WEBVTT - Season 05: Episode 09: Tenebrous (RERUN) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.600 Hello, it's Richard McLean Smith here with Unexplained on an 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.119 end of season break. This is our final archive episode 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:12.280 before season nine begins next Friday, October thirty first, and 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.160 with Halloween only a week away, this week's episode takes 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.079 a suitably dark and chilling turn. It is perhaps the 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:25.439 darkest story ever covered or unexplained. Our final journey into 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.240 the archive takes us to the remote Bavarian countryside in 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.080 nineteen twenty two, to a lonely farmstead and the family 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.200 who lived there, where something unspeakable was about to unfold. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.000 It was a place where shadows seemed to linger a 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.559 little too long, and where the boundary between safety and 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.320 terror proved to be as fragile as a footprint in 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:54.560 fresh snow. The word tenebris means dark, shadowy, and obscure, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.440 an apt word to capture what descended upon this isolated 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:05.200 family in those final terrifying days. Just what exactly happened 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.960 at their remote farm would become one of Germany's most 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:14.319 notorious unsolved mysteries, a case so disturbing it continues to 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:20.559 defy explanation a century later. This is Unexplained Season five 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:27.679 episode nine, Tenebrous The following episode involves scenes of sexual 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.720 abuse that some may find disturbing. Parental discretion is advised. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.720 There was once a place deep in the rural hinterland 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.440 of Bavaria in southern Germany, Positioned half a kilometer to 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.160 the west of the village of Greerben. It sat quiet 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.840 and still alone in the fields, surrounded by thick pine forest. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:05.320 House made of stone and painted white. The farm, known 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.760 as hinter Kaifek, had passed through many hands over the years, 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.840 all of which had, at one time or another worked 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:17.920 the rich, dark earth that surrounded it, sewing it, tilling it, 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.320 and pulling from it. Fingers plunged deep into the black 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.359 of it, and all had, in one way or another, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.959 left a piece of themselves in it too. By eighteen 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.720 eighty six, the property had been passed to Cecilia Assam 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.880 and Andreas Gruber, the pair having taken ownership of it 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.639 shortly after the death of Cecilia's first husband, Joseph, for 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.359 Cecilia left to run the farm and raise two young 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:51.720 children alone. Andreas was an apt partner, a farm laborer 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.520 with an intense and quiet disposition. His hands were strong 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.320 and his shoulders broad enough for them all not that 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:04.000 Cecilia's weren't also, and so in April eighteen eighty six, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:10.079 Cecilia Assam became Cecilia Gruber, and together she and Andreas 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:14.120 worked the farm and the surrounding fields, maintaining a fine 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:19.280 and stable business. In eighteen eighty seven, new life arrives 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.400 in the form of a baby girl named Victoria. She 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.880 is joined by Sophie two years later, and for those 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.919 first few years joy threatens to rain at hint Kaifek, 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.840 but the joy is short lived. Like almost twenty percent 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.400 of children in the local district at the time, Sophie 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.280 does not live to see her second birthday. And now 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:48.400 a cloud is descending over this dark white property, cast 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.520 a drift from the nearby town and seeming to move 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.920 further away with each passing day, the forests surrounding it 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.800 seeming to grow ever denser, and the trees looming ever taller. 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.560 It is a natural habit of humans to project onto 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.120 all that we see, and no more so than with 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.120 our interpretations of the forest. For some, the forest is 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.440 foreboding a locusts for unknown dangers that lurk deep within. 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.760 But the forest does not think itself foreboding. The forest 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.720 just is, And yet for hinter Chaifek, it is hard 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.560 not to read those tall, thick pines that surrounded the farm, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.719 and the gloom of the forest beyond, as some kind 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.720 of psychic projection emanating from the darkness festering inside that 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.400 white stone building, a darkness that would one day come 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:49.200 to define that land in more ways than one. How 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.279 fitting too that the patch of woodland closest to the 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:57.919 farm should be called Hexenholtz, or the Witch's forest, the 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.960 notion of the witch often being just a projection of 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.719 our own innate fears of the other, but also two 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.960 as women. Suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage once noted the fear 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.880 of women. But perhaps it isn't just fear that manifests 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:20.880 this patriarchal image of the malevolent witch, but guilt too. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:33.680 You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. The 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.560 couple looked happy enough as they stood reciting their vows 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.040 under the watchful eyes of the priest. As they stepped 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.240 out at the church, arm in arm, Some say for 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.800 a brief moment, the clouds above parted and a ray 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.960 of sunshine slipped through. Perhaps the bride a now twenty 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.120 six year old Victoria saw it too, and perhaps for 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.679 a moment there was even the hint of a smile 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.400 as she looked into the eyes of her new husband, 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.039 Carl Gabriel, and saw there the hope of a better future, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.200 a future safe from harm and full of warmth for 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.440 the child that would surely come. But such thoughts were 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.200 never kept long in her mind before the sight of 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:25.400 her father, Andreas Gruber dissolved them instantly, that unmoving, impassive face, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:31.440 ever present, always watching the sight of him, never failing 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.680 to catch in her throat, congealing like thick black tar. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.800 There had long been rumors about the man, about how 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.800 he regularly beat his wife, Cecilia, now sixty four years 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.240 old and nine years his senior, but that wasn't all. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.360 It was said to be common knowledge amongst the local 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.479 farming community and in the village of Gurban, that Andreas 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:02.440 regularly raped his daughter, although it wasn't called rape at 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:07.360 the time. Perhaps Carl knew this too when he married Victoria, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.440 and perhaps there was a hope that their marriage might 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:14.000 put an end to the abuse. Or perhaps, as some 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.200 have suggested, the union was more pragmatic than that that 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.960 it merely offered a buffer for Victoria and an opportunity 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:26.080 for Carl and indeed the wider Gabriel family to gain 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:31.320 access to a successful, if modest business. Only a month 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.840 before their wedding, Andreas transferred all the rights to the 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.240 farm to his daughter, making her the sole heir to 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:43.000 the property. By marrying Victoria, Karl had guaranteed that any 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:49.360 children of theirs would inherit the land. But for some possessions, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.760 or at least what they consider to be their possessions, 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.400 are not so easy to let go of, and no 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.840 matter where they turned, nor what time of day, there 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.800 would be Andreas, who, along with Cecilia, remained living at 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:16.400 the property, standing watch stone, faced deep in thought. Barely 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.040 weeks after the wedding, Carl moved back home to his parents, 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.640 complaining that he was being bullied and that the fierce 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.760 and uncompromising Andreas had even taken to starving him. But 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.760 just as Andreas cast his shadow over hint Kaifek, so 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:37.160 too were other larger shadows being steadily drawn across the land. 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.880 In late June of nineteen fourteen, comes the news that 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.120 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, Hungary 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:50.920 has been shot dead. The rickety stumbling wheel of human 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:55.959 civilization takes another lurch from the path and wobbles inexorably 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.920 toward war. And so the men are summoned by a 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.479 appeals to duty and valor. Perhaps it is with trepidation 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.760 that Karl packs up the few belongings he'll need and 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.840 marches out of the farm toward Munich to sign up, 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.960 leaving behind and now four months pregnant Victoria. Or perhaps 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.000 at the site of the stone faced Andreas, pausing briefly 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.960 from his work in the field to nod goodbye to 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:28.439 his son in law, it is with relief before long. 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:33.680 It is December twelfth, nineteen fourteen, eight hundred kilometers to 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.679 the northwest of hinter Kaifec. A crow swoops down above 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.320 a field just north of the town of Arras, coming 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.240 to rest on what remains of an old beech tree. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:49.199 In the field below, freshly scarred and pock marked by shelling, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:54.200 there lies a body, its forehead split open and the 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:59.760 lower jaw obliterated, its pale vacant eyes staring up to 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:05.160 war a slowly darkening sky. The crow calls and swoops 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.400 down for closer inspection, but a hand quickly shows it away. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.920 Joseph Bickler, a farmer from Vadhoffen, a town close to Gerban, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.360 stands over the body, recognizing it instantly as that of 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:25.000 his old school friend Carl Gabriel. The following week, back 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:29.480 at hinter Kaifek, a now heavily pregnant, Victoria watches from 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.520 the window as postal worker Joseph Meyer draws near to 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.840 the house. With him, he carries a copy of Andreas's 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.840 regular paper and a letter addressed to Victoria written by 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:47.760 Joseph Bickler, informing her of her husband's death. But Victoria 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.720 has little time to grieve when three weeks later she 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.280 gives birth to her first child, whom she names Cecilia 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.960 after her mother. But still the rumors refuse to go away, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.440 as many in the village are left wandering is the 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:13.000 child Carl's or is it her father's. At some point 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.520 in early nineteen fifteen, a complaint is brought to the 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.400 local police that Andreas was committing incest with his daughter. 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.520 After a formal investigation, rumor becomes fact when on May 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.520 twenty eighth, Andreas is convicted for the offense with the 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.240 court deciding to limit the period of the crime to 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.040 the years nineteen oh seven to nineteen ten, when Victoria 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.280 was aged twenty to twenty three. This was most likely 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.840 an arbitrary decision to avoid looking into accusations that it 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.320 had in fact been going on much longer than that, 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.280 and thereby allowing Andreas the opportunity to escape the accusation 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.160 of child abuse. He is sentenced to one year in prison. 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:00.000 Such was the attitude of the day. Victoria was considered 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.040 to be a willing participant in the abuse, and as 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:07.680 such was also convicted for the crime. On January tenth, 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:13.119 nineteen sixteen, the day after her daughter's first birthday, Victoria 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.120 was taken to Neuberg Prison to spend the first of 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:23.199 thirty days behind bars for one relatively blissful year. Victoria 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.280 and her mother Cecilia run the farm with help from 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:31.000 their maid Cretchens Raiger. Together they manage all the livestock 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:36.040 and harvest the fields. On Sundays, Victoria makes the short 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.200 journey to the village of Vaidhoffen to attend the trade 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.000 fair and on occasion joins the church choir to sing. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.440 She is praised widely for her voice and is known 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.680 by the nickname the Lark of hint Kaifek. But in 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:57.600 February nineteen seventeen, Andreas returns, and though Victoria continues to sing, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:03.640 something of her voice has changed. In nineteen eighteen, Victoria 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.800 begins a relationship with Lorenz Schlittenbauer, her neighbour from the 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:12.280 next farm over, who is only recently widowed. The affair 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.720 is brief, with some blaming the presence of Andreas for 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:21.000 Lorenz's reluctance to pursue the relationship. However, by the end 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:25.320 of December, Victoria discovers she is pregnant again, and in 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.520 July nineteen nineteen, gives birth to a son, whom she 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:34.720 names Joseph. Now a single mother with two young children, 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.480 Victoria is convinced that Lorenz is the father and approaches 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:43.880 him for financial support. In response, Lorenz, who suspects the 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.959 child might instead be Andreas, reports her and her father 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.880 again to the police. With Andreas July arrested and awaiting 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.480 a second trial, Victoria pleads with Lorenz to drop the 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:00.320 charge and claim paternity of the child to help an 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:05.560 end toward the salacious rumors. Lorenz later said that despite 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:11.520 agreeing to the claim Victoria paid him to say it. Meanwhile, Cretchence, 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:17.120 the family's maid, is growing increasingly anxious. At night, she 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.600 hears unusual sounds in the house and what seem like 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:25.720 footsteps moving about the place. Sometimes her door even seems 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:30.080 to open on its own accord. One morning in the 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.480 summer of nineteen twenty one, after pulling up water from 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.160 the well, cretchens is walking across the courtyard when she 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.560 hears a strange noise coming from the barn, unlike any 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.680 of the usual animal cries. Moving slowly into the barn, 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.239 she catches sight of something in the corner and recoils 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:53.320 in horror. It is Andreas raping his daughter, who lies 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:58.720 motionless underneath him. Crechence leaves the farm the following week. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.200 The winter of nineteen twenty one is especially cruel, with 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.880 freezing temperatures lasting well into the following year. By mid March, 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.960 there is still no end in sight, with frost and 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:22.680 snow of frequent occurrence. One gray afternoon, Victoria is walking 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.960 across the courtyard when she is distracted by a movement 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.720 to the south. Looking up, she can just make out 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.880 a lone figure standing at the edge of Witch's Wood 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.040 that appears to be watching her. Looking away for a moment, 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.160 she turns back to find that the figure has gone. 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.720 A few days later, when postal worker Joseph Meyer arrives 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.040 at the property, he is met by Andreas waving a 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.560 paper around a damp and muddy copy of the munich Zeitung. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.760 He'd found it while out in the field close to 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:01.000 witches Wood. He wants to know if Joseph is dropped it, perhaps, 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.920 but Joseph has never seen it before, and neither has 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.400 he ever delivered one like it. Whose evers it was, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:13.040 he suggests, was not local to the area. It is 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.400 early in the morning of March twenty ninth when Andreas 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.560 is disturbed from bed by what sounds like footsteps shuffling 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:25.160 about in the attic above. Grabbing his rifle and a flashlight, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.560 he makes his way through the darkness toward the attic 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.520 stairs and climbs up into the opening above, each step 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.720 creaking as he goes. Pointing the light into the roof, 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:42.520 he could see the hole attic stretched out in both directions, 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.760 empty save for some old patches of straw that were 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.000 scattered about, and the pieces of meat hanging in the 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:54.560 smokehouse above the kitchen. On the morning of Thursday, March thirtieth, 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.520 Andreas heads toward the engine room, where much of the 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.680 farm's heavy equipment is kept. The room is located at 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.240 the southwest tip of the L shaped farm, tacked on 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.960 to the end of the barn. The snow is still 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.480 thick on the ground as Andreas approaches, to find that 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.679 the padlock on the door is missing. What's more, there 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.520 are two sets of footprints in the snow leading inside 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:28.080 the building, but none coming out. A confused Andreas stares 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.639 down at the tracks and then up toward Whiches Wood, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.639 where they seem to have come from. Andrea shouts for 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.920 whoever is inside to come out, but there is no reply. 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.399 Pulling the door open, he's relieved to find the place 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:48.560 completely deserted and everything as he'd left it. Later, however, 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.880 he will find one of his two house keys has 0:17:51.920 --> 0:18:03.000 gone missing. Later that night, after a violent altercation with 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:07.440 her husband, Cecilia Gruber is found to be missing, prompting 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.720 the rest of the family, including seven year old Cecilia, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.160 to search or night for her. Concern that she may 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.080 have drowned herself leads the family to the banks of 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.240 the river par a kilometer to the south of the farm, 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.040 but there is no sign of her in the dark, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.080 icy water. The seventy two year old Cecilia is finally 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.280 found sitting silently on a tree stump in the forest, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.640 and is eventually coaxed back to the farm. The following day, 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.600 with things appearing to have abated, the family adjoined by 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.920 forty five year old Maria Baumgartner, who arrives accompanied by 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.480 her sister Francisca to take on the role of a 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:55.000 living housemaid. Francisca had helped secure the job for her sister, who, 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.400 due to her learning difficulties and the slight physical disability 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.240 of having one leg short end and the other, had 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.000 often struggled for work, her most recent job in the 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:10.040 nearby town of ent Wittelsbach having been terminated simply because 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.960 the town's mayre deemed her too unsightly for the local community. 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.479 And though Francisca had heard much about the Gruber family 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.800 and what was rumored to take place at hint Kifek, 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.159 it was an opportunity too good to refuse from Maria. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.120 Even still, it was hard not to feel a little 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.440 trepidation when, after helping her sister settle in. She made 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.800 her goodbyes and headed out of the property, with the 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.480 wind picking up and thick storm clouds beginning to gather 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.560 in the sky above. Francisca was approaching the main road 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.680 when she heard the voice of her sister calling out 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:53.679 from behind her. Turning round, she saw Maria racing toward 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:58.439 her for one final goodbye before they parted. After a 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.080 brief hug, Maria asked her sister to visit again soon, 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:12.480 then turned and headed back to the farm. It is 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.840 late the following night when local carpenter Michael Blockl trudges 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.720 past the property and spots a fire burning in the 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:25.240 outdoor oven and smoke billowing out of its chimney. Perhaps 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.400 it was the nauseating smell like burnt rags that caused 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.199 him to stop, or perhaps it was just something in 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.840 the quiet of the night. But as he stares, he 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.760 is taken aback by the sudden movement of a figure 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:44.120 stepping into the courtyard. Michael watches as the figure slams 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.520 the oven door, shut points a flashlight in his direction, 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:53.360 and then begins steadily making his way toward him, Frozen 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.960 with fear at first, as the figure draws closer and closer, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.080 Michael finally pulls his hands from his pocket and speeds 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:06.520 off in the opposite direction. It is two days later 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:11.240 when Joseph Mayer arrives at the property to deliver Andreas's paper, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.760 only to find the place completely deserted, with no sign 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.919 of Andreas or anyone else for that matter, to be found. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.359 The courtyard unnervingly quiet save for the gentle lowing of 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:29.240 the cattle coming from inside the barn. Assuming they are 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.760 out working the field somewhere. Joseph leaves the paper on 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.200 the kitchen windowsill and heads off to continue his round. 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.960 It is sometime around midday on Tuesday, April fourth when 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:47.360 machinist Albert Hofner arrives at hinto Kaifek to make repairs 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:52.240 to the family's threshing machine. A cold wind whips around 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:54.919 him as he pulls up to the courtyard gate on 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:59.600 his bicycle, surprised to find that it's still locked. After 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.320 waiting unsuccessfully for over an hour for someone to meet him, 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.479 Albert makes his way to the engine room. Grateful to 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.960 find the lock is broken, he lets himself inside and 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.560 sets to work on the machine. Four and a half 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.640 hours later, there is still no sign of the family. 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:22.600 With the work completed, Albert heads into the courtyard and 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.399 notices for the first time that the barn door is 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.639 wide open. I'm sure if it was before. He moves 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:34.119 toward it, calling out for Andreas or Victoria, but is 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.879 met with only silence. Peering into the darkness beyond, he 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.720 sees only the cattle inside and some hay piled up 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:47.120 in the far corner. Hearing the dog suddenly barking manically, 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.040 he wanders round to the front of the house and 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.639 finds it tied up by the front door. Ignoring its cries. 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.880 Albert cups his hands over the glass and peers inside 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:04.560 to the kitchen, but sees nothing untoward. Turning back, he 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:07.720 takes one final look at the empty field to the 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:12.280 stretch of forest beyond, then heads off to find his bicycle. 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:22.879 It's just gone five p m. When farmer Michael Pearl, 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.640 another neighbor of the Grubers, hears a knock at his door. 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:31.080 He opens it to find a nervous looking Lorenz Schlittenbauer 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:36.119 and their neighbor Jakob Sig, waiting for him. After hearing 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:40.360 about Albert Hofnan's strange experience at the farm, Lorenz had 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:44.280 grown increasingly concerned about the Gruber family and his apparent 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:48.640 son Joseph's whereabouts. With the young Cecilia not having been 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:54.240 seen at school since Saturday, all was eerily quiet as 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:58.879 the three men stepped into hint Kyfec's deserted courtyard, the 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.879 silence only coming more deafening when their desperate cause for 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:08.280 Victoria and Andreas brought no reply. Finding all doors to 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:11.879 the property now completely shut and locked up save for 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.400 the engine room, the men made their way inside from 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:18.119 the back, only to find that through door to the 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.520 barn had been deliberately blocked from behind with a beam 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:25.960 of wood. After finally managing to dislodge it, and with 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.320 the light quickly beginning to fade, the men carried on 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:34.080 into the barn beyond the sudden appearance of a cow 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:39.520 wandering freely around inside startled them momentarily as they continued 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:43.200 forward into the dark, feeling for obstacles with their feet, 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:50.960 when suddenly Michael cried out, Hey, there's something here. Michael 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.800 pulled back and realized with horror it was a foot. 0:24:56.640 --> 0:24:59.439 Whoever it was, was lying under a large plank of 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:03.480 wood that had been put on top of them. Together, 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:06.600 the men pulled the wood to the side and revealed 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:12.000 the body of Andreas Gruber underneath, dressed in trousers and undershirt, 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:16.160 thickly matted with blood and crudely covered over with hay. 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:20.720 Pulling the body out, the men recoiled at the sight 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.080 of its face. The right side of it was completely 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:30.280 smashed in, its cheekbones clearly visible. But then Lorenz saw 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:35.160 the other limbs all packed underneath. Together. Pulling out one 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:38.600 after the other, the men revealed the bodies of seven 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:42.680 year old Cecilia, dressed in her night skirt, her mother. 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:48.920 Victoria and her mother Cecilia, both fully dressed and hideously mutilated, 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:55.640 their clothes and faces black with blood. Michael and Jakob 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:58.800 wretched at the sight of them and stumbled back into 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:05.399 the courtyard, desperate for air. A moment later, Lorenz appeared 0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:07.879 in the yard, having opened the front door to the 0:26:07.920 --> 0:26:11.520 main house from inside, and beckoned for the other two 0:26:11.560 --> 0:26:14.959 to help him search for his son. They found him 0:26:15.000 --> 0:26:17.879 in the stroller at the foot of Victoria's bed, his 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:22.000 body partially covered with one of Victoria's jackets. He'd been 0:26:22.080 --> 0:26:26.920 killed by a heavy blow to the face. Finally, after 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:30.359 almost missing her. At first, Michael noticed a pair of 0:26:30.440 --> 0:26:34.080 legs peeking out from under the bed in the maid's quarters. 0:26:35.000 --> 0:26:39.479 It was Maria, her clothes and face also soaked black 0:26:39.600 --> 0:26:45.119 with blood. As Michael and Jakob struggled to make sense 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:50.639 of it all, an eerily calm Lawrence returned to Victoria's bedroom, and, 0:26:50.760 --> 0:26:54.639 having found a candle, sat down quietly on the bed 0:26:55.240 --> 0:27:01.880 and lit it. Outside, all about the land was silent 0:27:01.960 --> 0:27:04.919 and still, save for the gentle rustle of wind in 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:08.840 the pines and the occasional wail of cattle coming from 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:20.600 that solitary white stone building of hinter Kaifek. The cars 0:27:20.680 --> 0:27:24.040 turned off the main road and headed deeper into the fields, 0:27:24.560 --> 0:27:29.080 toward the small solitary light in the distance. Behind it, 0:27:29.480 --> 0:27:33.320 a vast wall of trees, silhouetted under a pale half moon, 0:27:33.920 --> 0:27:39.000 stood still and black, growing ever taller the closer they got, 0:27:39.680 --> 0:27:42.679 and on they continued, toward the light that seemed to 0:27:42.680 --> 0:27:46.600 be luring them in like a silent, haunting beacon, toward 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:52.680 an unfathomable horror. Inside the cars, a team of investigators 0:27:52.680 --> 0:27:56.240 from Eunich, led by fifty five year old George Hinruber, 0:27:56.560 --> 0:27:59.760 as well as mayor gregor of Wangen, the next village 0:27:59.800 --> 0:28:05.440 East German, prepared themselves for the worst. The local district police, 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:08.480 having been first to arrive on the scene at hint Kaifek, 0:28:08.760 --> 0:28:11.600 had quickly realized they were woefully out of their depth. 0:28:12.480 --> 0:28:15.000 They had called in the Munich force in a desperate 0:28:15.040 --> 0:28:18.719 plea for help. Ryan Gruber's team hadn't arrived in the 0:28:18.760 --> 0:28:21.879 area until after one am, prompting them to spend the 0:28:21.960 --> 0:28:25.320 night at the mayor's residence in Vangen before making their 0:28:25.320 --> 0:28:29.080 way to the farm first thing in the morning. It 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:31.879 had just gone six a m. When the cars finally 0:28:31.920 --> 0:28:36.639 pulled into the courtyard on Wednesday, April fifth. As the 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:40.520 seven officers, two police dogs, and the mayor stepped out 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:44.240 into the chilly morning air, Lorenz Schlittenbauer appeared at the 0:28:44.240 --> 0:28:48.240 front door of the main house, his footsteps echoing about 0:28:48.240 --> 0:28:53.000 the courtyard as he approached. Lorenz quickly introduced himself as 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:55.719 one of the men who'd first found the bodies, and 0:28:55.760 --> 0:28:59.160 that he'd been there all night guarding the scene for them. 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:03.520 Ryan was struck immediately by the man's odd nervous energy, 0:29:04.240 --> 0:29:07.400 a natural consequence perhaps of the fact he hadn't slept 0:29:07.480 --> 0:29:10.080 since the night before, but as to why he'd taken 0:29:10.120 --> 0:29:12.800 it on himself to stay at the property, he was 0:29:12.880 --> 0:29:17.520 less sure. As Lorenz continued to babble about everything he 0:29:17.560 --> 0:29:20.400 knew of the family and how he discovered the bodies, 0:29:21.000 --> 0:29:26.160 Brian Gruber eventually interrupted. Perhaps he said, we should take 0:29:26.160 --> 0:29:31.000