Hinterkaifeck Murders - Germany 1922
The Hinterkaifeck murders refer to the brutal, unsolved killings of six inhabitants of a remote Bavarian farmstead in Germany on March 31, 1922. The victims were the Gruber family—Andreas Gruber (63), his wife Cäzilia (72), their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel (35), and Viktoria's children Cäzilia (7) and Josef (2)—along with their new maid, Maria Baumgartner (44). The perpetrator(s) used a mattock to bludgeon the victims to death and remained on the farm for several days after the murders. Despite numerous investigations and suspects over the decades, the case remains one of Germany's most famous unsolved crimes.
Timeline
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Track this story2025
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2025
4 updatesAutopsy findings from the Hinterkaifeck murders revealed that young Cäzilia, one of the victims, clung to life for hours after the attack.
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It was noted that no valuables were stolen from the farm during the Hinterkaifeck murders.
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The new memorial at Hinterkaifeck was inaugurated on April 5, 2025. It consists of five steles created by stonemason René Kress and was commissioned by the Waidhofen Horticultural Association.
Former farmhands Anton and Karl Bichler were identified as suspects, implicated by their sister, a former maid, in a deathbed confession.
2024
1 update
2024
1 updateA prominent theory suggests that Karl Gabriel Jr., Viktoria Gruber's deceased husband, may have survived World War I and returned to commit the crime.
2007
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2007
1 updateThe Fürstenfeldbruck Police Academy re-examined the Hinterkaifeck Murders as a cold case using modern criminological techniques, but the case remains unsolved.
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1955
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1955
1 updateThe official investigation into the Hinterkaifeck murders was closed, with no charges brought against any suspects.
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1923
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1923
1 updateThe Hinterkaifeck farm was demolished. The victims' heads, which had been sent for examination, were lost during World War II.
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1922
5 updates
1922
5 updatesCourt physician Johann Baptist Aumüller performed autopsies, establishing a mattock as the likely murder weapon. It was also determined that the killer(s) had remained on the farm for several days after the murders, feeding livestock and eating meals.
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Neighbors, concerned after the family's absence from church and young Cäzilia missing school, investigated the farm and discovered the bodies. Four bodies were found in the barn, and two inside the house.
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Maria Baumgartner arrived to begin her first day as the new maid. Later that evening, all six inhabitants of the Hinterkaifeck farm were brutally murdered with a mattock.
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The previous maid quit her job, claiming the house was haunted.
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Andreas Gruber, the patriarch, reported finding strange footprints in the snow leading to the farm but none leading away. The family also found a newspaper they hadn't purchased and experienced missing house keys and unusual noises in the attic.
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Story began · 105 years, 5 mo ago