Six Murders, No Answers: What Happened at Hinterkaifeck?

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In 1922, a small farm in Bavaria became the site of something straight out of a horror

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story.

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Six people gone, not just killed, but wiped out in a way that made even seasoned investigators

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uneasy.

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And the worst part, whoever did it, didn't leave right away.

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They stuck around.

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Eighth the food, took care of the animals, made themselves comfortable.

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Before any of that, though, there were signs.

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Explained noises in the attic, footprints in the snow leading to the house, but not away

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from the house.

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And a maid who was so freaked out that she quit on the spot and never looked back when

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she left.

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This is the story of the Hinter-K-Fec murders, a case that left behind a crime scene, a

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lot of theories, and a killer who vanished into thin air.

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But before we dive in, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you're in the

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right place.

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Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is 10 Minute Murder.

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Let's get into it.

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In 1922, deep in the Bavarian countryside, nestled among rolling fields and medieval towns,

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was Hinter-K-Fec, a small farming community where everyone knew everyone.

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And on one of its remote farms lived the Gruber family.

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Andreas Gruber, the stern and notoriously difficult patriarch, ran the household alongside

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his wife Cecilia.

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Their widow daughter, Victoria Gabriel, lived with them, raising her two children, seven

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year old Cecilia Gabriel, named after her grandmother, and two year old Joseph.

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The family managed the farm with occasional help from seasonal workers, but their only

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permanent employee was their living maid.

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Now, I'm about to try to pronounce this maid's name, and just know that I'm not going to

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say it right, but I'm going to make an attempt.

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Cresnan's regar.

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Her first name is K-R-E-S-Z-N-E-N-Z.

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If you want some homework to try to figure that one out.

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Okay, back to the story.

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That was until 1921 when Cresnan's had enough, and it wasn't the back-breaking labor or Andreas

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impossible personality that drove her away.

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It was the house itself.

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For months, the Gruber household had been plagued by something, or someone they couldn't see.

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Footsteps creaked through the adequate night, unexplained thumbs echoed through the house.

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Wispers whispered about spirits, and the family started to believe them.

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Each time Andreas checked the attic, he found nothing, but the noise has stopped.

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Cresnan's finally quit, refusing to spend another night in a place that she was convinced

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was haunted.

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For months, the family struggled without a maid in the house.

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Which is so relatable to everyone, listening, I'm sure.

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J.K., but by the spring of 1922, they finally found a replacement maid, Maria Baumgartner.

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She arrived in March, settling in for her first night on the job.

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It would also be her last, because as it turned out, the thing lurking in the attic may not

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have been supernatural at all.

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Shortly before the tragedy at Hinter K.Fek, Andreas Gruber noticed something strange, something

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that should have sent alarm bells ringing.

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A newspaper from Munich had appeared at the farm.

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It wasn't theirs.

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In fact, no one in town subscribed to that paper.

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Andreas assumed it was just a mix-up, an innocent mistake by the postman.

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The next day, something far less easy to dismiss.

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Two sets of footprints in the fresh snow.

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They led from the dense forest straight into the farm's machine room.

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There were no tracks leading back out.

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The lock had been broken.

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Andreas told his neighbors, who immediately offered to help him search the property, he

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refused.

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If he accepted, maybe they would have found something or someone hiding in the barn.

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Maybe they would have seen where someone had been sleeping in the hay.

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Or notice the indentions on the attic insulation where a body had been clearly laying.

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But Andreas didn't check.

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We can only wonder how differently things might have played out if he had.

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Maybe he was just being difficult, as he was known to be, or maybe he had bigger things

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on his mind.

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Because inside the house, tensions were rising.

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By the next morning, seven-year-old Cecilia Gabriel arrived at school with a story.

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Her family had spent the entire night locked in a brutal argument.

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It was so bad that her mother Victoria fled the house.

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Hours later, she was found hiding in the forest and brought back home.

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Whatever happened that night, tensions inside the Gruber household had reached a breaking

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point.

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But whatever Victoria was running from, she didn't escape it for long.

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That night, while the Gruber's new maid, Maria Baumgartner settled in for her first evening

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on the job, something was happening outside.

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One by one, members of the family were lured into the barn.

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Maybe they heard a noise.

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Maybe someone called for help.

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We still don't know.

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But what we do know is that once they stepped inside, they never walked back out.

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Each one was struck over the head with a farm tool, likely something like a pickaxe.

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There were no defensive wounds, no sign of a struggle.

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Whoever did this, the victims either didn't see it coming or they knew they're killer.

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All but one died instantly.

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Seven-year-old Cecilia Gabriel survived long enough to suffer.

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When her body was found, her small hands were tangled in her own hair.

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She had ripped out entire tufts, likely in pain or terror before she finally succumbed.

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Inside the house, Maria never woke up.

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She was killed in her sleep just hours into her new job.

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In his bassinet, two-year-old Joseph was also murdered where he lay.

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By morning, the Gruber Farm had fallen completely silent.

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The night after the murders, a local man passing by the Gruber Farm noticed something strange.

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Someone was tending the oven inside the house.

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The figure, appearing to be a man, held up a lantern.

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But when the passerby tried to get a closer look, the man turned the lantern toward him.

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Blinding him with the light.

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The local walked away, unsettled.

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He later recalled a foul smell coming from the chimney.

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That moment was never properly investigated, but it should have been.

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Because whoever had wiped out the entire Gruber family hadn't left the scene.

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They stayed.

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For days, the killer lived inside the farmhouse, eating the family's food, lighting their fires,

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and even tending to their livestock.

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Maybe they were buying time.

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Maybe they just wanted to make sure no one came looking too soon.

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Local merchants and craftsmen visited the farm.

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Some of them noticing movement inside, but receiving no response at the door.

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Others went about their business, not realizing the entire household was dead inside.

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Four days passed, before a neighbor decided enough was enough.

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Lawrence, the neighbor, increasingly concerned sent his 16-year-old son to check on the Grubers.

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The boy returned, saying the farm was eerily silent.

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No one was there.

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That was enough to send Lawrence himself, along with two other men to investigate.

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He was the first to step into the barn, and the first to trip over a body.

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Andreas Gruber lay lifeless in the hay.

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Nearby, the rest of his family, stacked together, murdered the same way.

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Inside the house, Maria Baumgartner and two-year-old Joseph were found in their beds, killed in

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their sleep.

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And then Lorenz did something odd.

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He pulled out a key to the farmhouse, unlocked the door, and walked in, alone, unarmed, and

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without hesitation.

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If the killer had still been inside, he didn't seem worried.

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"I'm going to get my son," he told others.

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Because Joseph, the baby who had been murdered and found inside his crib, Lorenz had signed

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his birth certificate, claiming him as his own.

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Everyone in town knew the real story.

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Lorenz and Victoria had been involved.

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Maybe they still were, but Joseph wasn't his son.

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That much was clear.

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The true father, likely Andreas Gruber himself.

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Ew.

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And this wasn't some town rumor.

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It was documented.

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Andreas had already been accused of having an incestuous relationship with Victoria, and

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it wasn't a secret that she hated it.

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But with her husband dead and two children to raise, she had nowhere else to go.

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When she became pregnant with Joseph, she begged Lorenz to claim the baby as his own.

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He did, for a while.

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But keeping Andreas' secret didn't make things easier.

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If anything, it made them worse.

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Andreas remained just as cruel, and tensions between him and Lorenz continued to escalate.

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When the truth about the incest finally became public, Lorenz testified against Andreas in

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court.

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Both Andreas and Victoria were convicted.

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And after the murders, people started asking the obvious question, was this revenge?

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Initially, investigators thought the motive might have been robbery.

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The Grubers were wealthy, rumored to have gold stashed somewhere on the farm.

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But when police searched the property, the gold was still there.

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Whoever did this wasn't after money.

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So the town came up with their own explanations.

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Some believed Victoria's husband actually hadn't died in war.

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And he had returned, found her raising another man's child, and killed the entire family in

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a jealous rage.

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Others thought Victoria had started demanding child support from Lorenz, and he snapped.

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Lorenz himself never confirmed these theories, and he successfully sued several people who accused

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him of being the killer.

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But if Lorenz didn't do it, then who did?

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Of all the suspects, two names stood out, Anton and Karl Bickler, seasonal farmhands who

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had once worked at Hinterkäfek.

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They knew the land well.

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But more importantly, they had a personal connection to the Grubers.

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Their sister, Kres Nens, had been the Grubers' former maid, and on her deathbed, she made

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a confession that should have changed the case forever.

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She told her priest that she believed her brothers committed the murders.

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That she tried to tell the police before, but no one listened.

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During her official statement, she'd mentioned that her brothers hated the family, especially

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Andreas.

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They had worked under his supervision during the potato harvest, and anyone who knew Andreas

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knew he wasn't exactly pleasant to work with.

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Add in the widely known incest rumors, and the Bickler brothers had more than enough reason

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to despise him.

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Police had wanted to question them back in 1922, but by the time the investigation heated

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back up, Anton and Karl had disappeared.

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That's where things ended.

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Kres Nens begged the priest to take her confession to the authorities to finally reveal what

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she knew.

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But he didn't.

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Too much time had passed.

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The case was already cold.

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And so the mystery of the Hinter-K-Fekke murders was left unsolved.

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The farm was eventually demolished.

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The case was closed.

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And all that's left today is a concrete memorial, standing where an entire family lost their

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lives to a crime that, over a century later, still has no definitive answer.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of 10 Minute Murder.

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My name is Joe.

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I'm the host.

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And if you're a brand new listener, first of all, welcome.

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Pretty stoked that you're here.

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More information on the show?

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You can do that at 10minutemurder.com.

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Also on 10minutemurder.com, there's a murder blog that has photos while we're talking about

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the episode.

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And in the show notes of this episode, you'll find links to where you can follow 10-minute

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murder on social media.

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So I encourage you to do that.

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And some people have reached out asking why I've repeated some episodes that I've done three,

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four, five years ago.

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And there's a pretty simple answer to that.

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I am my own worst critic.

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And I think if I go back and listen to an episode I did four or five years ago, I'm like,

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oh man, that kind of sucks.

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It probably doesn't suck, but I think I can do better if that makes sense.

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And I don't do this on cases where there's little information and I'm just saying all the

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things that I can possibly say about the story.

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I'm only doing it on the bigger ones where there's a different angle I can take a new perspective

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to present the story in a better way in my opinion.

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So the short answer to that is I want to do the story better in a different way.

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And the episode coming after this one, if you're listening to this on the day that it's

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released, give it a couple of days and come back and check.

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So the story I'm doing after this one is one that I wanted to do three, four, five years

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ago, but I didn't think I could do it justice at that time.

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I've been working on it and I think I got it right.

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So coming up on the next episode of this podcast will be the Trayvon Martin story.

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So be looking for that one coming up very soon.

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And that's going to do it.

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That is your episode for today.

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Thank you again so much for listening to 10 Minute Murder.