After the murders took place, no one knew they Gruber family was killed or missing due to the house was well taken care of; the farm animals were fed and watered and there was fire lit in the fireplace. The only reason they family was discovered was because the 7 year old daughter was absence from school and the family had missed Sunday worship. The family was discovered by their neighbors because they noticed the machine barn door was unlocked and opened, that is when they found 4 out the 6 bodies were discovered stacked up on top of each other. The rest of the bodies were discovered in the house. Whoever the murder weapon was not found at the scene until a later date.

Later during the investigation, authorities discovered that it looked like one or a couple of people were living in the barn's attack, due to roped being tied to the beams so that they could lower themselves down and the straw being packed down making it look like someone was laying down. Later, investigators interviewed the neighbors and other townspeople stating that the Gruber's heard footsteps in the attack and discovering a newspaper that the family never remember purchasing.

Germany. It included the six members of the Gruber family and their maid that were brutally slain. Their

bodies were found in their barn and in the bedrooms of the house. Their bodies were not found for 3

days after the murders.

Leading up to the murders, the Gruber family was known for Andreas (the husband) being

aggressive and brutal shown to his family and neighbors. He was often quick to attack people with

dangerous objects such as a scythe, pitchfork, or shotgun. He was known to lock his children in the cold

cellar for many days during winter, and one of his daughters, Sophie, died as a result of the abuse.

(https://www.thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/hinterkaifeck-murders/) .

Six months before the murders their previous maid, Kreszenz Rieger, quit. She later claimed that

she was hearing noises in the house and believed the house was haunted. Days before the murders, the

farmhouse key vanished and Andreas told the neighbors that he found tracks in the snow. He

mentioned that he saw the footsteps lead from the forest next to the house to the broken door to the

machine room in the barn. He also claimed that he heard footsteps in the attic, but sadly no one

believed him.

On March 31 st , Andreas, his wife Cazilia, their daughter Vikotria and their granddaughter Cazilia

Gabriel were lured to the barn and slaughtered with a pickaxe. While their maid, Maria, and the

grandson Josef were murdered in the house in the bedrooms.

(https://allthatsinteresting.com/hinterkaifeck-murders). For the autopsies the Gruber family were

behead and their skulls were only taken to be examined which showed that Andreas died as a result to

falling onto the tip of the pickaxe, causing his carotid artery to tear, and tearing open his right cheek

which caused his right cheekbone to protrude. His wife, Cazilia, had eight holes to the right side of her

skull. Their daughter, Viktoria, had nine holes on right side of her head, and also reveling strangulation

marks on her neck. Cazilla Gabriel, seemed to suffer the most. She was found to have a hole in the right

side of her face, along with her jaw being smashed with an iron band that was later found in the hayloft.

Her throat was slit from what it looked it like from a pocket night and she was found half-naked. It looks

like while she was suffering, she pulled out her own hair.

(https://www.thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/hinterkaifeck-murders/)

Days after the murder, many people notice that the Gruber household was quiet, the family

members not attending to the farm and the family dog was not barking. He postman, Joseph Mayer

notice the mail piling up, but he never looked to see if anything was wrong.

(https://www.historicmysteries.com/major-crimes/hinterkaifeck-murders/14960/) . On April 4 th , after

the Gruber family failed to show up for Sunday church, and Cazilia Gabriel did not show up to school,

one of the neighbor’s name Lorenz Schlittenbauer with two other men to find the bodies laying in the

hay in the barn and the bodies in the house. The quickly altered the police.

Leading up the investigation of the Gruber murders, the police had little to go on. They first

believed that it was a robbery, but then notice that there was nothing missing. They found a decent

amount of money still in the house. The crime scene was tampered with, between moving the bodies

and some one cooking in the kitchen and even the family animals were fed. There were some neighbors

that said that they see smoke coming from the chimney of the house, suggesting that there was no

evidence of trouble. (https://allthatsinteresting.com/hinterkaifeck-murders).

Police investigated over 100 people, but no one ever arrested or charges with the murders. One

of the suspects was Karl Gabriel, Viktoria’s dead husband, who was thought to be killed in France during

World War 1, but according to some local, he was believed to survive and return to the family farm to

kill his wife and family. Another suspect was to be the neighbor Lorenz Schlittenbaur, the one who

discovered the bodies. He was known to have had a relationship with Viktoria. Police however, never

could find evidence in relations to the murders and Lorenz and Viktoria’s late husband Karl.

(https://thereliablenarrator.com/the-hinterkaifeck-murders/) .

Sadly, to this day the murders of the Gruber family has never been solved. The family house has

been demolished and the bodies were laid to rest, in a plot in Waidhofen. Unfortunately, the skulls of

the Gruber family were lost during World War II and during 2007, the Furstenfeldbruck Police took on as

cold case. (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502044/chilling-story-hinterkaifeck-killings-germanys-

most-famous-unsolved-crime) .