifeck farmstead — a remote property in Bavaria, Germany — were lured one by one into the barn and killed with a mattock. The victims were farmer Andreas Gruber, his wife Cäzilia, their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel, her two children Cäzilia and Josef, and the newly arrived housekeeper Maria Baumgartner, who had started work on the farm that very day. The bodies were discovered four days later when neighbors grew concerned about the absence of the family. Extraordinarily, evidence suggested the killer had remained at the farm for several days after the murders, feeding the animals and eating food from the house.

The crime had been preceded by months of disturbing incidents that Andreas Gruber had reported to neighbors: footprints in the snow leading from the forest to the farm but no return tracks, sounds from the attic at night, the disappearance of a set of keys, and the family's previous housekeeper quitting weeks earlier claiming the farm was haunted. These details suggested the killer had been living near or on the property for some time before striking.

The investigation involved dozens of suspects over the decades, including family members, a former prisoner of war, and even Andreas Gruber's own son-in-law. In 2007, forensic experts conducted the most systematic analysis of the case using modern techniques, including producing a new skull reconstruction and generating a DNA profile from recovered teeth — but the identity of the perpetrator has never been established. The DNA profile has not matched anyone in investigative databases.

Hinterkaifeck remains one of the most disturbing and puzzling mass murders in German history. The image of a killer who stalked a farm for weeks before killing its inhabitants, then remained among the corpses for days afterward, has made it a source of enduring fascination and horror. No one was ever charged, and the case is officially unsolved.