Six Dead, No Suspects

Detective Ryan Gruber speaking. Just arriving at the Hinterkaifeck farm, home to the Gruber family. Schmidt said it's a bad one. It's April 5th. Just stopped snowing. Thank God. I'm standing in front of a quaint farmhouse with white brick walls and black trim. To my left is an A-frame barn made out of old but good wood. It's where most of the bodies are. Mr. Schlittenbauer is waiting for me. He's the one who discovered the bodies. I'm going to get his statement now. Schlittenbauer has informed me that he is the village guide. He knows the town and its people well. He describes the Grubers as a kind and good family. Andreas and Cazilia were the grandparents. Their widowed daughter Victoria lived in the house with her two children, Cazilia, seven, and her brother Josef, who is two. The family's maid was also found among the dead, Maria Baumgartner, 44. On to the handful of witnesses gathered around the barn. Reading off my notes here, coffee sellers came to the farm April 1st, but left when no one responded to the knocks on the windows and doors. Seven-year-old Kazelia Gruber had been absent from school all week, and the entire family failed to show up for Sunday worship. I'm told the maid's sister was the last to see the family alive. Time to talk to her. The maid's sister tells me that on the afternoon of March 31st, she escorted the sister to the farm. She stayed a while, witnessed the family go about their everyday business, and then left. Nothing out of the ordinary. According to the coroner, she was lucky to have escaped with her life. The family was murdered shortly after she left. Yes, sir? You have something to tell me? A neighbor just informed me that strange things occurred in and around the farm sometime before the attack. Six months ago, the family made quit, claiming she heard strange sounds. She believed the house was haunted. Among other things, Andreas, the grandfather, found a newspaper from Munich on the property. This is unusual because no one in the family reads the news, and in fact, no one in the vicinity subscribes to that particular paper. The grandfather also found fresh tracks leading from the woods to the farm. He never found tracks leading back into the forest. Sounds like whoever made them never left. It's time to have a look in the barn. I'm in the barn. It's warm and it's damp in here. Snow leaks through the slats in the roof. The room is full of hay, lots of places to hide. Staring at four bodies, both grandparents, their daughter, and the seven-year-old granddaughter. Their skulls have been smashed with some kind of heavy tool, perhaps a pickaxe or a mattock. They were killed one by one, each lured into the barn under some kind of pretense. Called them to this death trap. The local police have informed me Carl Gabriel, Victoria's husband, was said to have died in the war. But townspeople were reporting seeing a man who fits his description around town, working in alleyways, pubs, at night. Carl's body was never recovered after the war. Some say he survived. Two-year-old Josef was rumored to have been the son of Victoria and her father, Andreas. It's well known to the courts and the village that the father and the daughter had an incestuous relationship. Perhaps Karl discovered this and murdered the Grubers in a fit of rage-filled revenge. Hold on, something I said upset Mr. Schlittenbauer. Mr. Schlittenbauer, sir, calm down. Loren Schlittenbauer has confided in me that since the passing of his first wife, he and Victoria have carried on a relationship. He says that he's in fact the father of Josef. I find it interesting that he was the one to discover the bodies. He did disturb the victims at the scene, ruining our initial investigation. Perhaps the family had blackmailed the upstanding citizen with having an illegitimate child and in response he slaughtered them in their own home. That would explain why he knew where to find the maid and Josef in the house. Speaking of which, time to look at the final two bodies. The maid and the baby were killed in the same way with the same weapon. What kind of monster would do that to a two-year-old? After investigating the premises, I believe the perpetrator remained at the farm for several days after the murders. Someone has fed the cattle, eaten the entire supply of bread from the kitchen, and recently cut meat from the pantry. Neighbors also reported smoke coming from the chimney all weekend. There's much more to this crime than meets the eye, and it stinks of a case that will never be solved. I'll do my best.