Although more than 100 suspects were questioned, back in 1986, the official criminal who killed the entire Gruber family, including the maid, was never named.
About a week before March 31, 1922, farmer Andreas Gruber noticed some oddities on his farm, known as the Hinterkaifeck. Outside the house, he found footprints leading from the forest to the farm, towards the house, but there were no tracks leading from him.
Gruber did not report any police trail, as the small farm, located about 70 km north of Munich, was a relatively quiet and safe place.
If he did this, then perhaps the whole family could have avoided the terrible and mysterious fate that befell them.
On March 31st, an unknown, potentially dangerous person lured each of the six members of the Gruber family to their death. Andreas, his wife Cecilia, adult daughter Victoria and granddaughter Cecilia (7 years old) were lured into a barn, where they were stabbed to death with a pickaxe. The family's maid, Maria, and their little grandson of the owner Josef (2 years old) were killed in the house in their bedrooms.
Bodies in the barn.
Almost a week later, on April 4, neighbors, along with several townspeople, went to check on the Hinterkaifeck farm. Young Cecilia had not been to school for 2 days in a row, and the postman noticed that mail began to accumulate in the mailbox. They immediately called the police, who launched an investigation to find the killer.
Maria's bedroom.
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However, they were unsuccessful. Over the years, the Munich police have interrogated more than 100 suspects, but to this day, these murders remain unsolved.
Josef's room.
When the police entered the farm, a terrible scene opened up in front of them. At first it seemed that the victims died instantly of their wounds, but later investigation revealed that young Sicily had been alive for several hours and likely died of shock.
She was found without the clumps of hair that investigators believed she had pulled out for herself.
Despite the fact that the police did not find the culprit, officials gave interviews about the progress of the investigation with invented evidence and answered questions from journalists.
A few days before the murder, around the time Andreas noticed the tracks, neighbors recall how he said that he heard footsteps in the attic, and also complained about the missing keys to the shed where the murder weapon was kept. He also told them that he found a newspaper in his home that he did not buy.
The investigation also revealed that the maid who preceded Mary left 6 months before the murder because she heard voices and believed there were ghosts in the house.
The police later decided that the voices, newspaper, and footprints could only mean that the killer had actually lived in the house with the Gruber for more than 6 months before killing them. All suspects in the case were interviewed in the city, but they were all ultimately acquitted.
After the investigation was completed, the Gruber bodies were sent for autopsy. Their heads were severed and sent to clairvoyants in Munich to find metaphysical clues. The clairvoyants failed and, even worse, were lost during the riots caused by World War II.
Coffins of members of the Guber family.
The bodies of those killed in Hinterkaifeck were eventually buried headless in a cemetery in a nearby town. The farm was eventually destroyed after all evidence was taken from it. While there are still theories about who the killer really was, any recent investigations are kept secret out of respect for the descendants still living.
Hinterkaifeck's murders remain officially unsolved.