S05 Episode 9: Tenebrous (Pt. 1 of 2)

made of stone and painted white. The farm, known as hinter Kaifek, had passed through many hands over the years, all of which had, at one time or another worked the rich, dark earth that surrounded it, sewing it, tilling it, and pulling from it. Fingers plunged deep into the black of it, and all had, in one way or another,

left a piece of themselves in it too. By eighteen eighty six, the property had been passed to Cecilia Assam and Andreas Gruber, the pair having taken ownership of it shortly after the death of Cecilia's first husband, Joseph, for Cecilia left to run the farm and raise two young children alone. Andreas was an apt partner, a farm laborer

with an intense and quiet disposition. His hands were strong and his shoulders broad enough for them all, not that Cecilia's weren't also, and so in April eighteen eighty six, Cecilia Assam became Cecilia Gruber, and together she and Andreas worked the farm and the surrounding fields, maintaining a fine and stable business. In eighteen eighty seven, new life arrives

in the form of a baby girl named Victoria. She is joined by Sophie two years later, and for those first few years joy threatens to reign a hint kaifek, But the joy is short lived. Like almost twenty percent of children in the local district at the time, Sophie

does not live to see her second birthday. And now a cloud is descending over this stark white property, cast a drift from the nearby town and seeming to move further away with each passing day, the forests surrounding it seeming to grow ever denser, and the trees looming ever taller. It is a natural habit of humans to project onto all that we see, and no more so than with our interpretations of the forest. For some, the forest is foreboding a locusts for unknown dangers that lurk deep within.

But the forest does not think itself foreboding the forest just is, And yet for hinter Kaifek, it is hard not to read those tall, thick pines that surrounded the farm, and the gloom of the forest beyond, as some kind of psychic projection emanating from the darkness festering inside that white stone building, a darkness that would one day come

to define that land in more ways than one. How fitting too that the patch of woodland closest to the farm should be called hex and Holtz, or the Witch's forest, the notion of the witch often being just a projection of our own innate fears of the other, but also two, as woman's suffragist Matilda Josly Engage once noted, the fear of women. But perhaps it isn't just fear that manifests this patriarchal image of the malevolent witch, but guilt too.

You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClean smith. The couple looked happy enough as they stood reciting their vows under the watchful eyes of the priest. As they stepped out of the church arm in arm. Some say, for a brief moment, the clouds above parted and a ray

of sunshine slipped through. Perhaps the bride are now twenty six year old Victoria saw it too, and perhaps for a moment there was even the hint of a smile as she looked into the eyes of her new husband, Carl Gabriel, and saw there the hope of a better future, a future safe from harm and full of warmth for

the child that would surely come. But such thoughts were never kept long in her mind before the sight of her father, Andreas Gruber dissolved them instantly, that unmoving, impassive face, ever present, always watching the sight of him, never failing to catch in her throat, congealing like thick black tar. There had long been rumors about the man, about how he regularly beat his wife, Cecilia, now sixty four years old and nine years his senior, but that wasn't all.

It was said to be common knowledge amongst the local farming community and in the village of Grubon de Tandreas regularly raped his daughter, although it wasn't called rape at the time. Perhaps Carl knew this too when he married Victoria, and perhaps there was a hope that their marriage might

put an end to the abuse. Or perhaps, as some have suggested the union was more pragmatic than that that it merely offered a buffer for Victoria and an opportunity for Karl and indeed the wider Gabriel family to gain access to a successful, if modest business. Only a month before their wedding, Andreas transferred all the rights to the farm to his daughter, making her the sole heir to the property. By marrying Victoria, Carl had guaranteed that any

children of theirs would inherit the land. But for some possessions, or at least what they consider to be their possessions, are not so easy to let go of, and no matter where they turned nor what time of day, there would be Andreas, who, along with Cecilia, remained living at the property, standing watch stone, faced deep in thought. Barely weeks after the wedding, Carl moved back home to his parents, complaining that he was being bullied and that the fierce

and uncompromising Andreas had even taken to starving him. But just as Andreas cast his shadow over hinter kaifek So two were other larger shadows being steadily drawn across the land. In late June of nineteen fourteen comes the news that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria Hungary, has been shot dead. The rickety, stumbling wheel of human civilization takes another lurch from the path and wobbles inexorably toward war, and so the men are summoned by appeals

to duty and valor. Perhaps it is with trepidation that Carl packs up the few belongings he'll need and marches out of the farm toward Munich to sign up, leaving behind and now four months pregnant, Victoria. Or perhaps at the sight of the stone faced Andreas, pausing briefly from his work in the field to nod goodbye to his son in law, it is with relief before long. It is December twelfth, nineteen fourteen, eight hundred kilometers to the

northwest of hint Kaifek. A crow swoops down above a field just north of the town of Arras, coming to rest, and what remains of an old beech tree in the field below, freshly scarred and pockmarked by shelling, there lies a body, its forehead split open and the lower jaw obliterated, its pale vacant eyes staring up toward a slowly darkening sky. The crow cause and swoops down for closer inspection, but

a hand quickly shoes it away. Joseph Bickler, a farmer from vadeh Hoffen, a town close to Gruben, stands over the body, recognizing it instantly as that of his old school friend Carl Gabriel. The following week, back at hinter Kaifek, a now heavily pregnant, Victoria watches from the window as postal worker Joseph Meyer draws near to the house. With him, he carries a copy of Andreas's regular paper and a letter addressed to Victoria written by Joseph Bickler, informing her

of her husband's death. But Victoria has little time to grieve when three weeks later she gives birth to her first child, whom she names Cecilia after her mother. But still the rumors refuse to go away, as many in the village are left wandering is the child karls or is it her father's. At some point in early nineteen fifteen, a complaint is brought to the local police that Andreas

was committing incest with his daughter. After a formal investigation, rumor becomes fact when on May twenty eighth, Andreas is convicted for the offense, with the court deciding to limit the period of the crime to the year's nineteen oh seven to nineteen ten, when Victoria was aged twenty to twenty three. This was most likely an arbitrary decision to avoid looking into accusations that it had in fact been going on much longer than that, and thereby allowing Andreas

the opportunity to escape the accusation of child abuse. He is sentenced to one year in prison. Such was the attitude of the day. Victoria was considered to be a willing participant in the abuse, and as such was also convicted for the crime. On January tenth, nineteen sixteen, a day after her daughter's first birthday, Victoria was taken to Neuburg Prison to spend the first of thirty days behind bars for one relatively blissful year. Victoria and her mother

Cecilia run the farm with help from their maid kretchens Raiger. Together, they manage all the livestock and harvest the fields. On Sundays, Victoria makes the short journey to the village of Vaidhoffen to attend the trade fair, and on occasion joins the church choir to sing. She is praised widely for her voice and is known by the nickname the Lark of hinter Kaifek. But in February nineteen seventeen, Andreas returns, and though Victoria continues to sing, something of her voice has changed.

In nineteen eighteen, Victoria begins a relationship with Lorenz Schlittenbauer, her neighbor from the next farm over who is only recently widowed. The affair is brief, with some blaming the presence of Andreas for Lorenz's reluctance to pursue the relationship. However, by the end of December, Victoria discovers she is pregnant again, and Lie nineteen nineteen, gives birth to a son, whom

she names Joseph. Now a single mother with two young children, Victoria is convinced that Lorenz is the father and approaches him for financial support. In response, Lorenz, who suspects the child might instead be Andrea's, reports her and her father again to the police. With Andreas Julia arrested and awaiting a second trial, Victoria pleads with Lorenz to drop the charge and claim paternity of the child to help put an end toward the salacious rumors. Lorenz later said that

despite agreeing to the claim, Victoria paid him to say it. Meanwhile, Cretans, the family's maid, is growing increasingly anxious. At night, she hears unusual sounds in the house and what seemed like footsteps moving about the place. Sometimes her door even seems to open on its own accord. One morning in the summer of nineteen twenty one, after pulling up water from the well, Kretchians is walking across the courtyard when she hears a strange noise coming from the barn, unlike any

of the usual animal cries. Moving slowly into the barn, she catches sight of something in the corner and recoils in horror. It is Andreas raping his daughter, who lies motionless underneath him. Kretchians leaves the farm the following week. The winter of nineteen twenty one is especially cruel, with freezing temperatures lasting well into the following year. By mid March, there is still no end in sight, with frost and

snow a frequent occurrence. One gray afternoon, Victoria is walking across the courtyard when she is distracted by a movement to the south. Looking up, she can just make out a lone figure standing at the edge of which is wood, that appears to be watching her. Looking away for a moment, she turns back to find that the figure has gone. A few days later, when postal worker Joseph Meyer arrives at the property, he has met by Andreas waving a paper around a damp and muddy copy of the munich Zeitung.

He'd found it while out in the field, close to which is wood. He wants to know if Joseph has dropped it, perhaps, but Joseph has never seen it before, and neither has he ever delivered one like it. Whosevers it was, he suggests, was not local to the area. It is early in the morning of March twenty ninth when Andreas is disturbed from bed by what sounds like

footsteps shuffling about in the attic above. Grabbing his rifle and a flashlight, he makes his way through the darkness toward the attic stairs and climbs up into the opening above, each step creaking as he goes. Pointing the light into the roof, he could see the whole attic stretched out in both directions, empty save for some old patches of straw that were scattered about, and the pieces of meat

hanging in the smoke house above the kitchen. On the morning of Thursday, March thirtieth, Andreas heads toward the engine room, where much of the farmer's heavy equipment is kept. The room is located at the southwest tip of the L shaped farm, tacked on to the end of the barn. The snow is still thick on the ground as Andreas approaches, to find that the padlock on the door is missing. What's more, there are two sets of footprints in the

snow leading inside the building, but none coming out. A confused Andreas stares down at the tracks and then up toward which is wood where they seem to have come from. Andrea shouts for whoever is inside to come out, but there is no reply. Pulling the door open, he's relieved to find the place completely deserted and everything as he'd left it. Later, however, he will find one of his two house keys has gone missing. Do you ever have

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Concern that she may have drowned herself, leads the family to the banks of the river par a kilometer to the south of the farm, but there is no sign of her in the dark, icy water. The seventy two year old Cecilia is finally found sitting silently on a tree stump in the forest and is eventually coaxed back to the farm. The following day, with things appearing to have abated, the family are joined by forty five year old Maria Baumgartner, who arrives accompanied by her sister Francisca,

to take on the roll of a living housemaid. Francisca had helped secure the job for her sister, who, due to her learning difficulties and the slight physical disability of having one leg shorter than the other had often struggled for work, her most recent job in the nearby town of Unterwittelsbach having been terminated simply because the town's mayor

deemed her too unsightly for the local community. And though Franciska had heard much about the Gruber family and what was rumored to take place at hint Kaifek, it was an opportunity too good to refuse for Maria. Even still, it was hard not to feel a little trepidation when, after helping her sister settle in, she made her goodbyes

and headed out of the property. With the wind picking up and thick storm clouds beginning to gather in the sky above, Franciska was approaching the main road when she heard the voice of her sister calling out from behind her. Turning round, she saw Maria racing toward her for one final good bye before they parted. After a brief hug, Maria asked her sister to visit again soon, then turned

and headed back to the farm. It is late the following night when local carpenter Michael Plockell trudges past the property and spots a fire burning in the outdoor oven and smoke billowing out of its chimney. Perhaps it was the nauseating smell like burnt rags that caused him to stop, or perhaps it was just something in the quiet of the night. But as he stares, he is taken aback by the sudden movement of a figure stepping into the courtyard.

Michael watches as the figure slams the oven door, shut, points a flashlight in his direction, and then begins steadily making his way toward him, Frozen with fear at first, as the figure draws closer and closer, Michael finally pulls his hands from his pockets and speed off in the opposite direction. It is two days later when Joseph Mayer arrives at the property to deliver Andreas's paper, only to find the place completely deserted, with no sign of Andreas

or anyone else for that matter, to be found. The courtyard unnervingly quiet save for the gentle lowing of the cattle coming from inside the barn, assuming they're out working the field somewhere. Joseph leaves the paper on the kitchen window sill and heads off to continue his round. It is sometime around midday on Tuesday, April fourth, when machinist Albert Hoffner arrives at hint Kaifek to make repairs to

the family's threshing machine. A cold wind whips around him as he pulls up to the courtyard gate on his bicycle, Surprised to find that it's still locked. After waiting unsuccessfully for over an hour for someone to meet him, Albert makes his way to the engine room. Grateful to find the lock is broken, he lets himself inside and sets to work on the machine. Four and a half hours later,

there is still no sign of the family. With the work completed, Albert heads into the courtyard and notices for the first time that the barn door is wide open. I'm sure if it was before. He moves toward it, calling out for Andreas or Victoria, but has met with only silence. Peering into the darkness beyond, he sees only the cattle inside and some hay piled up in the far corner. Hearing the dog suddenly barking manically, he wanders round to the front of the house and finds it

tied up by the front door. Ignoring its cries, Albert cups his hands over the glass and peers inside to the kitchen, but sees nothing untoward. Turning back, he takes one final look at the empty field to the stretch of forest beyond, then heads off to find his bicycle. It's just gone five pm when farmer Michael Pearl, another neighbor of the Grubers, here's a knock at his door. He opens it to find a nervous looking Lorenz Schlittenbauer

and their neighbor Jacob Sig waiting for him. After hearing about Albert Hoffner's strange experience at the farm, Lorenz had grown increasingly concerned about the Gruber family and his apparent's son Joseph's whereabouts. With the young Cecilia not having been seen at school since Saturday, all was eerily quiet as the three men stepped into hint of Kaife's deserted courtyard, the silence only becoming more deaf when their desperate cause

for Victoria and Andreas brought no reply. Finding all doors to the property now completely shut and locked up save for the engine room, the men made their way inside from the back, only to find that through door to the barn had been deliberately blocked from behind with a beam of wood. After finally managing to dislodge it, and with the light quickly beginning to fade, the men carried

on into the barn beyond. The sudden appearance of a cow wandering freely around inside startled them momentarily as they continued forward into the dark, feeling for obstacles with their feet, when suddenly Michael cried out, Hey, there's something here. Michael pulled back and realized with horror it was a foot. Whoever it was, was lying under a large plank of

wood that had been put on top of them. Together, the men pulled the wood to the side and revealed the body of Andreas Gruber underneath, dressed in trousers and undershirt, thickly matted with blood and crudely covered over with hay. Pulling the body out, the men recoiled at the sight of its face. The right side of it was completely smashed in, its cheek, bones clearly visible. But then Lorenz

saw the other limbs, all packed underneath together. Pulling out one after the other, the men revealed the bodies of seven year old Cecilia, dressed in her night skirt, her mother Victoria, and her mother Cecilia, both fully dressed and hideously mutilated, their clothes and faces black with blood. Michael and Jacob wretched at the sight of them and stumbled

back into the courtyard, desperate for air. A moment later, Lorenz appeared in the yard, having opened the front door to the main house from inside, and beckoned for the other two to help him search for his son. They found him in the stroller at the foot of Victoria's bed, his body partially covered with one of Victoria's jackets. He'd been killed by a heavy blow to the face. Finally, after almost missing her at first, Michael noticed a pair of legs peeking out from under the bed in the

maid's quarters. It was Maria, her clothes and face also soaked black with blood. As Michael and Jacob struggled to make sense of it all, an eerily calm Lawrence returned to Victoria's bedroom, and, having found a candle, sat down quietly on the bed and lit it. Outside. All about the and was silent and still, save for the gentle rustle of wind in the pines and the occasional wail of cattle coming from that solitary white stone building of

Hinta Kaife. You've been listening to unexplained Season five, Episode nine, Tenebrous, Part one of two. Part two will be released next Friday, January twenty second. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add three episodes, just go to patron dot com, forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward Slash Support.

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