| Hinterkaifeck | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hinterkaifeck five days after the attack | |
| Location | Waidhofen, Bavaria, Germany |
| Date | 31 March 1922 |
| Target | Gruber family |
Attack type | Home invasion, mass murder |
| Weapons | Mattock |
| Deaths | 6 |
| Perpetrators | Unknown |
The Hinterkaifeck murders occurred on the evening of 31 March 1922, when six inhabitants of a small Bavarian farmstead, located approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Munich, Germany, were murdered by an unknown assailant. The six victims were Andreas Gruber (aged 63), his wife Cäzilia Gruber (aged 72), their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel (aged 35), Viktoria's children, Cäzilia (aged 7) and Josef (aged 2), and the maid, Maria Baumgartner (aged 44). They were all found struck dead with a mattock, also known as a "grub axe". The perpetrator(s) lived with the six corpses of their victims for three days. During this time, they would eat the food in the house, feed the animals on the property, and start fires in the home's fireplace. The murders are considered one of the most gruesome and puzzling unsolved crimes in German history.
Four of the dead bodies were found stacked up in the barn, the victims having been lured there, one by one. Prior to the incident, the family and their former maid reported hearing strange noises coming from the attic, which led to that maid leaving. The case remains unsolved to this day.