Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard McLean Smith here with Unexplained on an
Speaker 1: end of season break. This is our final archive episode
Speaker 1: before season nine begins next Friday, October thirty first, and
Speaker 1: with Halloween only a week away, this week's episode takes
Speaker 1: a suitably dark and chilling turn. It is perhaps the
Speaker 1: darkest story ever covered or unexplained. Our final journey into
Speaker 1: the archive takes us to the remote Bavarian countryside in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two, to a lonely farmstead and the family
Speaker 1: who lived there, where something unspeakable was about to unfold.
Speaker 1: It was a place where shadows seemed to linger a
Speaker 1: little too long, and where the boundary between safety and
Speaker 1: terror proved to be as fragile as a footprint in
Speaker 1: fresh snow. The word tenebris means dark, shadowy, and obscure,
Speaker 1: an apt word to capture what descended upon this isolated
Speaker 1: family in those final terrifying days. Just what exactly happened
Speaker 1: at their remote farm would become one of Germany's most
Speaker 1: notorious unsolved mysteries, a case so disturbing it continues to
Speaker 1: defy explanation a century later. This is Unexplained Season five
Speaker 1: episode nine, Tenebrous The following episode involves scenes of sexual
Speaker 1: abuse that some may find disturbing. Parental discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: There was once a place deep in the rural hinterland
Speaker 1: of Bavaria in southern Germany, Positioned half a kilometer to
Speaker 1: the west of the village of Greerben. It sat quiet
Speaker 1: and still alone in the fields, surrounded by thick pine forest.
Speaker 1: House made of stone and painted white. The farm, known
Speaker 1: as hinter Kaifek, had passed through many hands over the years,
Speaker 1: all of which had, at one time or another worked
Speaker 1: the rich, dark earth that surrounded it, sewing it, tilling it,
Speaker 1: and pulling from it. Fingers plunged deep into the black
Speaker 1: of it, and all had, in one way or another,
Speaker 1: left a piece of themselves in it too. By eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty six, the property had been passed to Cecilia Assam
Speaker 1: and Andreas Gruber, the pair having taken ownership of it
Speaker 1: shortly after the death of Cecilia's first husband, Joseph, for
Speaker 1: Cecilia left to run the farm and raise two young
Speaker 1: children alone. Andreas was an apt partner, a farm laborer
Speaker 1: with an intense and quiet disposition. His hands were strong
Speaker 1: and his shoulders broad enough for them all not that
Speaker 1: Cecilia's weren't also, and so in April eighteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: Cecilia Assam became Cecilia Gruber, and together she and Andreas
Speaker 1: worked the farm and the surrounding fields, maintaining a fine
Speaker 1: and stable business. In eighteen eighty seven, new life arrives
Speaker 1: in the form of a baby girl named Victoria. She
Speaker 1: is joined by Sophie two years later, and for those
Speaker 1: first few years joy threatens to rain at hint Kaifek,
Speaker 1: but the joy is short lived. Like almost twenty percent
Speaker 1: of children in the local district at the time, Sophie
Speaker 1: does not live to see her second birthday. And now
Speaker 1: a cloud is descending over this dark white property, cast
Speaker 1: a drift from the nearby town and seeming to move
Speaker 1: further away with each passing day, the forests surrounding it
Speaker 1: seeming to grow ever denser, and the trees looming ever taller.
Speaker 1: It is a natural habit of humans to project onto
Speaker 1: all that we see, and no more so than with
Speaker 1: our interpretations of the forest. For some, the forest is
Speaker 1: foreboding a locusts for unknown dangers that lurk deep within.
Speaker 1: But the forest does not think itself foreboding. The forest
Speaker 1: just is, And yet for hinter Chaifek, it is hard
Speaker 1: not to read those tall, thick pines that surrounded the farm,
Speaker 1: and the gloom of the forest beyond, as some kind
Speaker 1: of psychic projection emanating from the darkness festering inside that
Speaker 1: white stone building, a darkness that would one day come
Speaker 1: to define that land in more ways than one. How
Speaker 1: fitting too that the patch of woodland closest to the
Speaker 1: farm should be called Hexenholtz, or the Witch's forest, the
Speaker 1: notion of the witch often being just a projection of
Speaker 1: our own innate fears of the other, but also two
Speaker 1: as women. Suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage once noted the fear
Speaker 1: of women. But perhaps it isn't just fear that manifests
Speaker 1: this patriarchal image of the malevolent witch, but guilt too.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. The
Speaker 1: couple looked happy enough as they stood reciting their vows
Speaker 1: under the watchful eyes of the priest. As they stepped
Speaker 1: out at the church, arm in arm, Some say for
Speaker 1: a brief moment, the clouds above parted and a ray
Speaker 1: of sunshine slipped through. Perhaps the bride a now twenty
Speaker 1: six year old Victoria saw it too, and perhaps for
Speaker 1: a moment there was even the hint of a smile
Speaker 1: as she looked into the eyes of her new husband,
Speaker 1: Carl Gabriel, and saw there the hope of a better future,
Speaker 1: a future safe from harm and full of warmth for
Speaker 1: the child that would surely come. But such thoughts were
Speaker 1: never kept long in her mind before the sight of
Speaker 1: her father, Andreas Gruber dissolved them instantly, that unmoving, impassive face,
Speaker 1: ever present, always watching the sight of him, never failing
Speaker 1: to catch in her throat, congealing like thick black tar.
Speaker 1: There had long been rumors about the man, about how
Speaker 1: he regularly beat his wife, Cecilia, now sixty four years
Speaker 1: old and nine years his senior, but that wasn't all.
Speaker 1: It was said to be common knowledge amongst the local
Speaker 1: farming community and in the village of Gurban, that Andreas
Speaker 1: regularly raped his daughter, although it wasn't called rape at
Speaker 1: the time. Perhaps Carl knew this too when he married Victoria,
Speaker 1: and perhaps there was a hope that their marriage might
Speaker 1: put an end to the abuse. Or perhaps, as some
Speaker 1: have suggested, the union was more pragmatic than that that
Speaker 1: it merely offered a buffer for Victoria and an opportunity
Speaker 1: for Carl and indeed the wider Gabriel family to gain
Speaker 1: access to a successful, if modest business. Only a month
Speaker 1: before their wedding, Andreas transferred all the rights to the
Speaker 1: farm to his daughter, making her the sole heir to
Speaker 1: the property. By marrying Victoria, Karl had guaranteed that any
Speaker 1: children of theirs would inherit the land. But for some possessions,
Speaker 1: or at least what they consider to be their possessions,
Speaker 1: are not so easy to let go of, and no
Speaker 1: matter where they turned, nor what time of day, there
Speaker 1: would be Andreas, who, along with Cecilia, remained living at
Speaker 1: the property, standing watch stone, faced deep in thought. Barely
Speaker 1: weeks after the wedding, Carl moved back home to his parents,
Speaker 1: complaining that he was being bullied and that the fierce
Speaker 1: and uncompromising Andreas had even taken to starving him. But
Speaker 1: just as Andreas cast his shadow over hint Kaifek, so
Speaker 1: too were other larger shadows being steadily drawn across the land.
Speaker 1: In late June of nineteen fourteen, comes the news that
Speaker 1: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, Hungary
Speaker 1: has been shot dead. The rickety stumbling wheel of human
Speaker 1: civilization takes another lurch from the path and wobbles inexorably
Speaker 1: toward war. And so the men are summoned by a
Speaker 1: appeals to duty and valor. Perhaps it is with trepidation
Speaker 1: that Karl packs up the few belongings he'll need and
Speaker 1: marches out of the farm toward Munich to sign up,
Speaker 1: leaving behind and now four months pregnant Victoria. Or perhaps
Speaker 1: at the site of the stone faced Andreas, pausing briefly
Speaker 1: from his work in the field to nod goodbye to
Speaker 1: his son in law, it is with relief before long.
Speaker 1: It is December twelfth, nineteen fourteen, eight hundred kilometers to
Speaker 1: the northwest of hinter Kaifec. A crow swoops down above
Speaker 1: a field just north of the town of Arras, coming
Speaker 1: to rest on what remains of an old beech tree.
Speaker 1: In the field below, freshly scarred and pock marked by shelling,
Speaker 1: there lies a body, its forehead split open and the
Speaker 1: lower jaw obliterated, its pale vacant eyes staring up to
Speaker 1: war a slowly darkening sky. The crow calls and swoops
Speaker 1: down for closer inspection, but a hand quickly shows it away.
Speaker 1: Joseph Bickler, a farmer from Vadhoffen, a town close to Gerban,
Speaker 1: stands over the body, recognizing it instantly as that of
Speaker 1: his old school friend Carl Gabriel. The following week, back
Speaker 1: at hinter Kaifek, a now heavily pregnant, Victoria watches from
Speaker 1: the window as postal worker Joseph Meyer draws near to
Speaker 1: the house. With him, he carries a copy of Andreas's
Speaker 1: regular paper and a letter addressed to Victoria written by
Speaker 1: Joseph Bickler, informing her of her husband's death. But Victoria
Speaker 1: has little time to grieve when three weeks later she
Speaker 1: gives birth to her first child, whom she names Cecilia
Speaker 1: after her mother. But still the rumors refuse to go away,
Speaker 1: as many in the village are left wandering is the
Speaker 1: child Carl's or is it her father's. At some point
Speaker 1: in early nineteen fifteen, a complaint is brought to the
Speaker 1: local police that Andreas was committing incest with his daughter.
Speaker 1: After a formal investigation, rumor becomes fact when on May
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, Andreas is convicted for the offense with the
Speaker 1: court deciding to limit the period of the crime to
Speaker 1: the years nineteen oh seven to nineteen ten, when Victoria
Speaker 1: was aged twenty to twenty three. This was most likely
Speaker 1: an arbitrary decision to avoid looking into accusations that it
Speaker 1: had in fact been going on much longer than that,
Speaker 1: and thereby allowing Andreas the opportunity to escape the accusation
Speaker 1: of child abuse. He is sentenced to one year in prison.
Speaker 1: Such was the attitude of the day. Victoria was considered
Speaker 1: to be a willing participant in the abuse, and as
Speaker 1: such was also convicted for the crime. On January tenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, the day after her daughter's first birthday, Victoria
Speaker 1: was taken to Neuberg Prison to spend the first of
Speaker 1: thirty days behind bars for one relatively blissful year. Victoria
Speaker 1: and her mother Cecilia run the farm with help from
Speaker 1: their maid Cretchens Raiger. Together they manage all the livestock
Speaker 1: and harvest the fields. On Sundays, Victoria makes the short
Speaker 1: journey to the village of Vaidhoffen to attend the trade
Speaker 1: fair and on occasion joins the church choir to sing.
Speaker 1: She is praised widely for her voice and is known
Speaker 1: by the nickname the Lark of hint Kaifek. But in
Speaker 1: February nineteen seventeen, Andreas returns, and though Victoria continues to sing,
Speaker 1: something of her voice has changed. In nineteen eighteen, Victoria
Speaker 1: begins a relationship with Lorenz Schlittenbauer, her neighbour from the
Speaker 1: next farm over, who is only recently widowed. The affair
Speaker 1: is brief, with some blaming the presence of Andreas for
Speaker 1: Lorenz's reluctance to pursue the relationship. However, by the end
Speaker 1: of December, Victoria discovers she is pregnant again, and in
Speaker 1: July nineteen nineteen, gives birth to a son, whom she
Speaker 1: names Joseph. Now a single mother with two young children,
Speaker 1: Victoria is convinced that Lorenz is the father and approaches
Speaker 1: him for financial support. In response, Lorenz, who suspects the
Speaker 1: child might instead be Andreas, reports her and her father
Speaker 1: again to the police. With Andreas July arrested and awaiting
Speaker 1: a second trial, Victoria pleads with Lorenz to drop the
Speaker 1: charge and claim paternity of the child to help an
Speaker 1: end toward the salacious rumors. Lorenz later said that despite
Speaker 1: agreeing to the claim Victoria paid him to say it. Meanwhile, Cretchence,
Speaker 1: the family's maid, is growing increasingly anxious. At night, she
Speaker 1: hears unusual sounds in the house and what seem like
Speaker 1: footsteps moving about the place. Sometimes her door even seems
Speaker 1: to open on its own accord. One morning in the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen twenty one, after pulling up water from
Speaker 1: the well, cretchens is walking across the courtyard when she
Speaker 1: hears a strange noise coming from the barn, unlike any
Speaker 1: of the usual animal cries. Moving slowly into the barn,
Speaker 1: she catches sight of something in the corner and recoils
Speaker 1: in horror. It is Andreas raping his daughter, who lies
Speaker 1: motionless underneath him. Crechence leaves the farm the following week.
Speaker 1: The winter of nineteen twenty one is especially cruel, with
Speaker 1: freezing temperatures lasting well into the following year. By mid March,
Speaker 1: there is still no end in sight, with frost and
Speaker 1: snow of frequent occurrence. One gray afternoon, Victoria is walking
Speaker 1: across the courtyard when she is distracted by a movement
Speaker 1: to the south. Looking up, she can just make out
Speaker 1: a lone figure standing at the edge of Witch's Wood
Speaker 1: that appears to be watching her. Looking away for a moment,
Speaker 1: she turns back to find that the figure has gone.
Speaker 1: A few days later, when postal worker Joseph Meyer arrives
Speaker 1: at the property, he is met by Andreas waving a
Speaker 1: paper around a damp and muddy copy of the munich Zeitung.
Speaker 1: He'd found it while out in the field close to
Speaker 1: witches Wood. He wants to know if Joseph is dropped it, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but Joseph has never seen it before, and neither has
Speaker 1: he ever delivered one like it. Whose evers it was,
Speaker 1: he suggests, was not local to the area. It is
Speaker 1: early in the morning of March twenty ninth when Andreas
Speaker 1: is disturbed from bed by what sounds like footsteps shuffling
Speaker 1: about in the attic above. Grabbing his rifle and a flashlight,
Speaker 1: he makes his way through the darkness toward the attic
Speaker 1: stairs and climbs up into the opening above, each step
Speaker 1: creaking as he goes. Pointing the light into the roof,
Speaker 1: he could see the hole attic stretched out in both directions,
Speaker 1: empty save for some old patches of straw that were
Speaker 1: scattered about, and the pieces of meat hanging in the
Speaker 1: smokehouse above the kitchen. On the morning of Thursday, March thirtieth,
Speaker 1: Andreas heads toward the engine room, where much of the
Speaker 1: farm's heavy equipment is kept. The room is located at
Speaker 1: the southwest tip of the L shaped farm, tacked on
Speaker 1: to the end of the barn. The snow is still
Speaker 1: thick on the ground as Andreas approaches, to find that
Speaker 1: the padlock on the door is missing. What's more, there
Speaker 1: are two sets of footprints in the snow leading inside
Speaker 1: the building, but none coming out. A confused Andreas stares
Speaker 1: down at the tracks and then up toward Whiches Wood,
Speaker 1: where they seem to have come from. Andrea shouts for
Speaker 1: whoever is inside to come out, but there is no reply.
Speaker 1: Pulling the door open, he's relieved to find the place
Speaker 1: completely deserted and everything as he'd left it. Later, however,
Speaker 1: he will find one of his two house keys has
Speaker 1: gone missing. Later that night, after a violent altercation with
Speaker 1: her husband, Cecilia Gruber is found to be missing, prompting
Speaker 1: the rest of the family, including seven year old Cecilia,
Speaker 1: to search or night for her. Concern that she may
Speaker 1: have drowned herself leads the family to the banks of
Speaker 1: the river par a kilometer to the south of the farm,
Speaker 1: but there is no sign of her in the dark,
Speaker 1: icy water. The seventy two year old Cecilia is finally
Speaker 1: found sitting silently on a tree stump in the forest,
Speaker 1: and is eventually coaxed back to the farm. The following day,
Speaker 1: with things appearing to have abated, the family adjoined by
Speaker 1: forty five year old Maria Baumgartner, who arrives accompanied by
Speaker 1: her sister Francisca to take on the role of a
Speaker 1: living housemaid. Francisca had helped secure the job for her sister, who,
Speaker 1: due to her learning difficulties and the slight physical disability
Speaker 1: of having one leg short end and the other, had
Speaker 1: often struggled for work, her most recent job in the
Speaker 1: nearby town of ent Wittelsbach having been terminated simply because
Speaker 1: the town's mayre deemed her too unsightly for the local community.
Speaker 1: And though Francisca had heard much about the Gruber family
Speaker 1: and what was rumored to take place at hint Kifek,
Speaker 1: it was an opportunity too good to refuse from Maria.
Speaker 1: Even still, it was hard not to feel a little
Speaker 1: trepidation when, after helping her sister settle in. She made
Speaker 1: her goodbyes and headed out of the property, with the
Speaker 1: wind picking up and thick storm clouds beginning to gather
Speaker 1: in the sky above. Francisca was approaching the main road
Speaker 1: when she heard the voice of her sister calling out
Speaker 1: from behind her. Turning round, she saw Maria racing toward
Speaker 1: her for one final goodbye before they parted. After a
Speaker 1: brief hug, Maria asked her sister to visit again soon,
Speaker 1: then turned and headed back to the farm. It is
Speaker 1: late the following night when local carpenter Michael Blockl trudges
Speaker 1: past the property and spots a fire burning in the
Speaker 1: outdoor oven and smoke billowing out of its chimney. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it was the nauseating smell like burnt rags that caused
Speaker 1: him to stop, or perhaps it was just something in
Speaker 1: the quiet of the night. But as he stares, he
Speaker 1: is taken aback by the sudden movement of a figure
Speaker 1: stepping into the courtyard. Michael watches as the figure slams
Speaker 1: the oven door, shut points a flashlight in his direction,
Speaker 1: and then begins steadily making his way toward him, Frozen
Speaker 1: with fear at first, as the figure draws closer and closer,
Speaker 1: Michael finally pulls his hands from his pocket and speeds
Speaker 1: off in the opposite direction. It is two days later
Speaker 1: when Joseph Mayer arrives at the property to deliver Andreas's paper,
Speaker 1: only to find the place completely deserted, with no sign
Speaker 1: of Andreas or anyone else for that matter, to be found.
Speaker 1: The courtyard unnervingly quiet save for the gentle lowing of
Speaker 1: the cattle coming from inside the barn. Assuming they are
Speaker 1: out working the field somewhere. Joseph leaves the paper on
Speaker 1: the kitchen windowsill and heads off to continue his round.
Speaker 1: It is sometime around midday on Tuesday, April fourth when
Speaker 1: machinist Albert Hofner arrives at hinto Kaifek to make repairs
Speaker 1: to the family's threshing machine. A cold wind whips around
Speaker 1: him as he pulls up to the courtyard gate on
Speaker 1: his bicycle, surprised to find that it's still locked. After
Speaker 1: waiting unsuccessfully for over an hour for someone to meet him,
Speaker 1: Albert makes his way to the engine room. Grateful to
Speaker 1: find the lock is broken, he lets himself inside and
Speaker 1: sets to work on the machine. Four and a half
Speaker 1: hours later, there is still no sign of the family.
Speaker 1: With the work completed, Albert heads into the courtyard and
Speaker 1: notices for the first time that the barn door is
Speaker 1: wide open. I'm sure if it was before. He moves
Speaker 1: toward it, calling out for Andreas or Victoria, but is
Speaker 1: met with only silence. Peering into the darkness beyond, he
Speaker 1: sees only the cattle inside and some hay piled up
Speaker 1: in the far corner. Hearing the dog suddenly barking manically,
Speaker 1: he wanders round to the front of the house and
Speaker 1: finds it tied up by the front door. Ignoring its cries.
Speaker 1: Albert cups his hands over the glass and peers inside
Speaker 1: to the kitchen, but sees nothing untoward. Turning back, he
Speaker 1: takes one final look at the empty field to the
Speaker 1: stretch of forest beyond, then heads off to find his bicycle.
Speaker 1: It's just gone five p m. When farmer Michael Pearl,
Speaker 1: another neighbor of the Grubers, hears a knock at his door.
Speaker 1: He opens it to find a nervous looking Lorenz Schlittenbauer
Speaker 1: and their neighbor Jakob Sig, waiting for him. After hearing
Speaker 1: about Albert Hofnan's strange experience at the farm, Lorenz had
Speaker 1: grown increasingly concerned about the Gruber family and his apparent
Speaker 1: son Joseph's whereabouts. With the young Cecilia not having been
Speaker 1: seen at school since Saturday, all was eerily quiet as
Speaker 1: the three men stepped into hint Kyfec's deserted courtyard, the
Speaker 1: silence only coming more deafening when their desperate cause for
Speaker 1: Victoria and Andreas brought no reply. Finding all doors to
Speaker 1: the property now completely shut and locked up save for
Speaker 1: the engine room, the men made their way inside from
Speaker 1: the back, only to find that through door to the
Speaker 1: barn had been deliberately blocked from behind with a beam
Speaker 1: of wood. After finally managing to dislodge it, and with
Speaker 1: the light quickly beginning to fade, the men carried on
Speaker 1: into the barn beyond the sudden appearance of a cow
Speaker 1: wandering freely around inside startled them momentarily as they continued
Speaker 1: forward into the dark, feeling for obstacles with their feet,
Speaker 1: when suddenly Michael cried out, Hey, there's something here. Michael
Speaker 1: pulled back and realized with horror it was a foot.
Speaker 1: Whoever it was, was lying under a large plank of
Speaker 1: wood that had been put on top of them. Together,
Speaker 1: the men pulled the wood to the side and revealed
Speaker 1: the body of Andreas Gruber underneath, dressed in trousers and undershirt,
Speaker 1: thickly matted with blood and crudely covered over with hay.
Speaker 1: Pulling the body out, the men recoiled at the sight
Speaker 1: of its face. The right side of it was completely
Speaker 1: smashed in, its cheekbones clearly visible. But then Lorenz saw
Speaker 1: the other limbs all packed underneath. Together. Pulling out one
Speaker 1: after the other, the men revealed the bodies of seven
Speaker 1: year old Cecilia, dressed in her night skirt, her mother.
Speaker 1: Victoria and her mother Cecilia, both fully dressed and hideously mutilated,
Speaker 1: their clothes and faces black with blood. Michael and Jakob
Speaker 1: wretched at the sight of them and stumbled back into
Speaker 1: the courtyard, desperate for air. A moment later, Lorenz appeared
Speaker 1: in the yard, having opened the front door to the
Speaker 1: main house from inside, and beckoned for the other two
Speaker 1: to help him search for his son. They found him
Speaker 1: in the stroller at the foot of Victoria's bed, his
Speaker 1: body partially covered with one of Victoria's jackets. He'd been
Speaker 1: killed by a heavy blow to the face. Finally, after
Speaker 1: almost missing her. At first, Michael noticed a pair of
Speaker 1: legs peeking out from under the bed in the maid's quarters.
Speaker 1: It was Maria, her clothes and face also soaked black
Speaker 1: with blood. As Michael and Jakob struggled to make sense
Speaker 1: of it all, an eerily calm Lawrence returned to Victoria's bedroom, and,
Speaker 1: having found a candle, sat down quietly on the bed
Speaker 1: and lit it. Outside, all about the land was silent
Speaker 1: and still, save for the gentle rustle of wind in
Speaker 1: the pines and the occasional wail of cattle coming from
Speaker 1: that solitary white stone building of hinter Kaifek. The cars
Speaker 1: turned off the main road and headed deeper into the fields,
Speaker 1: toward the small solitary light in the distance. Behind it,
Speaker 1: a vast wall of trees, silhouetted under a pale half moon,
Speaker 1: stood still and black, growing ever taller the closer they got,
Speaker 1: and on they continued, toward the light that seemed to
Speaker 1: be luring them in like a silent, haunting beacon, toward
Speaker 1: an unfathomable horror. Inside the cars, a team of investigators
Speaker 1: from Eunich, led by fifty five year old George Hinruber,
Speaker 1: as well as mayor gregor of Wangen, the next village
Speaker 1: East German, prepared themselves for the worst. The local district police,
Speaker 1: having been first to arrive on the scene at hint Kaifek,
Speaker 1: had quickly realized they were woefully out of their depth.
Speaker 1: They had called in the Munich force in a desperate
Speaker 1: plea for help. Ryan Gruber's team hadn't arrived in the
Speaker 1: area until after one am, prompting them to spend the
Speaker 1: night at the mayor's residence in Vangen before making their
Speaker 1: way to the farm first thing in the morning. It
Speaker 1: had just gone six a m. When the cars finally
Speaker 1: pulled into the courtyard on Wednesday, April fifth. As the
Speaker 1: seven officers, two police dogs, and the mayor stepped out
Speaker 1: into the chilly morning air, Lorenz Schlittenbauer appeared at the
Speaker 1: front door of the main house, his footsteps echoing about
Speaker 1: the courtyard as he approached. Lorenz quickly introduced himself as
Speaker 1: one of the men who'd first found the bodies, and
Speaker 1: that he'd been there all night guarding the scene for them.
Speaker 1: Ryan was struck immediately by the man's odd nervous energy,
Speaker 1: a natural consequence perhaps of the fact he hadn't slept
Speaker 1: since the night before, but as to why he'd taken
Speaker 1: it on himself to stay at the property, he was
Speaker 1: less sure. As Lorenz continued to babble about everything he
Speaker 1: knew of the family and how he discovered the bodies,
Speaker 1: Brian Gruber eventually interrupted. Perhaps he said, we should take
Speaker 1: a look for ourselves, and so as the first light
Speaker 1: of dawn began to break, Lorenz turned and led the
Speaker 1: investigator and his team into the barn. The bodies of
Speaker 1: Andreas and the young Cecilia had been placed against the
Speaker 1: far wall, a small pool of blood on the hay,
Speaker 1: in the spot where they'd first been found. The other
Speaker 1: two bodies, those of Victoria and the elder Cecilia, had
Speaker 1: been pulled through a doorway into a stable corridor linking
Speaker 1: the barn to the main house. When asked why the
Speaker 1: bodies had been moved, Lorenz explained that he was looking
Speaker 1: for his son, who at first he thought might be
Speaker 1: there too. Ryan Gruper made a quick inspection of their injuries,
Speaker 1: then turned his attention to the door between the two areas.
Speaker 1: It was covered in blood splatter. There was something else,
Speaker 1: said Lawrence, leading the inspector through to the stable corridor that,
Speaker 1: he said, pointing to a pickaxe leaning up against a
Speaker 1: feeding trough in the corner. He'd found it the day before,
Speaker 1: he said. The inspector took a closer look, noticing a
Speaker 1: few dark spots on the handle, but little else. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the cattle had licked it clean, suggested Lorenz. Perhaps, said
Speaker 1: Ryan Grueber in reply. Lorenz then led the team into
Speaker 1: the kitchen while two of the officers made their way
Speaker 1: into the attic. Ryan Gruber took note of the now
Speaker 1: moldy food that had been left out in a pan
Speaker 1: and blood spots on the stone floor as they continued through,
Speaker 1: arriving at the doorway to maria the maid's room. Running
Speaker 1: his hand over the door frame, the inspector spotted a
Speaker 1: few splatters and some more on the ground, but no
Speaker 1: bloody hand or footprints. Looking through, he saw Maria's body
Speaker 1: partially obscured by a mattress, lying in a fetal position.
Speaker 1: Evidently she had been attacked while preparing for bed, perhaps
Speaker 1: crouching down for cover in a vain attempt to protect herself.
Speaker 1: Next was Victoria's room. The place appeared to have been ransacked,
Speaker 1: with cupboards flung open and the bed unmade a watch,
Speaker 1: and an empty purse had been left out on top
Speaker 1: of it, prompting ryin Gruber to wonder if theft had
Speaker 1: been the motive. Lorenz informed him that the family was
Speaker 1: said to have kept around one hundred thousand marks at
Speaker 1: the property, close to four thousand US dollars in today's money.
Speaker 1: The inspector approached the baby stroller at the end of
Speaker 1: the bed and pulled back the dress that was draped
Speaker 1: over it to reveal the blood soaked baby Joseph underneath,
Speaker 1: his face, unrecognizable from the blows. The hood of the
Speaker 1: pram had also been torn apart, suggesting it had been
Speaker 1: closed when the killer struck. Perhaps even they had found
Speaker 1: the thought of killing a baby too much and couldn't
Speaker 1: bear to have to see what they were doing. That
Speaker 1: all the bodies had been covered over without any real
Speaker 1: attempt to hide them was an indication, perhaps of the
Speaker 1: killer's sense of shame, a shame likely only felt by
Speaker 1: someone who knew the victims. Ryan Gruper stared up at
Speaker 1: the three religious icons hanging on the wall above the
Speaker 1: bed and the three crucifixes hanging underneath them. Then a
Speaker 1: call came down from the attic above Ryin. Gruber's men
Speaker 1: were standing to the side in a section of the
Speaker 1: attic above the stable corridor, pointing at something on the
Speaker 1: hay covered floor. As Ryan Gruber drew near, he caught
Speaker 1: the unmistakable noxious whiff of it. It was human excrement.
Speaker 1: There were also bacon rines scattered about two and two
Speaker 1: indentations in the hay, suggesting the possibility of two perpetrators.
Speaker 1: Then one of the officers noticed a kink of light
Speaker 1: coming through the roof. Moving toward it, he found that
Speaker 1: a number of tiles there had been loosened. A similar
Speaker 1: set of loose tiles were found in another section of
Speaker 1: the attic over the main bar. Anyone looking out of
Speaker 1: the gaps in the roof would have had a clear
Speaker 1: view of the courtyard and the entrance to the main
Speaker 1: house had they been watching the family. Ryan Gruber thought
Speaker 1: the family's bread supply, usually well stocked, was empty, while
Speaker 1: some smoked meat appeared to have been taken after their
Speaker 1: deaths in their absence. The livestock had also been watered
Speaker 1: and fed, all in all, suggesting that whoever had done
Speaker 1: this had not been gone long. After a thorough search
Speaker 1: of the house investigators uncovered around fifteen thousand marks in
Speaker 1: various denominations of cash and gold, but no sign of
Speaker 1: the one hundred thousand marks that Lorenz claimed was kept
Speaker 1: at the property. With the bodies having been moved, it
Speaker 1: was difficult to ascertain who had been murdered first, but
Speaker 1: aside from baby Joseph and Maria, it seemed reasonable to
Speaker 1: assume the victims had been lured into the barn one
Speaker 1: by one and then bludgeoned violently to death. Since seven
Speaker 1: year old Cecilia hadn't been seen at school on Saturday,
Speaker 1: the murders were considered to have taken place on the
Speaker 1: night of Friday, March thirty first, only hours after Maria
Speaker 1: Baumgartner had arrived at the farm to begin her new job.
Speaker 1: Just then, Ryan Gruber heard a commotion outside and stepped
Speaker 1: into the courtyard to find a small crowd of onlookers
Speaker 1: had gathered at the edge of the property, desperate to
Speaker 1: see the murder scene for themselves. It was early in
Speaker 1: the afternoon when doctor Johann al Mulla, the district court doctor,
Speaker 1: arrived from the nearby town of Neuburg at Donau, to
Speaker 1: carry out the autopsies one by one The bodies were
Speaker 1: taken from out of the farmhouse and laid side by
Speaker 1: side in the middle of the courtyard as the ever
Speaker 1: growing crowd of onlookers jostled for the best view. A
Speaker 1: door was placed over two wooden trestles as a makeshift table,
Speaker 1: and then, with the help of two porters and Clark
Speaker 1: assistant twenty seven year old Heinrich Neay, the first of
Speaker 1: the bodies was lifted on to it. The bodies were
Speaker 1: pale and gray, the skin like rubber, with liver mortise
Speaker 1: and dark patches underneath where the blood had pulled. For Andreas,
Speaker 1: death had come quickly, having been bludgeoned to death with
Speaker 1: a blunt object that pulverized the right side of his face.
Speaker 1: Maria Baumgartner and the young Joseph were similarly killed with
Speaker 1: heavy blows to the head and face. Victoria and her
Speaker 1: mother's injuries, however, were subtly different, suggesting they'd endured something
Speaker 1: even worse. Both displayed bruising around the neck as if
Speaker 1: they'd been strangled before being beaten. Both their skulls had
Speaker 1: been smashed, but Victoria also had nine peculiar star shaped
Speaker 1: puncture wounds in hers. The crowd gasped as seven year
Speaker 1: old Cecilia's body was lifted from the ground and placed
Speaker 1: on the table. The lower jaw was shattered and her
Speaker 1: head smashed, but there was also a huge gaping wound
Speaker 1: on her neck, suggesting the weapon had not only been blunt,
Speaker 1: but sharp too. Doctor al Mulla noticed something scrunched up
Speaker 1: in her right hand. Prying the fingers open, he found
Speaker 1: a clump of Cecilia's hair inside. The doctor concluded that
Speaker 1: she'd likely survived for some time after the attack and
Speaker 1: had clawed it out of her own head in the
Speaker 1: agony and confusion. Having finished his investigations, doctor al Mulla
Speaker 1: reached for his surgical sore and began methodically to remove
Speaker 1: Cecilia's head from the body, a thick, bluish blood oozing
Speaker 1: onto the table as he went. The process was repeated
Speaker 1: for each of the bodies, with the heads being bagged
Speaker 1: up and sent to the Pathology Institute at the University
Speaker 1: of Munich for further investigation. With the autopsies complete, Heinrich
Speaker 1: and the porters gathered each headless body onto a stretcher
Speaker 1: and returned them to the barn, Having brought the rest
Speaker 1: of the bodies in the young Cecilias was the last
Speaker 1: to be returned, placing the headless corpse onto the stretcher.
Speaker 1: The porters each grabbed an end and headed toward the
Speaker 1: barn as Heinrich Neay followed close behind. As the porters
Speaker 1: stepped inside, one of them cried out in horror and
Speaker 1: dropped the stretcher, knocking the body to the floor. Heinrich
Speaker 1: ran inside and found them pointing toward a thick line
Speaker 1: of rope hanging down from a beam at the base
Speaker 1: of the hayloft above. Heinrich stared up in utter amusement,
Speaker 1: then looked to the others in stunned silence. The rope
Speaker 1: had not been there when they last came into the barn.
Speaker 1: Taking a breath, Heinrich pulled a ladder from the side
Speaker 1: and carefully made his way up to the loft. Pulling
Speaker 1: at the knot, he could feel just how tight it was,
Speaker 1: as if a significant weight had only just been applied
Speaker 1: to it, and there, right next to it in the
Speaker 1: dust on the beam was a set of freshly made handprints.
Speaker 1: With police rushing in to investigate, the search dog sniffed
Speaker 1: eagerly at the rope for a cent and though an
Speaker 1: effort was made to track it, it was quickly lost
Speaker 1: out in the fields. With the investigation of the crime
Speaker 1: scene finished, lead investigator Rhyin Gruber turned his attention to Loreen,
Speaker 1: Schlittenback and the two other men Michael Pearl and Jacob Siegel,
Speaker 1: who'd first discovered the bodies. After explaining again why he'd
Speaker 1: moved the bodies and decided to stay overnight at the property,
Speaker 1: Lorenz was keen to justify his decision, insisting that his
Speaker 1: being there had helped to keep anyone else from entering
Speaker 1: the house until Ryan Gruber and his team arrived. This, however,
Speaker 1: was a lie, as reported by many others. As soon
Speaker 1: as word had got out, a number of villagers had
Speaker 1: descended on the property, keen to see the murder scene.
Speaker 1: Lorenz had not only welcomed them, but shown them around
Speaker 1: the property himself. One man had even paused in the
Speaker 1: kitchen to fix himself a snack. But there were other
Speaker 1: concerning things too. It was strange, thought Michael Pearl when
Speaker 1: giving his statement later how Lawrence had managed to unlock
Speaker 1: the front door and let them into the property in
Speaker 1: the first place. Lawrence himself had told him that Andreas
Speaker 1: had complained about one of his house keys going missing.
Speaker 1: Lorenz maintained that he'd merely found it sticking out of
Speaker 1: the lock when he went to open the door for
Speaker 1: Jakob Siegel. It was the strangeness of Lorenz's calm demeanor
Speaker 1: and eagerness to move the bodies that most stuck out
Speaker 1: to him. Despite his and Michael's protestations that they should
Speaker 1: leave the scene untouched, Lorens ignored them immediately after finding
Speaker 1: the bodies. As Siegel explained, he'd set about fetching milk
Speaker 1: from the cellar to feed the pigs and rearranging other
Speaker 1: parts of the house. At one point, he'd even suggested
Speaker 1: that Yakob go into the hayloft and throw down some
Speaker 1: hay for the cattle to eat, but Yakob refused, and
Speaker 1: he and Michael left the property soon after, wanting nothing
Speaker 1: more to do with it. Michael was so suspicious of
Speaker 1: Lorence's behavior, according to Yakob, that he accused him then
Speaker 1: and there of being the murderer, although in his own
Speaker 1: statement Michael neglected to apportion any blame. It was certainly
Speaker 1: well known amongst the community what Lawrence's feelings were toward
Speaker 1: Victoria as it turned out, he'd actually gone as far
Speaker 1: as to ask for her hand in marriage, only to
Speaker 1: be denied it by her father Andreas. Investigator Ryan Gruber
Speaker 1: also spoke to Francisca, Maria Baumgartner's sister, and Bernard Gruber,
Speaker 1: Andreas's brother, but nothing valuable was ascertained. In the end,
Speaker 1: Ryan Grueber concluded that although Lorenz's behavior was bizarre, it
Speaker 1: wasn't in itself evidence that the man was guilty of
Speaker 1: the crime. On the morning of Saturday, April eighth, a
Speaker 1: crowd of up to three thousand people watched as six
Speaker 1: coffins were transported to the cemetery of vader Hoffen parish Church,
Speaker 1: where only seven years previously Victoria and Carl had been married.
Speaker 1: The five bodies of the Gruber and Gabriel family and
Speaker 1: that of their maid, Maria Baumgartner, the adults on the
Speaker 1: outside and the two children in the middle, were lowered
Speaker 1: down into a mass grave and buried there together with
Speaker 1: no fresh leads. Munich police announced a reward of one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand marks to anyone offering information that might lead
Speaker 1: to the arrest of a perpetrator, equivalent to twenty thousand
Speaker 1: U s. Dollars in today's money. This was soon increased
Speaker 1: to half a million marks, likely due to the hyperinflation
Speaker 1: that had begun to take hold of the country in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of defeat in the First World War, and
Speaker 1: though a flurry of suspects were offered by numerous locals,
Speaker 1: spurred on by the promise of the reward, nothing came
Speaker 1: of them. In the evening of May two, nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: three people are gathered round a table in a dark,
Speaker 1: oak paneled room somewhere in Nuremberg. On the table sit
Speaker 1: a number of unopened packages. Two of the group a
Speaker 1: retired public prosecutor and parapsychologist Dr Joseph Boehm, which on
Speaker 1: in quiet expectation as the third, self described medium Elen Jurgen's,
Speaker 1: or Miss Hugh, as she prefers to be known, sits
Speaker 1: deep in concentration with her eyes closed, when suddenly she
Speaker 1: opens them. There is something there, she says, pointing at
Speaker 1: the largest of the packages. A man that does not belong.
Speaker 1: He looks small, poor and depraved. I see a village,
Speaker 1: a house like a farmhouse. There is a room that
Speaker 1: goes out at the back, and someone hears something Monsieur
Speaker 1: gathers the package in her arms. It's deadly cold and eerie.
Speaker 1: She says. There is a small child, a boy strangled, suffocated,
Speaker 1: crushed in a bed, a young woman, old woman, old man,
Speaker 1: another child. Are the people Catholic? Doctor Baum moves forward
Speaker 1: with excitement. Yes, he says, yes. Someone screams something about
Speaker 1: the child six years Is there a six year old child? Close,
Speaker 1: says Baum again. Monsieur places the large package back on
Speaker 1: the table, inside which are the five skulls of the
Speaker 1: Gruber and Gabriel family. Then she grabs a smaller package.
Speaker 1: This one has Marie's skull inside it. There is someone
Speaker 1: else there too. Her name is Marie, looks like a maid.
Speaker 1: Does she have anything to do with it or not?
Speaker 1: Is she dead too, Marie? Yes, I have the feeling
Speaker 1: that she is dead too. She talked to a man
Speaker 1: at the front door. He had high boots with trousers
Speaker 1: tucked inside them, made from something like leather. He has
Speaker 1: no beard, but used to have one. He was suspicious
Speaker 1: of the farmer. There came a few days beforehand to
Speaker 1: figure everything out. Like God, they'd watched all the people
Speaker 1: saying to themselves that it must be done. It was
Speaker 1: over in five minutes, and standing watch over the bodies
Speaker 1: as each one fell, Monsieur sensed another man or his spirit,
Speaker 1: at least the father of the young girl, who'd wanted
Speaker 1: nothing more than to intervene, but could only watch on
Speaker 1: helplessly from the other realm. The self described medium Elene Jurgens,
Speaker 1: had contacted the police to offer her services, and with
Speaker 1: little else to go on, there seemed no harm in
Speaker 1: seeing what she had to say. After providing her with
Speaker 1: the skulls, she and her partner in trade, Miss Burr,
Speaker 1: spent two days attempting to discern clues from the spirit world.
Speaker 1: Despite both painting a compelling picture of a possible suspect
Speaker 1: in a highly theatrical performance, they provided little of significance
Speaker 1: to the police, with the exception of one thing. Both
Speaker 1: Miss Yeur and Miss Burr were adamant that two murder
Speaker 1: weapons had been used, one described strangely as being both
Speaker 1: blunt and sharp, something hideous that was more wide than narrow.
Speaker 1: In June, a fierce battle for ownership of the farm
Speaker 1: was fought out by the Gruber and Gabriel families, with
Speaker 1: Victoria Gabriel's parents in law in Cis that since the
Speaker 1: young Cecilia had been the last to die, technically she
Speaker 1: was the final living owner of the property. Therefore the
Speaker 1: Gabriel family were now its legal owners. Eventually an agreement
Speaker 1: was made in which the Gabriels brought the farm from
Speaker 1: the grubers, but still no perpetrator could be found, and
Speaker 1: though some tourists of the still continued to visit the property,
Speaker 1: for most of the following year, the white Stone farm
Speaker 1: yard stood empty and still giving nothing away. Then in
Speaker 1: March nineteen twenty three, Carl Gabriel's father did what many
Speaker 1: had been hoping for, as he began the process of
Speaker 1: tearing the place down. At some point in the process,
Speaker 1: two carpenters who were disassembling the roof at the time
Speaker 1: noticed a couple of loose floorboards at the top of
Speaker 1: the stairs. After clearing away the hay, pulling them back,
Speaker 1: they were astonished to find a large mattock underneath. The
Speaker 1: farm tool that was used mainly for digging and chopping
Speaker 1: was comprised of a long wooden handle and a stout
Speaker 1: iron head with a small vertical blade on one side
Speaker 1: and a larger horizontal blade on the other. It was
Speaker 1: stained all over with blood. A large screw protruding from
Speaker 1: the base of the head matched exactly with the strange
Speaker 1: star shaped puncture wounds on Victoria's skull. A few days later,
Speaker 1: while excavating the barn, a penknife was also found close
Speaker 1: to where the bodies in the barn had been discovered.
Speaker 1: The discovery of the weapons renewed focus on the case.
Speaker 1: Even Victoria's supposedly deceased husband, Carl Gabriel, was considered a suspect,
Speaker 1: with some speculating that perhaps he'd faked his death during
Speaker 1: the war and turn to exact revenge on Andreas and
Speaker 1: his family. Former soldier Adolf Gump also became a leading
Speaker 1: suspect at one point, having been accused of participating in
Speaker 1: the massacre of nine farmers in a politically motivated attack
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty one. Then in nineteen thirty seven, two
Speaker 1: brothers of Carl Gabriel was said to have confess to
Speaker 1: their maid that they had committed the crime. The pair
Speaker 1: were arrested and released without charge, but before long, with
Speaker 1: the rise of Adolf Hitler's government and a Second World
Speaker 1: War on the horizon, the events at hint Kifec were
Speaker 1: soon to be dwarfed in comparison by even greater horrors.
Speaker 1: Lauren Schlittenbauer, whom Many considered the prime suspect in the case,
Speaker 1: died in nineteen forty one. The following year, a bombing
Speaker 1: raid on Munich destroyed most of the case evidence, taking
Speaker 1: with it two the six skulls of the victims. Case
Speaker 1: would be reopened again once the dust of war had settled,
Speaker 1: and though more suspects were proposed by then, there was
Speaker 1: little hope of finding anything significant enough to make a
Speaker 1: successful conviction. Today, the killings at hinter Kaifak Farm are
Speaker 1: widely considered to be one of Germany's most infamous unsolved murders.
Speaker 1: And though the farmhouse has long gone from that quiet
Speaker 1: patch of central Bavaria, the earth soaked with the sweat
Speaker 1: and blood of those who have come before, and those tall,
Speaker 1: dark pines that care not for the foibles of humankind remain,
Speaker 1: thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained as an Avy
Speaker 1: Club production, the podcast created by Richard mclin Smith. All
Speaker 1: other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also
Speaker 1: produced by me Richard McLean Smith. Unexplained. The book and
Speaker 1: audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase
Speaker 1: from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your
Speaker 1: own you'd like to share. You can find out more
Speaker 1: at Unexplained podcast dot com and reach uses online through
Speaker 1: x and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
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