WEBVTT - S05 Episode 9 Extra: When Night Falls 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.560 The following episode contains disturbing and graphic scenes that are 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:18.599 not suitable for children. Parental discretion is advised. Welcome to 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.759 Unexplained Extra with Me Richard McClane Smith, where for the 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.400 weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.840 that one reason or other didn't make it into the 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:32.159 previous show. In the last episode Tenebrus, one of the 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.160 darker episodes in recent times, we explored the disturbing story 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.280 of the nineteen twenty two murders on Hinta Kaifek farm 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:44.120 in southern Germany. It is undoubtedly a deeply unsettling mystery, 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.920 and one that feels oddly timeless too, with its power 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.160 to shock undiminished in the almost one hundred years since 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.840 it took place. I think what makes it most perplexing 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.480 for me is the combination of the fact that the 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.440 murderer or murderers, most likely he knew the family, yet 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.760 none of the suspects appeared to have motivation enough to 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:09.080 carry out such a devastating attack. Left with no answers, 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.800 it is almost tempting to believe that this wasn't a 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.720 human act at all, but the result of some terrible, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:19.920 supernatural judgment that swept through the property, killing Andreas for 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.120 his crimes and taking the others with him as collateral damage. 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.679 But despite the story's apparent singularity, it is by no 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.680 means the only strange and horrific event to have ever 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.440 occurred in human history. It wasn't even the only one 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:46.399 that day. The girls laughed as they made their way 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.040 back to the farmhouse, pulling their dresses above their ankles 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.280 as they skipped through the thick tufts of grass. They'd 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.880 been out feeding the horses before deciding to chase each 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.640 other back to the house, and had just stumbled into 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.120 the chart when one of them realized Pauline was no 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.560 longer with them. Even at only two and a half 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.600 years old, it wasn't unusual for Pauline to help her 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.360 brothers and sisters with the various errands around the farm. 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.280 Feeding the horses was one of her favorite chores, but 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.320 now she was missing. The girls turned and looked back 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.680 up to the hill, shouting for their sister to show herself, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.520 but saw only the stillness of the dark green fields 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:35.720 and the horses ambling about in the distance. The Picards 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.520 lived on their farm in the hamlet of goass Al 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.800 la Doux in the area of Sainte rivo Al, a 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.240 few kilometers east of Breast in the northwest of France, 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.799 surrounded by rolling hills of thick scrub and woodland. There 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.320 were eleven of them in total, with Pauline being the 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:59.600 second youngest of nine children. That night of April sixth, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.280 twenty two, as a while storm blew in from the 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.520 Aria Mountains, the family were joined by police search dogs 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.760 and close to one hundred and fifty volunteers as they 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.760 searched desperately for the little girl, trudging through thick tufts 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:18.360 of gorse in the wind and the rain, but no 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:23.120 sign of Pauline was found. With the family grief stricken, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.520 attentions soon turned to their farm hand, Christoph Karamon, who'd 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.320 been staying at the farm the night before. Karamon, who 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.720 was known to be overly tactile with the young girl, 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.720 had also previously served five years in prison for rape, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.080 having tracked him down three days later. However, working on 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.480 another farm six kilometers away, the police accepted Kerraman's story 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.720 that he was miles from the scene at the time, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.440 and though police continued to make inquiries with no sign 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.400 of Pauline in the weeks that followed, any hope of 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:03.360 finding her alive soon disappeared, But then something truly unexpected. 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:13.600 It was May eighth when two local police officers arrived 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.040 at the Peacard's farm bearing some unlikely news. A young 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.800 girl had been picked up in the northern port town 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.760 of Cherbourg, four hundred kilometers away by road, bearing an 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:29.800 uncanny resemblance to their missing daughter. Could this be Pauline, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.839 the officers asked as they passed a photograph of the 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.960 newly found toddler to Pauline's parents. The couple were stunned, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.480 clinging to each other as they poured at the picture, 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:46.760 daring themselves to believe it was true. The following day, 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.440 the couple made the agonizing trip by train to Cherbourg 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.599 to visit the girl in person. After arriving at the 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.159 orphanage where she'd been taken, they gasped as she was 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.760 brought into the room, their eyes filling with tears at 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:07.320 the sight of her, Pauline, They whispered, barely able to speak, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:12.760 the name, Is it's really you? The child stared back, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.240 a little unsure of them at first, then broke into 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:22.920 a wide smile, unable to resist any longer, the father, Francois, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:27.039 moved forward and swept her up into his arms. Look 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.479 she has her eyes, he said, holding her up toward 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.880 his wife, who, unlike her husband, was hesitant at first, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.599 but soon she was holding her too, noting the similarity 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.839 of the ears, and before long there was no denying it. 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:49.080 Pauline had been miraculously returned to them. After spending the 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.560 next few days in Cherbourg together, though the girl was 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.680 yet to even speak, the Peacards were eventually granted permission 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.960 to take her home, and so it was on May 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.520 eleventh that Pauline was returned to the farm and to 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.839 her grateful siblings, who took it in turns to pass around, 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.560 bombarding her with kisses and playfully scolding her not to 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.360 leave them again. Many of the families neighbors came by 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:19.000 two to witness the girl's incredible return. All remarked on 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.880 how extraordinary it was, and that though she seemed to 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.400 sum a little thinner than before, it was only natural 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.280 considering how long it had been since she disappeared. And 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.600 by the following day, Pauline was beginning to find her 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.200 voice again, laughing wildly as she chased the cat in 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.840 the yard, and though the police were still keen to 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.120 establish just how the girl had disappeared in the first place, 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.039 for the family, at least that she was alive and 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:51.120 seemingly well was all that mattered. It was a few 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.400 weeks after her return that neighbor Eve Martin appeared at 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.680 the farm asking to see Pauline. Thinking little of it, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.919 nearly everyone else had done the same, Pauline's mother kindly 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.480 showed her daughter off to the man. Then his face 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.400 went white, his mouth contorting in horrible ways, until finally 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.239 he blurted it out, God is fair. I am guilty. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.680 He cried, then turned and ran from the property. When 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.440 word reached police of the bizarre episode, they searched for 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.320 days for the man, only to find when they finally 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.760 tracked him down, that he had been committed to a 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.320 psychiatric hospital. Martin was said to have suffered a terrible 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.640 head trauma a few days before the outburst, and was 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:47.960 by then too incapacitated to be interviewed. Two weeks later, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.680 almost a kilometer from the Peacard's farm, Monsieur Lemieux, a 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.240 farmer from Lembrasse, was cycling to collect his cows from 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.440 a nearby field when he noticed pieces of blood stained 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.400 clothing scattered by the edge of the path. Pulling up 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.679 to take a closer look, he was overcome with the sweet, 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.720 sickly stench of rotting flesh. It wasn't unusual in those 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.720 parts to come across the odd, putrid carcass slowly rotting 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.880 in the bushes, but that didn't smell like this. This 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:24.480 was different. Following the trail of clothing through the long 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.200 grass and into a thicket of gorse, he soon found 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.920 the source of it. It took a moment to understand 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.280 what he was looking at. So strange an alien, it seemed, 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.000 and though countless things were moving and buzzing around it, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.960 there was no denying it was the body of a 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:48.320 small child, or rather what was left of it. One 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.280 of the legs was missing, while the other was inside 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.079 a muddied woolen stocking. There was a small wooden soled 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.880 shoe on the end of it, and one of the 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.400 arms had been almost completely off, the bones protruding through 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:07.640 the tough, dark skin blackened by decomposition. There was no 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.040 head on the body either, but a skull just two 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:16.560 meters away, completely stripped of flesh. It took three days 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.080 for police to arrive on the scene, but by then 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:24.320 the whole community had learned the horrific discovery. Pauline's parents 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.960 were at home with Pauline when they heard the news, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.200 Francois racing into the field to see it for himself. 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.160 It went almost unnoticed that among the strewn pieces of clothing, 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.360 some pieces had been placed neatly folded next to the body. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:46.160 But Francois saw it. Saw the familiar checkered dress and 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.360 the small shoe whose laces he'd once tied himself with 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:55.120 his own hands. He saw two those familiar strands of 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.520 hair that now clung in clumps to the surrounding gorse. 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.680 He looked across to his wife by the path, and 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:08.040 to the young girl from Cherbourg holding her hand, and 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.200 in that moment he saw what he'd refused to see before, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.560 that this girl, this stranger that love had morphed and 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.680 distorted into his little girl, was a good ten centimeters 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.959 shorter than Pauline, and her eyes they weren't the eyes 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.560 of his daughter at all. Nor her nose that he 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:34.079 saw now was softer and smaller than Pauline's. With tears 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.160 in his eyes, he smiled down at the young girl 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.800 and took her into his arms, then taking his wife 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.400 by the hand. Together, they walked slowly back to the house. 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.720 After the discovery of the body, volunteers from the local 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.720 area stood watch over it to protect it from further 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:03.600 damage until the police. An autopsy conducted in a nearby 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.280 barn revealed a large tear in the side of the 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.760 body and a puncture wound in the groin, likely done 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.560 by a knife, and though the extremities had undoubtedly been 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.800 nibbled and gnawed on by wild animals, much of the 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:23.040 torso seemed curiously untouched. The skull, perhaps most bizarrely, was 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:27.320 found to be that of an unknown man. Despite the 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.560 autopsy's findings and the fact that one hundred and fifty 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.720 people had already thoroughly searched the area where the body 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.600 later appeared, not to mention the neat pile of clothes 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.560 left by the corpse, authorities concluded that the child had 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:47.479 simply got lost and died from natural causes. On June thirteenth, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.160 police arrived at the farm to take the young girl 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.079 from Cherbourg, who the peacards had by then named Louise 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:59.800 Marcel Pauline, back to where she was found at the door. 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.120 As they said their good byes, Francois held her for 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.920 just a moment longer before finally handing her over to 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:12.240 the officers while the Peacards were left to mourn for 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.040 a second time. Louise was placed in an orphanage and 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.520 a few months later began to talk finally, and though 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.560 she seemed not to know who she was, she asked 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:31.040 repeatedly for Alleyne, Henriette, and Anne, siblings of Pauline's. In September, 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.160 a neighbor of the Peacards who visited the orphanage to 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.640 see Louise for herself, left convinced that she was in 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:42.200 fact Pauline after all. But by then the Peacards had 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.480 made their peace, burying the remains of the young girl 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.240 found by their farm under a stone engraved with their 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.840 daughter's name, and though many rumors swelled among the local 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:58.359 community about just what exactly had taken place, most scurleously 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:02.480 in the press, ever, eager for a salacious angle, the 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:08.920 case was eventually closed. Sadly for Louise, or whoever she was, 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.520 she died only a year later after contracting measles at 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:23.880 the orphanage. Where she was staying. If you enjoy Unexplained 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.160 and would like to help supporters, you can now do 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.880 so via Patreon. To receive access to add three episodes, 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.640 just go to patron dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Pod 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.120 to sign up, or if you'd like to make a 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.440 one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:43.680 com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:48.040 or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.160 featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.760 the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.160 purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.720 All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.000 by me Richard McClane smith. Please subscribe and rate the 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.960 show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.560 get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.320 stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.880 explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.760 reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.760 at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.880 Slash Unexplained Podcast