Shownotes
The Hinterkaifeck Murders — Germany’s Most Terrifying Unsolved Case
In 1922, six members of the Gruber family were brutally murdered on their isolated Bavarian farm. But the killer didn’t flee—instead, they stayed for five days, living among the bodies.
This is the chilling true story of Hinterkaifeck, Germany’s most infamous unsolved murder case. From the eerie footsteps in the snow to the disturbing crime scene that still baffles investigators today, this episode explores a crime that feels as horrifying now as it did a century ago.
⚠️ Listener discretion is advised: this story contains disturbing details, including crimes against children.
👁️ What Lurks in the Shadows brings you immersive true crime and paranormal storytelling with eerie atmosphere and chilling detail. Each episode blends narrative pacing, ASMR-style delivery, and unsettling detail to pull you directly into the case.
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Transcripts
0:03
You push through the bitter Bavarian
0:06
st,:0:10
Your fingers are numb despite your
0:12
gloves, and each breath burns your lungs
0:15
with cold. The isolated farmstead
0:19
materializes through the darkness.
0:22
Weathered timber walls that seem to
0:25
absorb light rather than reflect it.
0:28
Snow crunches beneath your boots, but
0:31
it's the wrong kind of crunch. Too
0:34
hollow, like stepping on old bones. The
0:39
locals in Kyek warned you not to come
0:41
here after dark. They speak in hushed
0:44
tones about this place, crossing
0:47
themselves when they mention the Gruber
0:49
Farm. The previous maid, they say, fled
0:53
in terror months ago, swearing the place
0:56
was haunted. She heard footsteps pacing
1:00
the attic boards above her bed each
1:02
night. Measured deliberate steps when
1:06
the family slept below.
1:09
She packed her belongings and ran,
1:11
refusing to spend another night under
1:14
that roof.
1:16
Even Andreas Gruber, that stubborn old
1:18
farmer who feared neither God nor devil,
1:21
had grown uneasy in recent weeks. He'd
1:24
admitted to neighbors that he too heard
1:27
the footsteps, sounds that shouldn't
1:30
exist. Creaking floorboards in empty
1:33
rooms, breathing in the walls.
1:38
The smell hits you first. Manure and
1:41
hay. Yes, but something else underneath.
1:45
Something sweet and wrong. You know
1:48
about the other signs. keys that
1:51
vanished from their hooks only to
1:54
reappear days later in impossible
1:56
places. The newspaper that appeared on
1:59
the kitchen table one morning, dated,
2:02
current, but one no soul in the family
2:05
had purchased, as if something was
2:08
coming and going freely, making itself
2:10
at home in their home. Your hand
2:13
trembles as you reach for the barn door.
2:16
The wood is splintered near the latch as
2:19
if clawed at from the inside. You push
2:22
it open. The hinges shriek.
2:26
Inside the darkness is absolute.
2:31
Your lantern creates a small circle of
2:34
yellow light that makes the shadows
2:37
deeper, more alive.
2:42
Hay rustles somewhere ahead.
2:45
You take another step forward and your
2:48
boot strikes something soft, too soft.
2:52
You hear it then, a wet rhythmic sound,
2:58
like someone chewing
3:01
or breathing through a broken nose.
3:05
The investigators who would arrive days
3:08
later would piece together the
3:10
methodical horror of that Friday
3:12
evening. But first, they would learn
3:15
about the weeks of terror that preceded
3:18
it. Andreas had found footprints in the
3:21
snow, a single track leading from the
3:25
dark forest to his home.
3:28
No tracks led back.
3:31
When he followed them, they simply ended
3:34
at his door. as if whoever made them had
3:38
walked through the walls. He'd searched
3:41
the house, the barn, even climbed into
3:44
that cramped attic where the maid had
3:46
heard those terrible footsteps.
3:50
Nothing. But that night, the footsteps
3:54
returned heavier than before, angrier.
4:01
The killer had been living above them.
4:05
For how long, no one could say.
4:09
A makeshift nest of old grain sacks was
4:12
found in the attic, still bearing the
4:15
impression of a body. Human waste in the
4:19
corners.
4:21
Food scraps, some fresh, some weeks old.
4:26
While the family slept, prayed, and ate
4:29
below.
4:31
Something watched through the cracks and
4:34
the floorboards,
4:36
learning their voices,
4:38
their routines,
4:40
their fears.
4:45
On that final Friday, the trap was set.
4:51
Andreas Gruber had been first around
4:54
3:30 p.m.
4:56
Something was wrong in the barn. The
4:59
cattle were bellowing, terrified. Or
5:03
perhaps he heard his name called in a
5:06
voice that wasn't quite right, like an
5:08
echo of his own.
5:11
The 63-year-old patriarch grabbed his
5:14
lantern and crossed the yard.
5:17
The moment he stepped through the
5:19
doorway, the madic came down. Nine times
5:23
the killer struck, obliterating
5:25
Andreas's face, scattering teeth and
5:29
bone across the straw. His lantern fell,
5:33
still burning, casting wild shadows as
5:36
he died.
5:41
Cecilia Gruber, his 72year-old wife,
5:45
came looking 30 minutes later.
5:49
The locals say she had the sight that
5:52
she knew something evil had come to
5:54
their farm. She'd been lighting candles,
5:58
muttering prayers, but maternal duty
6:00
overcame supernatural dread.
6:04
Andreas,
6:06
she called into the barn's darkness.
6:10
The killer let her see her husband's
6:12
body before striking.
6:15
The madic split her skull from crown to
6:19
jaw. Seven more blows followed, each one
6:23
deliberate, ritualistic almost.
6:28
Victoria, Gabriel, their 35-year-old
6:31
daughter, had been restless all day.
6:36
She told the postmen that morning that
6:38
she felt watched, that shadows moved
6:42
wrong around the farm.
6:46
As darkness fell and her parents didn't
6:49
return, she knew somehow she knew but
6:53
went anyway.
6:55
Her lantern revealed the carnage.
6:59
Her parents' bodies twisted together in
7:02
the hay.
7:04
She tried to run, but the killer had
7:07
positioned himself between her and the
7:09
door.
7:11
The first blow knocked her down.
7:16
She crawled through her parents' blood,
7:19
fingers clawing at the packed earth
7:22
before nine strikes ended her flight.
7:29
Then came the child, the most haunting
7:32
death of all.
7:36
7-year-old Cecilia Gabriel was called to
7:40
the barn.
7:42
Witnesses later swore they heard a
7:45
woman's voice calling from the farm that
7:47
evening.
7:48
"Cecelia!"
7:50
But Victoria was already dead.
7:54
"Cecelia,
7:56
come help with the animals."
7:58
The voice had said.
8:00
The girl skipped across the yard, her
8:03
small footprints preserved in the mud
8:06
like a trail of innocence walking toward
8:09
evil.
8:13
She saw them all. Her grandfather's
8:16
destroyed face, her grandmother's split
8:19
skull, her mother's crawling trail of
8:23
blood.
8:28
The killer struck as she turned to flee,
8:32
fracturing but not crushing her skull.
8:36
She fell among her family, paralyzed but
8:39
conscious.
8:42
For at least 2 hours, maybe more. She
8:46
lay there dying, pulling out her own
8:49
hair in agony and terror. Her small
8:52
fingers clutching the blonde strands as
8:54
the killer worked around her, stacking
8:57
bodies like cordwood.
9:00
Some say she was still alive when he
9:02
covered them with hay in the old door,
9:04
sealing them in darkness.
9:10
The killer walked to the house, boots
9:13
tracking blood across the threshold.
9:17
Maria Bombgartner, the new maid who'd
9:20
arrived just hours earlier to replace
9:22
the one who fled in terror, was in the
9:24
kitchen.
9:27
She'd been praying. Her rosary was found
9:30
clutched in her hand. The maddox struck
9:34
the base of her skull.
9:37
She died instantly,
9:39
crumpling beside the stove she'd been
9:42
tending.
9:43
Upstairs, 2-year-old Joseph Gabriel
9:47
slept.
9:50
One blow ended his dreams forever.
9:56
Then the killer tucked him in, placed
9:58
his toy beside him, smoothed his hair. A
10:02
grotesque parody of bedtime care.
10:09
Then began the part that makes even
10:11
skeptics question what they believe.
10:15
The killer didn't flee.
10:17
For 3 days, perhaps five, he lived among
10:22
the dead.
10:24
But was it really living or something
10:27
else?
10:31
Neighbors saw smoke rising from the
10:33
chimney all weekend.
10:37
They heard the cattle being fed on
10:39
schedule, saw a figure in Andreas's coat
10:44
moving between buildings.
10:46
But something was wrong with how the
10:48
figure moved. Too stiff, too mechanical,
10:53
like someone puppet walking through
10:55
memorized routines.
10:58
The killer ate meals at the family table
11:01
while Maria's corpse lay at his feet.
11:05
He slept in bed still warm with the
11:08
memory of their owners. He read their
11:11
mail, smoked Andreas's pipe, wound their
11:14
clocks.
11:16
But items began appearing that made no
11:19
sense. Fresh flowers placed on the
11:22
kitchen table. The children's toys
11:24
arranged in patterns. candles lit in
11:28
windows as if someone else was also
11:32
moving through the house, as if the dead
11:35
were trying to maintain their home.
11:40
When Loren Schlittenbower finally led
11:43
the search party on April 4th, they
11:45
found something that wasn't in any
11:47
official report. Yes, the bodies were
11:50
stacked in the barn, covered
11:52
respectfully. Yes, the house showed
11:54
signs of habitation. But the searchers
11:57
also found every mirror in the house had
12:00
been turned to face the wall, salt lines
12:02
across doorways, religious symbols
12:05
carved into the door frames, crude,
12:07
desperate markings that weren't there
12:09
before. The killer was never found, but
12:13
perhaps that's because everyone was
12:15
looking for the wrong thing. After the
12:18
farm was demolished in:12:21
began. The land itself seemed cursed,
12:24
locals said. Visitors reported lights
12:27
moving through non-existent buildings,
12:29
the sound of cattle that weren't there,
12:32
voices on the wind speaking Bavarian
12:34
dialect from another era. Some claimed
12:37
to see a little girl with blonde hair
12:39
standing where the barn once was,
12:41
pulling at her scalp, crying for her
12:44
mother. Others swore they heard
12:46
footsteps in the empty air above, as if
12:49
an invisible attic still hosted its
12:52
terrible guest.
12:57
The most persistent legend says this. On
13:00
quiet nights, if you stand where the
13:02
farm once stood, you can hear the sounds
13:05
of a working farmstead. Animals loing,
13:08
doors creaking, the metallic ring of
13:11
farm tools. As if the groupers are still
13:15
there, still tending their land, unable
13:18
to leave because their killer never left
13:21
either. Trapped together in an eternal
13:25
horrifying loop,
13:27
you stumble backward out of that barn,
13:30
your lantern swinging wildly.
13:33
But as you run, you hear something that
13:36
stops your blood. The sound of cattle
13:39
being fed, the splash of water in
13:43
troughs,
13:45
the creek of barn doors.
13:48
The farm is alive with activity.
13:52
But you saw the bodies.
13:55
You smelled the death.
13:59
You turned back and for just a moment
14:03
you see them. Translucent figures moving
14:06
through their evening routines.
14:09
Andreas checking the barn locks. Cecilia
14:12
calling everyone to dinner.
14:15
Little Cecilia skipping toward the
14:18
house, never quite reaching the door.
14:23
And behind them all, a shadow that
14:25
doesn't belong, following their
14:28
movements,
14:29
mimicking their lives. You run until
14:33
your lungs burn,
14:35
until the farm is swallowed by darkness
14:38
behind you.
14:40
But even at a distance, you can see
14:43
lights in windows that shouldn't exist.
14:46
Smoke rising from a chimney that was
14:49
demolished a year ago. The footprints
14:52
you followed here lead only one way
14:56
into the farm.
15:00
Now you understand why
15:03
some things never leave Inter Kyifek.
15:09
They can't.
15:12
They're still there. All of them. The
15:16
family,
15:17
the killer, and whatever else was
15:20
listening in that attic,
15:23
waiting in the shadows.
15:26
And now that you've been there, now that
15:28
you've seen them, you wonder
15:32
when you finally reach home and climb
15:35
into your own bed tonight,
15:38
will you hear footsteps above your
15:40
ceiling, too?