WEBVTT - S05 Episode 9: Tenebrous (Pt. 1 of 2) 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.040 The following episode involves scenes of sexual abuse that some 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:17.759 may find disturbing. Parental discretion is advised. There was once 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.239 a place deep in the rural hinterland of Bavaria in 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.520 southern Germany, Positioned half a kilometer to the west of 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.080 the village of Grubon. It sat quiet and still alone 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:35.000 in the fields, surrounded by thick pine forest. A farmhouse 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.000 made of stone and painted white. The farm, known as 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.600 hinter Kaifek, had passed through many hands over the years, 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.320 all of which had, at one time or another worked 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.480 the rich, dark earth that surrounded it, sewing it, tilling it, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.840 and pulling from it. Fingers plunged deep into the black 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.960 of it, and all had, in one way or another, 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.520 left a piece of themselves in it too. By eighteen 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.240 eighty six, the property had been passed to Cecilia Assam 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.360 and Andreas Gruber, the pair having taken ownership of it 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:17.160 shortly after the death of Cecilia's first husband, Joseph, for 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.880 Cecilia left to run the farm and raise two young 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:26.240 children alone. Andreas was an apt partner, a farm laborer 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.000 with an intense and quiet disposition. His hands were strong 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.800 and his shoulders broad enough for them all, not that 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:38.520 Cecilia's weren't also, and so in April eighteen eighty six, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:44.600 Cecilia Assam became Cecilia Gruber, and together she and Andreas 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.639 worked the farm and the surrounding fields, maintaining a fine 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.800 and stable business. In eighteen eighty seven, new life arrives 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.920 in the form of a baby girl named Victoria. She 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.440 is joined by Sophie two years later, and for those 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.480 first few years joy threatens to reign a hint kaifek, 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.400 But the joy is short lived. Like almost twenty percent 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.919 of children in the local district at the time, Sophie 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.839 does not live to see her second birthday. And now 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.919 a cloud is descending over this stark white property, cast 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.040 a drift from the nearby town and seeming to move 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.680 further away with each passing day, the forests surrounding it 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.280 seeming to grow ever denser, and the trees looming ever taller. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.080 It is a natural habit of humans to project onto 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.680 all that we see, and no more so than with 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:47.639 our interpretations of the forest. For some, the forest is 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.960 foreboding a locusts for unknown dangers that lurk deep within. 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.280 But the forest does not think itself foreboding the forest 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:02.240 just is, And yet for hinter Kaifek, it is hard 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.079 not to read those tall, thick pines that surrounded the farm, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.239 and the gloom of the forest beyond, as some kind 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:14.160 of psychic projection emanating from the darkness festering inside that 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.919 white stone building, a darkness that would one day come 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.679 to define that land in more ways than one. How 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.800 fitting too that the patch of woodland closest to the 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:31.560 farm should be called hex and Holtz, or the Witch's forest, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.360 the notion of the witch often being just a projection 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.920 of our own innate fears of the other, but also two, 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:44.480 as woman's suffragist Matilda Josly Engage once noted, the fear 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:49.400 of women. But perhaps it isn't just fear that manifests 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:54.800 this patriarchal image of the malevolent witch, but guilt too. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:08.200 You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClean smith. The 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.040 couple looked happy enough as they stood reciting their vows 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.600 under the watchful eyes of the priest. As they stepped 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.760 out of the church arm in arm. Some say, for 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.320 a brief moment, the clouds above parted and a ray 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:27.520 of sunshine slipped through. Perhaps the bride are now twenty 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.640 six year old Victoria saw it too, and perhaps for 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.200 a moment there was even the hint of a smile 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.960 as she looked into the eyes of her new husband, 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.560 Carl Gabriel, and saw there the hope of a better future, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.719 a future safe from harm and full of warmth for 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.960 the child that would surely come. But such thoughts were 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.680 never kept long in her mind before the sight of 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:59.840 her father, Andreas Gruber dissolved them instantly, that unmoving, impassive face, 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.960 ever present, always watching the sight of him, never failing 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.159 to catch in her throat, congealing like thick black tar. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.360 There had long been rumors about the man, about how 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.360 he regularly beat his wife, Cecilia, now sixty four years 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.719 old and nine years his senior, but that wasn't all. 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.880 It was said to be common knowledge amongst the local 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.960 farming community and in the village of Grubon de Tandreas 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.960 regularly raped his daughter, although it wasn't called rape at 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:42.279 the time. Perhaps Carl knew this too when he married Victoria, 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.960 and perhaps there was a hope that their marriage might 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.520 put an end to the abuse. Or perhaps, as some 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:52.719 have suggested the union was more pragmatic than that that 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.480 it merely offered a buffer for Victoria and an opportunity 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.599 for Karl and indeed the wider Gabriel family to gain 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:05.840 access to a successful, if modest business. Only a month 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.359 before their wedding, Andreas transferred all the rights to the 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.719 farm to his daughter, making her the sole heir to 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:17.560 the property. By marrying Victoria, Carl had guaranteed that any 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:24.240 children of theirs would inherit the land. But for some possessions, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.880 or at least what they consider to be their possessions, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.960 are not so easy to let go of, and no 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.600 matter where they turned nor what time of day, there 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.320 would be Andreas, who, along with Cecilia, remained living at 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:50.920 the property, standing watch stone, faced deep in thought. Barely 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:55.240 weeks after the wedding, Carl moved back home to his parents, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.160 complaining that he was being bullied and that the fierce 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:03.240 and uncompromising Andreas had even taken to starving him. But 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.360 just as Andreas cast his shadow over hinter kaifek So 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.679 two were other larger shadows being steadily drawn across the land. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.400 In late June of nineteen fourteen comes the news that 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.640 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria Hungary, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.440 has been shot dead. The rickety, stumbling wheel of human 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:30.520 civilization takes another lurch from the path and wobbles inexorably 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.000 toward war, and so the men are summoned by appeals 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.240 to duty and valor. Perhaps it is with trepidation that 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.800 Carl packs up the few belongings he'll need and marches 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.320 out of the farm toward Munich to sign up, leaving 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:51.040 behind and now four months pregnant, Victoria. Or perhaps at 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.840 the sight of the stone faced Andreas, pausing briefly from 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.640 his work in the field to nod goodbye to his 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:03.440 son in law, it is with relief before long. It 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.360 is December twelfth, nineteen fourteen, eight hundred kilometers to the 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.320 northwest of hint Kaifek. A crow swoops down above a 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.280 field just north of the town of Arras, coming to rest, 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.840 and what remains of an old beech tree in the 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.960 field below, freshly scarred and pockmarked by shelling, there lies 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:30.360 a body, its forehead split open and the lower jaw obliterated, 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:36.240 its pale vacant eyes staring up toward a slowly darkening sky. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.000 The crow cause and swoops down for closer inspection, but 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:47.000 a hand quickly shoes it away. Joseph Bickler, a farmer 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.520 from vadeh Hoffen, a town close to Gruben, stands over 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.360 the body, recognizing it instantly as that of his old 0:08:54.440 --> 0:09:00.520 school friend Carl Gabriel. The following week, back at hinter Kaifek, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.920 a now heavily pregnant, Victoria watches from the window as 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:10.440 postal worker Joseph Meyer draws near to the house. With him, 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.800 he carries a copy of Andreas's regular paper and a 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.760 letter addressed to Victoria written by Joseph Bickler, informing her 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.200 of her husband's death. But Victoria has little time to 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.240 grieve when three weeks later she gives birth to her 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.280 first child, whom she names Cecilia after her mother. But 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.720 still the rumors refuse to go away, as many in 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.880 the village are left wandering is the child karls or 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:49.040 is it her father's. At some point in early nineteen fifteen, 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.000 a complaint is brought to the local police that Andreas 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.520 was committing incest with his daughter. After a formal investigation, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.640 rumor becomes fact when on May twenty eighth, Andreas is 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.400 convicted for the offense, with the court deciding to limit 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.800 the period of the crime to the year's nineteen oh 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.800 seven to nineteen ten, when Victoria was aged twenty to 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:16.280 twenty three. This was most likely an arbitrary decision to 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.440 avoid looking into accusations that it had in fact been 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.160 going on much longer than that, and thereby allowing Andreas 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.720 the opportunity to escape the accusation of child abuse. He 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.600 is sentenced to one year in prison. Such was the 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.880 attitude of the day. Victoria was considered to be a 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.720 willing participant in the abuse, and as such was also 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:44.160 convicted for the crime. On January tenth, nineteen sixteen, a 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:48.360 day after her daughter's first birthday, Victoria was taken to 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.000 Neuburg Prison to spend the first of thirty days behind 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:58.280 bars for one relatively blissful year. Victoria and her mother 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:03.960 Cecilia run the farm with help from their maid kretchens Raiger. Together, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.959 they manage all the livestock and harvest the fields. On Sundays, 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.440 Victoria makes the short journey to the village of Vaidhoffen 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.240 to attend the trade fair, and on occasion joins the 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.440 church choir to sing. She is praised widely for her 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.840 voice and is known by the nickname the Lark of 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:30.120 hinter Kaifek. But in February nineteen seventeen, Andreas returns, and 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.600 though Victoria continues to sing, something of her voice has changed. 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:41.040 In nineteen eighteen, Victoria begins a relationship with Lorenz Schlittenbauer, 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.360 her neighbor from the next farm over who is only 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.760 recently widowed. The affair is brief, with some blaming the 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:54.640 presence of Andreas for Lorenz's reluctance to pursue the relationship. However, 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:59.040 by the end of December, Victoria discovers she is pregnant again, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.959 and Lie nineteen nineteen, gives birth to a son, whom 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:09.040 she names Joseph. Now a single mother with two young children, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.040 Victoria is convinced that Lorenz is the father and approaches 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:18.400 him for financial support. In response, Lorenz, who suspects the 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:22.480 child might instead be Andrea's, reports her and her father 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:27.400 again to the police. With Andreas Julia arrested and awaiting 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.040 a second trial, Victoria pleads with Lorenz to drop the 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.680 charge and claim paternity of the child to help put 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:39.480 an end toward the salacious rumors. Lorenz later said that 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:46.040 despite agreeing to the claim, Victoria paid him to say it. Meanwhile, Cretans, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:51.600 the family's maid, is growing increasingly anxious. At night, she 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.120 hears unusual sounds in the house and what seemed like 0:12:55.160 --> 0:13:00.320 footsteps moving about the place. Sometimes her door even seems 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.600 to open on its own accord. One morning in the 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.040 summer of nineteen twenty one, after pulling up water from 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.640 the well, Kretchians is walking across the courtyard when she 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.120 hears a strange noise coming from the barn, unlike any 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.199 of the usual animal cries. Moving slowly into the barn, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.760 she catches sight of something in the corner and recoils 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:27.880 in horror. It is Andreas raping his daughter, who lies 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:33.240 motionless underneath him. Kretchians leaves the farm the following week. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.720 The winter of nineteen twenty one is especially cruel, with 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.360 freezing temperatures lasting well into the following year. By mid March, 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.480 there is still no end in sight, with frost and 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:57.200 snow a frequent occurrence. One gray afternoon, Victoria is walking 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.520 across the courtyard when she is distracted by a movement 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.240 to the south. Looking up, she can just make out 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.439 a lone figure standing at the edge of which is wood, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.600 that appears to be watching her. Looking away for a moment, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.120 she turns back to find that the figure has gone. 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.240 A few days later, when postal worker Joseph Meyer arrives 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.560 at the property, he has met by Andreas waving a 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:28.080 paper around a damp and muddy copy of the munich Zeitung. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.280 He'd found it while out in the field, close to 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.520 which is wood. He wants to know if Joseph has 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.040 dropped it, perhaps, but Joseph has never seen it before, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.560 and neither has he ever delivered one like it. Whosevers 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.600 it was, he suggests, was not local to the area. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.720 It is early in the morning of March twenty ninth 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.520 when Andreas is disturbed from bed by what sounds like 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.600 footsteps shuffling about in the attic above. Grabbing his rifle 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.840 and a flashlight, he makes his way through the darkness 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.360 toward the attic stairs and climbs up into the opening above, 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.840 each step creaking as he goes. Pointing the light into 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.160 the roof, he could see the whole attic stretched out 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.400 in both directions, empty save for some old patches of 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.640 straw that were scattered about, and the pieces of meat 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:27.000 hanging in the smoke house above the kitchen. On the 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.920 morning of Thursday, March thirtieth, Andreas heads toward the engine room, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.880 where much of the farmer's heavy equipment is kept. The 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.000 room is located at the southwest tip of the L 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.960 shaped farm, tacked on to the end of the barn. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.160 The snow is still thick on the ground as Andreas approaches, 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.960 to find that the padlock on the door is missing. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.960 What's more, there are two sets of footprints in the 0:15:54.040 --> 0:16:00.680 snow leading inside the building, but none coming out. A 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.880 confused Andreas stares down at the tracks and then up 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.960 toward which is wood where they seem to have come from. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.480 Andrea shouts for whoever is inside to come out, but 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.160 there is no reply. Pulling the door open, he's relieved 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.840 to find the place completely deserted and everything as he'd 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.680 left it. 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Later that night, after 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.960 a violent altercation with her husband, Cecilia Gruber is found 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.360 to be missing, prompting the rest of the family, including 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.680 seven year old Cecilia, to search or knight for her. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.280 Concern that she may have drowned herself, leads the family 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.240 to the banks of the river par a kilometer to 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.840 the south of the farm, but there is no sign 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:26.120 of her in the dark, icy water. The seventy two 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.919 year old Cecilia is finally found sitting silently on a 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.440 tree stump in the forest and is eventually coaxed back 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:38.199 to the farm. The following day, with things appearing to 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.439 have abated, the family are joined by forty five year 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:46.560 old Maria Baumgartner, who arrives accompanied by her sister Francisca, 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.480 to take on the roll of a living housemaid. Francisca 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.280 had helped secure the job for her sister, who, due 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.720 to her learning difficulties and the slight physical disability of 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.160 having one leg shorter than the other had often struggled 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:04.840 for work, her most recent job in the nearby town 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.880 of Unterwittelsbach having been terminated simply because the town's mayor 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:14.600 deemed her too unsightly for the local community. And though 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.320 Franciska had heard much about the Gruber family and what 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.560 was rumored to take place at hint Kaifek, it was 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.199 an opportunity too good to refuse for Maria. Even still, 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.560 it was hard not to feel a little trepidation when, 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.159 after helping her sister settle in, she made her goodbyes 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.600 and headed out of the property. With the wind picking 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.000 up and thick storm clouds beginning to gather in the 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.320 sky above, Franciska was approaching the main road when she 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.520 heard the voice of her sister calling out from behind her. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.600 Turning round, she saw Maria racing toward her for one 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:58.080 final good bye before they parted. After a brief hug, 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.600 Maria asked her sister to visit again soon, then turned 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:11.919 and headed back to the farm. It is late the 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.280 following night when local carpenter Michael Plockell trudges past the 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.520 property and spots a fire burning in the outdoor oven 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.520 and smoke billowing out of its chimney. Perhaps it was 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.440 the nauseating smell like burnt rags that caused him to stop, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.919 or perhaps it was just something in the quiet of 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.840 the night. But as he stares, he is taken aback 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.399 by the sudden movement of a figure stepping into the courtyard. 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.199 Michael watches as the figure slams the oven door, shut, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:48.360 points a flashlight in his direction, and then begins steadily 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:53.520 making his way toward him, Frozen with fear at first, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.919 as the figure draws closer and closer, Michael finally pulls 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.560 his hands from his pockets and speed off in the 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:07.040 opposite direction. It is two days later when Joseph Mayer 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:11.479 arrives at the property to deliver Andreas's paper, only to 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.960 find the place completely deserted, with no sign of Andreas 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.639 or anyone else for that matter, to be found. The 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.480 courtyard unnervingly quiet save for the gentle lowing of the 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:28.919 cattle coming from inside the barn, assuming they're out working 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.240 the field somewhere. Joseph leaves the paper on the kitchen 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:37.960 window sill and heads off to continue his round. It 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.600 is sometime around midday on Tuesday, April fourth, when machinist 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.520 Albert Hoffner arrives at hint Kaifek to make repairs to 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:51.800 the family's threshing machine. A cold wind whips around him 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:54.680 as he pulls up to the courtyard gate on his bicycle, 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.879 Surprised to find that it's still locked. After waiting unsuccessfully 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.200 for over an hour for someone to meet him, Albert 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.760 makes his way to the engine room. Grateful to find 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.359 the lock is broken, he lets himself inside and sets 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.240 to work on the machine. Four and a half hours later, 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.159 there is still no sign of the family. With the 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:22.240 work completed, Albert heads into the courtyard and notices for 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.080 the first time that the barn door is wide open. 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.280 I'm sure if it was before. He moves toward it, 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.600 calling out for Andreas or Victoria, but has met with 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:38.600 only silence. Peering into the darkness beyond, he sees only 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:42.000 the cattle inside and some hay piled up in the 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:47.080 far corner. Hearing the dog suddenly barking manically, he wanders 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.600 round to the front of the house and finds it 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.760 tied up by the front door. Ignoring its cries, Albert 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.960 cups his hands over the glass and peers inside to 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:03.960 the kitchen, but sees nothing untoward. Turning back, he takes 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.119 one final look at the empty field to the stretch 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:11.280 of forest beyond, then heads off to find his bicycle. 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.760 It's just gone five pm when farmer Michael Pearl, another 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.640 neighbor of the Grubers, here's a knock at his door. 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:30.080 He opens it to find a nervous looking Lorenz Schlittenbauer 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:35.120 and their neighbor Jacob Sig waiting for him. After hearing 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.359 about Albert Hoffner's strange experience at the farm, Lorenz had 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:43.400 grown increasingly concerned about the Gruber family and his apparent's 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.680 son Joseph's whereabouts. With the young Cecilia not having been 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:53.280 seen at school since Saturday, all was eerily quiet as 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:57.080 the three men stepped into hint of Kaife's deserted courtyard, 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.760 the silence only becoming more deaf when their desperate cause 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:07.200 for Victoria and Andreas brought no reply. Finding all doors 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:10.760 to the property now completely shut and locked up save 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:14.240 for the engine room, the men made their way inside 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:16.920 from the back, only to find that through door to 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:20.200 the barn had been deliberately blocked from behind with a 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.800 beam of wood. After finally managing to dislodge it, and 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.240 with the light quickly beginning to fade, the men carried 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:32.720 on into the barn beyond. The sudden appearance of a 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:37.920 cow wandering freely around inside startled them momentarily as they 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:42.240 continued forward into the dark, feeling for obstacles with their feet, 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:49.960 when suddenly Michael cried out, Hey, there's something here. Michael 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:54.480 pulled back and realized with horror it was a foot. 0:24:55.640 --> 0:24:58.439 Whoever it was, was lying under a large plank of 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:02.480 wood that had been put on top of them. Together, 0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:05.640 the men pulled the wood to the side and revealed 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:11.000 the body of Andreas Gruber underneath, dressed in trousers and undershirt, 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.200 thickly matted with blood and crudely covered over with hay. 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:19.760 Pulling the body out, the men recoiled at the sight 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.119 of its face. The right side of it was completely 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:29.080 smashed in, its cheek, bones clearly visible. But then Lorenz 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:33.920 saw the other limbs, all packed underneath together. Pulling out 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:37.320 one after the other, the men revealed the bodies of 0:25:37.400 --> 0:25:41.440 seven year old Cecilia, dressed in her night skirt, her 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:46.480 mother Victoria, and her mother Cecilia, both fully dressed and 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:54.000 hideously mutilated, their clothes and faces black with blood. Michael 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:57.359 and Jacob wretched at the sight of them and stumbled 0:25:57.359 --> 0:26:03.000 back into the courtyard, desperate for air. A moment later, 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:06.640 Lorenz appeared in the yard, having opened the front door 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:09.800 to the main house from inside, and beckoned for the 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:13.480 other two to help him search for his son. They 0:26:13.520 --> 0:26:16.240 found him in the stroller at the foot of Victoria's bed, 0:26:16.800 --> 0:26:20.880 his body partially covered with one of Victoria's jackets. He'd 0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:25.200 been killed by a heavy blow to the face. Finally, 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:29.280 after almost missing her at first, Michael noticed a pair 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:31.879 of legs peeking out from under the bed in the 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:37.560 maid's quarters. It was Maria, her clothes and face also 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:43.600 soaked black with blood. As Michael and Jacob struggled to 0:26:43.640 --> 0:26:47.800 make sense of it all, an eerily calm Lawrence returned 0:26:47.800 --> 0:26:52.200 to Victoria's bedroom, and, having found a candle, sat down 0:26:52.280 --> 0:26:59.400 quietly on the bed and lit it. Outside. All about 0:26:59.680 --> 0:27:02.960 the and was silent and still, save for the gentle 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:06.280 rustle of wind in the pines and the occasional wail 0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:10.919 of cattle coming from that solitary white stone building of 0:27:11.040 --> 0:27:21.159 Hinta Kaife. You've been listening to unexplained Season five, Episode nine, Tenebrous, 0:27:21.760 --> 0:27:25.880 Part one of two. Part two will be released next Friday, 0:27:26.520 --> 0:27:32.359 January twenty second. 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