On March 31st 1922 something truly horrific happened in Gröbern, Germany to the Gruber family.
The Gruber family were murdered in their farmstead and for four days their killer lived in their home. Before the murders took place, the Gruber family went through a strange batch of events.
Six months prior to the killings, the family’s maid quit with claims of the house being haunted. She claimed that she had been hearing strange sounds and footsteps from the attic. Along with the auditory, the maid believed that she was being watched inside the home. Andreas Gruber checked the home but found no evidence that backed the maid’s claims, so he simply dismissed her concerns as nothing but superstition.
A matter of days before the murders in March 1922, Andreas discovered a newspaper from Munich. He had claimed to friends he didn’t subscribe to the paper and that he asked neighbours who also didn’t subscribe to the paper. That meant it wasn’t a simple mistaken address but seemingly someone had ordered the newspaper to the Gruber house without the family’s knowledge.
Not only did Andreas find the Munich newspaper, but he also noticed two sets of footprints in the fresh snow. The prints led from the forest to a broken connected to the machine room of the barn. Eerily, whoever left the tracks seemingly never left the machine room as the prints only went into the barn.
The only reason we know about these facts is that Andreas informed a neighbour about them. Sadly, Andreas refused any help from the neighbour and declined to report the incidents to the police. It was a matter of days later that the entire Gruber family and their new maid were brutally murdered.
The murders took place on Friday, March 31st. Due to the events that are known to have taken place, it’s believed that the murders took place during the late evening.
Maria Baumgartner (44) had gotten the job as the Gruber family maid; filling the spot opened up by Kreszenz Rieger quitting. Marina’s sister escorted her to the farm and left that same day, which most likely puts the arrival of Maria somewhere in the morning. It is mostly believed that Maria’s sister was the last person to see the victims alive.
Not much more is known about this tragic day except for how the family, Maria included, were murdered. The following is a timeline pieced together by the investigators put on the case.
Late in the evening, Andreas Gruber (64) Cäzilia Gruber (72) Viktoria Gabriel (35) and Viktoria’s daughter Cäzilia (7) were lured into the barn through the stable one by one. They were murdered by blows to the head by either at mattock or pickaxe that belonged to the family.
The perpetrators went from the barn to the living quarters and used the same mattock/pickaxe to murder Viktoria’s son, Josef (2) in his bassinet and Maria in her bedchamber.
It is unknown how the perpetrators lured the victims from their living quarters into the barn. Court commission reports that victims were most likely drawn to the barn by a restlessness in the stable but later tests revealed that at very least a human scream could not be heard in the living quarters.
Despite the brutality of the murders the perpetrators stayed and cared for the family’s livestock and farm dog. Feeding and tying them up so they couldn’t run away. Whether this was just so neighbours didn’t get suspicious or genuine care for the animals is unknown.
Reports from the day after the murders, April 1st, claimed to have several people had been to the farm.
Early in the morning, right after the murders, farmer and butcher Simon Reißländer spotted two unknown figures towards the edge of the forest. It is likely these were the killers possibly getting rid of evidence in the forest. When the strangers spotted him, they turned around so their faces couldn’t be seen. Simon didn’t think much of it until he heard of the murders and reported the sighting.
Coffee sellers Hans Schirovsky and Eduard Schirovsky arrived to take an order from the family but when they knocked no one answered. With that the pair walked around the yard, knocking on windows as they went. They noticed that the gate leading to the machine house had been left open but no one was around. The pair left and continued with their day.
The night after the murders, Michael Plöckl passed by the farm. He claimed that he observed that the oven had been heated by someone in the house. Plöckl claimed that the person approached him with a lantern that blinded him, after that he left the farm. He also noted that there was smoke coming from the fireplace with a disgusting smell.
After many days, Cäzilia missed school without excuse and the family failed to turn up at Sunday worship people started to ask questions.
It was half three in the afternoon when Lorenz Schlittenbauser sent his son Johann (16) and stepson Josef (9) to go to the farm to see if they could spot any of the family. His reasoning was because he hadn’t seen anyone in the family and he was becoming concerned as one of their neighbours. The two boys came back reporting to have not seen a soul on the farm.
Lorenz Schlittenbauser gathered two other neighbours, Jakob Sigl and Michael Pöll and together the three went to the house. When they arrived at the building all the doors were locked aside from the machinery room door, which was left wide open. From there the group entered the stable.
The sight that greeted them was scarring, to say the least.
Under a board covered with hay, Andreas, Cäzilia, Viktoria and the younger Cäzilia were left. Schlittenbauser recognised the family almost instantly. If you don’t want to read the description of the condition that the bodies were left in, do not read the following paragraph.
Cäzilia Gruber had signs of strangulation with her skull cracked from multiple blows. Andreas was caked with blood, his face is described as shredded, his cheekbone sticking out from his skin. Viktoria had a shattered skull with signs her face was beaten with a blunt object but not the cause of her death. Cäzilia had a shattered jaw with slashes covering her neck. The worst part was Cäzilia was seemingly alive for hours after her attack, left in the barn, tearing her hair out in clumps from distress. Autopsy discovered that she died out of shock.
From the barn, Schlittenbauser went through a hallway that connected to the house. He, alone, went through to the living room and unlocked the house from inside. This allowed for the others to enter the home, together they explored the rest of the home. Once again, if you do not want to read the description of the bodies skip the next paragraph.
Maria was found in her bedchambers, blows to her face and head. She had been covered with a dress. Josef was found in his bassinet with blows to his head and face, he had been covered by a sheet.
After Schlittenbauser and company had discovered the bodies, locals began to flood into the house. They walked through the crime scene and destroyed potential evidence, moved bodies and they had even cooked meals in the kitchen. Someone had alerted the nearest police in Munich, which is around 45 miles from where the murders took place.
Police concluded that someone had lured the victims into the barn one by one. It is unsure how they were lured out since later tests were done that showed human screams in the barn couldn’t be heard in the home. They also determined that the murders took place at night since Maria’s sister left in the afternoon but the family’s mail from Saturday was still untouched on the front porch.
The original theory was robbery and police interrogated travelling craftsmen, vagrants and several inhabitants from surrounding villages. This theory was tossed out when investigators found Andreas’ stash of cash somewhere in the house.
The days after the bodies were discovered, court physician Johann Baptist Aumüller performed the autopsies inside the barn where four of six bodies were laid. It was established that a mattock was most likely to be the murder weapon but the weapon itself was not found during the searches. Once they were finished the skulls were removed and sent out to Munich. This was for clairvoyants to examine to see if they would get any messages from the beyond. Despite trying they got nothing from their attempts.
During the investigation, the police heard of rumours about the Gruber family from the years before. It was less rumoured and more factual in the eyes of law since both Andreas and Viktoria were arrested for having an incestuous relationship.
An unknown person filed a complaint in either 1914 or 1915 that implicated both Andreas and Viktoria for incest. it’s unclear if it was consenting from either party. At the time of the reports, Viktoria could have been pregnant or just given birth to her daughter Cäzilia which brought up questions about who had fathered the girl.
From reports, Viktoria claimed Karl Gabriel was the father. The pair had married at the beginning of 1914 but not long after Karl left back to his parents. Later interrogations had speculated that Karl was the killing as a result of the relationship between Andreas and Viktoria. However, Karl was killed in battle in December 1914.
Both Andreas and Viktoria were found guilty in a court of incest and served one year in prison respectively. Some reports say that Viktoria only served a month in prison for what could have potentially been abuse.
Before getting into the suspects, some facts from after investigation should be noted. A year after the investigation was over the farm was torn down completely, allowing for the crew to find evidence that wasn’t found during the investigation. In the attic, a pickaxe was found and in the hay used to hide four of six bodies, a penknife was discovered. The victims were laid to rest nearby without their heads, this was because they were lost in transport due to the chaos of WW2.
One of the primary suspects was Lorenz Schlittenbauer.
According to police interviews with Schlittenbauer, he had been sleeping with Viktoria towards the end of 1918. Their relationship started not long after Schlittenbauer lost his wife. He claimed that Viktoria wanted marriage to which he claimed he was open to it. Viktoria told Schlittenbauer that she was pregnant to which he claimed he wasn’t the father because of what happened between Andreas and Viktoria. Schlittenbauer filed a complaint about the incestuous relations but he withdrew the complaint after Viktoria pleaded with him to do so. He didn’t know who the father to Josef was but still referred to the baby as his boy.
His statements were enough to convince the police that he was innocent.
Another person out of the hundred suspects was Viktoria’s late husband Karl Gabriel.
It was reported that Gabriel died in WW1 by shell attack in Arras, France but his body was never discovered. This meant some people began to theorize that Karl didn’t die at war and came back to seek revenge on the family. It’s both rumoured that the revenge was for either the relationship between Viktoria and Andreas or who had fathered Josef.
Investigators spoke with a few soldiers that claim they had seen Gabriel’s body afterwards they stopped pursuing the idea.
The theory was reignited at the end of WW2 when war captives from Schrobenhausen region were released prematurely from Soviet capture. They claimed that a German-speaking Soviet officer sent them home with word that he was the Hinterkaifeck murderer. After interviews, some revised their statements the theory started to lose credibility. Many have theorized that the officer was Gabriel because those who claimed to have seen him after his death reported that Gabriel wanted to go to Russia.
After one hundred years it is still unsolved with only theories on who committed the brutal attack against the family.
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