Germany's century-old unsolved real unsolved case: strange footsteps in the attic every night

"Bang bang bang", when the night comes, if you are sleeping, suddenly awakened by a strange footstep in the attic of the house, what kind of reaction will you have? At first, it may be thought that it is auditory hallucinations; Twice, he will have the courage to go to the attic to check it out on his own; Three times, will you directly choose to call the police?

This scene took place on a farm in Germany in the last century. However, the first person to discover this strange phenomenon was a maid who did not have a high voice. It was also the farmer who did not pay attention to the other party's words and called the police early, which eventually led to a massacre, a family of five plus a new maid, all killed overnight. By the time the crowd found out that something was wrong, their bodies had begun to decay, and the picture was not miserable.

So, in what context did this tragic case take place? What exactly is the sound of footsteps in the attic? Next, let's go back to the German farm a hundred years ago and look back at the beginning and end of this case.

One after another out of the "strange" farm

The case took place on a farm in Germany in the 1920s.

The farm has been around for at least a few decades, and there are five people in the family, namely the farmer Andrew, wife Keith, daughter Victoria, granddaughter and grandson.

If it is not a short period of time, there will always be accidents on the farm, and perhaps this will be a small family that will always be "happy and calm". However, as footsteps in the attic become more frequent, the calm will soon be completely broken, and the murderer is planning a massacre.

The first person to find out that there was something wrong with the farm was the maid who worked here for many years. Probably because she slept so lightly, every night she was awakened by the frightening sound of footsteps coming from the attic. At first, she thought she was hallucinating, but for several nights the footsteps did not stop, which made the maid's heart begin to feel hairy.

The maid did not dare to go at night, and during the day she ventured to the attic alone, only to find that there was nothing in the attic.

But how could there be footsteps in the attic so often when there was no one there? The maid couldn't guess anything else, but subconsciously felt that the house might be haunted. So she and the farmer suggested that she didn't want to work on the farm.

The farmer felt that the maid's decision was very sudden. She is gone, and during this time, she can't find anyone to replace her, who will do the daily chores of her family? Therefore, he carefully asked the maid the reason for choosing to leave, thinking that if the wages were low, he could talk about it again!

But he did not expect that when he mentioned it, a trace of fear suddenly flashed on the maid's originally calm face. She pointed to her finger, told her story over the past few days, and told the farmer her guess.

Ben was well-intentioned, but the farmer was very angry when he heard it. He subconsciously felt that the maid was lying. After all, his family had lived here for so long, and no one said that they heard unknown footsteps at night. If you don't want to keep working, just say it. Why look for such a high-sounding reason? You are not the only one in our family.

Therefore, the farmer who originally had the intention of persuading the other party to leave his mind directly and angrily took all the maid's luggage out of the farm and drove the maid out.

However, although the maid left the farm, the anomaly on the farm did not disappear. After her, the farmer's 7-year-old granddaughter also sensed that something was wrong, but after seeing grandpa throw the other person out of the farm because the maid told the truth, the poor girl instantly extinguished the idea of wanting to talk, and endured the fear of the night alone.

As a result, the 7-year-old girl could not eat for many days in a row, did not sleep well, and was visibly weak. Only when she gets to school, in class, will the little girl's spirit relax. As soon as she relaxed, the problem came: the other children in the class were in earnest, but she was dozing off on the table all day.

Of course the teacher thought it strange. What does this little girl do when she comes home at night and doesn't sleep? So the teacher prepared to invite the little girl's mother, Victoria, to the school to find out about the situation.

However, Victoria was confused when she learned about her daughter's situation from her teacher, because she really didn't know why her daughter didn't sleep at night.

When she got home, Victoria took her daughter in her arms and asked her why she was dozing off in class. The little girl hesitated for a long time before she lay down in her mother's ear and told her little secret. Like the maid, the little girl who slept alone in the bedroom could hear strange footsteps coming from the attic every night.

The maid may choose to lie because she wants to change to a higher-paying job, but the child does not have this need. So rancher Andrew had to revisit the issue after his granddaughter told the truth.

That night, no one in the house fell asleep as usual, especially Andrew. Because of this, in a trance, he seemed to hear faint footsteps overhead.

As soon as the sound came out, Andrew's drowsiness disappeared instantly. He was bold, grabbed a weapon, took the electric lamp, and crept to the attic, but there was no one there.

Andrew didn't know if he was scared or relieved. He walked up the stairs outside and shouted at everyone in the house in a loud voice, trying to prove that there was no one in the attic, and that the reason he heard the sound might have been that we were hallucinating.

Initially, the family believed Andrew's words, or they preferred to comfort themselves. But the truth is there, by no means they do not believe.

Haunted? Or is there really someone hiding in the house?

Perhaps the man who made the footsteps had noticed something, and he enjoyed the fear of the family. A few days later, as night fell, all those who had not fallen asleep actually heard footsteps in the attic again.

This time, there was no way they could fool themselves. However, as before, the whole family ran to the attic and turned over, but did not find any suspicious people.

Because the cause has not yet been identified, a few days later Andrew and his family began to experience varying degrees of nervous weakness. If we can't find this man, I'm afraid his family will never have a peaceful day.

During the day, Andrew and his family were busy on the farm. Back home in the evening, he ran to the neighbors' house, told them about the recent encounters, and asked them if any suspicious people had come to the villa while he was away, but all conclusions were negative.

Is there a ghost in the house, or has someone grown wings? The whole family couldn't guess it. However, something more terrible is yet to come.

It was still winter, and it was common for snow to fall.

One night, a snowstorm swept through Germany. It wasn't long before the ground was covered in snow, and it didn't stop until nearly midnight.

The next morning, Because of his work, Andrew got up early to shovel the snow, but found a line of strange footprints on the snow: one end of the footprint was connected to the mountain behind the farm, and the other end was facing his farmhouse!

Over the next period of time, the keys to the home began to disappear inexplicably in one place and suddenly appeared in another; Apparently, the whole family had never bought a newspaper, and only occasionally a newspaper appeared on the table inexplicably. ......

All sorts of strange things are being told to Andrew's family: he worries that someone really broke into the house while they weren't paying attention. But even if they realize this, their family is in the light, this person is in the dark, they can only be in a passive position, there is nothing they can do about it.

In this way, less than half a year has passed, from the cold winter to the pleasant spring. During this time, the problems faced by Andrew's family of five have not been solved.

If this had happened now, perhaps it would have been called to the police long ago. But that was 100 years ago, and the family still lived on a remote farm. Countrymen always have to solve their own problems. So Andrew, who has always been grumpy, has always believed that they can solve these problems on their own.

However, the truth is that overconfidence often comes at a terrible cost, even for life. Just when everyone did not expect it, an accident suddenly occurred.

As the whole family grew haggard, gradually they also had no intention of taking care of the farm, let alone the housework. After the former maid left, the farm was looking for someone to replace her. It wasn't until March 31 that a new maid came to the farm. Her name is Miley, and she is a young, agile, resourceful girl.

Who would have thought that on the first day of the girl's arrival on the farm, by the time people saw her again, she would have become a cold corpse. Andrew's family of five was killed together.

Miley, a simple girl, is inadvertently involved in a massacre.

The police investigation was convinced that someone had done it.

Andrew's family of five was found dead because neighbor Lawrence had not seen the family for days. Sensing something was wrong, he sent his two sons to Andrew's house to check it out. Because the doors and windows were closed, they couldn't get in, so they went home first and told their father Lawrence about it.

Feeling bad, Lawrence immediately went out and called for more people to go to the farm together. They looked around the house, but found several bodies lying in a pool of blood in the barn on one side.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew, their daughter, and granddaughter have been dead for a long time, and even at the moment the door is opened, the smell of dead bodies can be clearly smelled in the air.

Lawrence, who was leading the way on the farm, saw this scene and his face changed dramatically. He took a key out of his pocket, opened the door to Andrew's house, and ran straight in. Sure enough, the 2-year-old boy Joseph had died in the crib, and the maid Miley, who had just arrived a few days ago, was found dead in her room.

The entire six lives ended without them noticing. This matter can be said to be very serious, so the neighbor rushed to the police station to report the case, hoping to arrest the murderer as soon as possible.

Because this case really involves a wide range, six lives cannot be ignored. Moreover, the farm is located in a very remote rural area of Germany, which makes it difficult for the police to try cases, both in terms of police force and other aspects.

The impact of this incident was so bad that it even alarmed the Munich police. Munich immediately set up a "task force" and drove to the farm in the starry night.

On April 5, the police finally arrived at the farm after a night of bumping in the car and immediately dispersed the evidence collection.

This kind of professional thing should still be done by professional people. As soon as the forensic doctor arrived at the scene, he immediately endured the odor and performed an autopsy on 6 corpses. The results of the examination were obtained as soon as possible: from the night of March 31 to the early morning of April 1, 6 people died. Almost all of the six bodies suffered the same fatal wounds, all of which were hit in the head by sharp objects and killed in one hit.

But curiously, five out of six had only one fatal wound, while Victoria, in her thirties, had far more wounds. Is this the killer's "special care" for her? Or did Victoria fight with the gangsters before she was killed? The police don't know.

Later, the police searched all the rooms and found no extra traces left elsewhere. There were only three scenes of the first murder, the barn where four bodies lay, Joseph's room, and the maid Miley's room.

Miley and Joseph's deaths are a simple guess. First, he was young and had no ability to resist at all. Less than a day after a day of coming to the farm, even the family may not know what they look like, so they take advantage of the fact that no one is paying attention and kill this simple girl.

But why did the other four people die together in the barn? Police speculate that it is likely that an acquaintance committed the crime. Only acquaintances can trick a family into the barn one by one. As soon as the door is closed, it is called "every day should not be" and "the earth is not spirited", which also provides good conditions for the murderer to commit crimes.

What is even more bizarre is that the police judged based on the clues that the murderer also lived in the house for a period of time after killing 6 people. Take the cows on the farm that need to be milked every day! Supposedly, after Andrew's family was killed on April 1, no one milked the cows. It should have screamed in pain because of the increased milk, but its neighbors around it never heard the cows. This means that the murderer lives on the farm with the corpse and milks the cows.

With this judgment, the police were stunned. How perverted should the murderer be, and how strong is the psychology to do this?

Despite the verdict, the police need to find more clues if they want to solve the case. Eventually, residents near Andrew's home were invited to the police station for questioning, and the police wanted to get useful information from them.

However, it turned out that even if they told all the information they had seen about the farm in the past four days, the police would not be able to get more breakthrough clues from it.

The only thing that had some value, perhaps one of them said, was that farmer Andrew had once said in a trance that there seemed to be an "invisible" man in his attic, but he had never succeeded in catching the other man.

The police immediately ran to Andrew's attic. Combined with what Andrew said, they judged that this man was most likely the murderer.

The police immediately ran to the attic of Andrew's house, but Andrew searched countless times and did not find it. But police did find signs of occupancy there: cigarette butts in cracks in the ground, and traces of sleeping on straw piled up there. Combined with what Andrew said, they judged that this man was most likely the murderer.

As for why Andrew had been to the attic before but found nothing, the police speculated that the killer might have been careful not to reveal his identity. He killed Andrew's family, and naturally felt that there was no need to hide anymore, so he let go of his hands and feet.

As for the murderer, isn't he afraid that the police will find himself based on these clues? It can only be said that the psychology of the perverted killer is naturally not something that we ordinary people can understand.

After cigarette butts in the attic, police found that Andrew and his wife's bedroom, as well as Victoria's bedroom, had been turned over, but the family's valuables did not seem to have diminished much. This seems to indicate that the murderer did not kill for the sake of robbery at all. What would that be?

Andrew's family only runs a very ordinary farm, the right to kill, can not occupy, the money killing does not look like, love killing, there are only two women in the family, Keith is in her 70s, Victoria is in her 30s, there is no sign of being violated at the scene. Combined with Victoria's inexplicably more scars than others, the police felt it might be a case of deliberate revenge.

But all this is just speculation by the police. To get more evidence, police listed all the people with more or less ties to Andrew's family of five as suspects and interrogated them, but ultimately found nothing.

In the end, the German police had to extrapolate to guess who might be the murderer.

Lawrence, the first neighbor suspected by police, was the first to notice a problem with Andrew's house. Why did the police suspect him? That's because he and the farmer's daughter, Victoria, a 35-year-old widow at home, once had an inhumane relationship. That's why, after finding the body in the barn, he was able to take out the key the next moment and open the door. According to Lawrence, Victoria gave him the keys. That way he could meet Victoria alone with her in her absence.

They had deep feelings when they first fell in love, but Andrew strongly opposed their association and broke them up.

But soon after, Victoria was found pregnant and gave birth to a son, Joseph, a few months later. The timing of this coincidence makes one wonder if Joseph's biological father was Lawrence.

Supposedly, if Lawrence was the murderer and Joseph was Lawrence's child, how could he do anything to his son? At this time, the surrounding residents provided another story, which made the police cry out of dog blood and added a more mysterious color to the case.

Lawrence

It turned out that Victoria and Andrew were not father and daughter. Victoria's biological father was killed in battle, and her mother took her to remarry Andrew and start a new family.

Where is the absurdity of this family reorganization? As Little Joseph. Some suspect that Joseph's biological father was not Lawrence at all, but Andrew. The stepfather and stepdaughter got along well and had a child. Arguably, in a way, it was a green hat for Lawrence.

From this point of view, Lawrence is indeed suspected of murder, and he is also a neighbor, which is also a very convenient chip.

However, in the absence of sufficient evidence, the police naturally could not convict Lawrence. Interrogating the other party at the police station for a period of time and conducting a fuller investigation, they found that Lawrence did not usually have the habit of smoking, so the cigarette butts in the attic naturally could not be his. There was not enough evidence and the police had to release him.

Lawrence's suspicions were ruled out, and police began racking their brains to find the next suspect. Surprisingly, they named the second suspect Kyle, Victoria's husband, who had already been killed on the battlefield.

They speculate that Kyle may not be dead. He was a deserter on the battlefield, and when he returned home, he found that his wife had put a green hat on him, and then suspected that his daughter was not her own child. After all, everyone has to cheat, and once, there will be a second time. Enraged, he plotted a murder. ......

This speculation may seem absurd, but it actually has a certain basis. After the outbreak of World War I, Kyle enlisted in the army and left pregnant Victoria. He was later said to have been killed, but the police went through the lists of German Casualties of World War I and did not find Kyle's name. That would prove that he was probably a deserter.

And it is not uncommon for soldiers to develop the habit of smoking, the most direct point is the evidence that Kyle is the murderer, or the cold corpses.

Because these corpses were all killed by blunt objects, it was difficult for untrained people to do so. Kyle, on the other hand, was a soldier with formal military training and fought alongside the enemy on the battlefield. It's not surprising that he can do that.

However, even if the killer was Kyle, the German police could not find Kyle, and there was a big doubt that could not be explained: two-year-old Joseph was not Kyle's child, while the seven-year-old daughter was Kyle's biological child. Would he be cruel enough to kill his own daughter?

A century of unsolved cases

At that time, the German police completely relied on "guessing" to solve the case. In a way, this is extremely absurd, but it is also forced.

A year passed quickly, and the case became unsolved. Since the farmer's family was completely dead and the farm was left unmanaged, it was eventually taken back by the government and quickly bought by another person.

In view of the "murderous house", the new farm mainly tried to tear down the original house. In this demolition, a hammer with black and red blood stains was found inside - this is exactly the prop that the police could not find.

However, despite such a hammer, due to technical limitations, the police were unable to check fingerprints, so the emergence of evidence still failed to bring any effect to the investigation of the case.

Later, the police were really helpless about this case, and in the end, it became an unsolved case in German history.

Now, a hundred years later, the six people who were killed had long since become a pile of white bones, and the people who killed them should have died long ago.

Who is the owner of the cigarette butt? Who is the murderer? This became an eternal mystery. But it is conceivable that if this case were placed in the present, with today's level of technology, as long as the fingerprints on the hammer and the DNA on the cigarette butt were successfully extracted, the case might have been solved long ago. The murderers were brought to justice, and the innocent who had been wrongfully killed should have rested their souls long ago.