Description

On the evening of 31 March 1922, six inhabitants of a small Bavarian farmstead, commonly referred to today as Hinterkaifeck, were murdered by an unknown assailant. Occurring approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Munich, Germany, the six victims were Andreas Gruber, his wife Cäzilia Gruber, their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria's children Cäzilia and Josef, and their maid, Maria Baumgartner. The murder weapon used on all 6 of the victims, a mattock, was later recovered in the loft of the barn. The perpetrator lived with the six corpses for three days. During this time, they ate the food in the house, fed the animals on the property, and started fires in the home's fireplace. Four of the dead bodies were found stacked up in the barn, the victims having likely been lured there one by one. Prior to the incident, other family members and their former maid had reported hearing strange noises coming from the attic, which led to that maid quitting the job.