not ghosts, because people kill people. supernatural stories might be creepy to me but it's always threats from a real person that scare me more

If someone was trying to “teach them a lesson” then why make the innocent 7 year old girl suffer the most?

Hab ich gefühlt 20 Videos darüber gesehen ? Ja.
Gucke ich das Video trotzdem? Jaaa😂

I honestly feel like the murderer got away. Sure, it could have been the neighbor, but he seemed to genuinely care about Viktoria. I don't think he would have killed her or her kids, and certainly not a maid he didn't know. I also don't think the dad killed them either. Sure there were a lot of suspicious circumstances, and the dad's conduct and the family's wealth probably made them targets because it would be so easy to pin it on literally anyone else with motive. The fact that they tortured the little girl and went out of their way to kill the baby boy when the dad and neighbor didn't really have motive to do so tells me it was someone else entirely.

Morbid fun fact: Schlittenbauer literally means “sled builder”.

I will always believe a viable suspect was the daughter's husband. It would not be unheard of for a soldier to be mistakenly declared dead. Maybe he went crazy during the war. Maybe he hated and resented having to live on an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere before the war. Maybe he returned home to farm to tell his wife that he was actually alive, only to discover she had a baby with another man while he was away. And there are very few men who could have fathered that baby. And her father could have been a prime suspect for the baby's father. If the soldier husband returned home only to see all of that, maybe he lost the plot and did them all in. Maybe he thought in that moment that his daughter really wasn't his and that's why the poor little girl got the worst of it. That would also explain why Viktoria was strangled. I'm just saying, much weirder things have happened than a soldier mistakenly declared dead in 1920's Germany.

i love the "man from the train" theory, that the killer here soon left germany for america and committed multiple eerily similar family murders along railroad lines. the book of the same name makes a very solid case.

It's really sad that they buried them without their heads. It doesn't really sound like returning them was even much of a priority to the police either, but I hope their souls aren't still looking for their heads because that's so sad to imagine. So many old and cases of people being to disrespectful to people's bodies after passing :(

Froggers are so scary- especially when people assume it’s paranormal and not human 😮

Greetings from Germany! 🇩🇪 I already knew about this case from a YouTuber of my region, but very interesting how you cover it up. Best regards Ellie 🌻

Those poor kids... especially the little girl who suffered so much. I can't even comprehend the minds of people who would do this to others.

I feel like I’m way late to the show , as far as you go . I became aware of you through other YouTubers im subscribed to ( which is not many ) . You obv . Are doing awesome .: but for what you put out .. and the content and quality… how are you not way higher with subscribers??! You deserve it ! Come on guys!!!

they used mediums in 1922 and it was 141 years prior that the last witch was killed in germany.. the irony

Talking about the boogeyman, I'm not sure if it was a dream or if my parents told me it was the boogeyman. I was about 10 when this happened, and all I could see out the window of my room was a yellow glow of eyes and the outline of the figure. I screamed, and when my mom came in, it was gone. It was the creepiest thing I have ever seen...

I have heard several explanations of this case and yours was the best coverage by far. All the other tellings I’ve heard have been really confusing. I know the case is convoluted but you made it much easier to follow.

Another suspect is Karl Gabriel who was Victoria's husband who supposedly died on the western front. A theory is that he switched his identification card with a dead soldier and deserted to Russia. He had previously remarked wanting to go there. This theory is further supported when some nazi soldiers came across a soviet soldier in 1945 who spoke the local bavarian dialect and admitted to being the killer of hinterkaifeck. Something else worth mentioning when it comes to suspects is what the villages priest had to say: he claimed that the killer had confessed to him in the confession booth, and that the killer was among the attending people at the funeral of the family. The priest also mentioned 10 years later that the killer wasn't alive anymore.

Great video and well told. I’ve heard this story from many channels but you found a new detail I hadn’t heard regarding the skulls.

There was another suspect I heard of that you didn’t mention. A vagabond had been seen around. He had ridden the rails into town, and the tracks passed within a mile of the farm. That would be why the city newspaper was found and why someone stayed in the attic. I’m thinking he’s the psycho, but that neighbor is super sus, too.

I love it when it’s Wednesday and I get to listen to you twice, Kaylen! I’m obsessed with Heart Starts Pounding and Clues! Thanks for making the middle of the week both spooky and fun!
(BTW, I’ll never stop wishing for a Venezuelan case, mystery, or bit of folklore from you, girl — that would be a dream!)

Oh no now I must stay up 😅

So, I gasped when you said you were covering this during your appearance on Two Hot Takes.

This case has endlessly fascinated me.

I'll edit this comment with my own thoughts at the end.

Thanks for this episode!

Edit: So, the reason I said "endlessly fascinated" is that every time I re-read about this case, I think it's a different suspect who committed the crime.

I don't think Lorenz did it, but I'm honestly not sure.

There's even more suspects, if you read up on the case, like on places like Wikipedia, there's additional suspects.

However, if you'll let me be dramatic for a moment, I think it would be absolutely wild if it was "The Man From The Train".

All those suspects, and yet it was none of them. A real "boogeyman" was actually living there, among them.

Paul Mueller is believed by some to have committed the Villisca Axe Murders and several other "family killings" in the early 1900s by "train hopping" (hence the title of the book The Man From The Train)

He was also said to have been a German immigrant, and there's speculation he returned to his homeland when authorities began to catch on to the similarities of his crimes.

I'm not doing this the proper justice, but if you read up on him and his alleged crimes, they bear a spooky resemblance to Hinterkaifeck.

Of course, all of this is a stretch, and I'm not sure if I believe that interpretation of events, but since this is a spooky podcast, I thought I'd offer the possibility that, despite all the possible suspects, an actual serial killer was living there among them, waiting for his time to strike; one last family killing before he stopped for good.

(If Paul Mueller even actually existed and was indeed the culprit, the resemblance to the Villisca murders, along with several possible others, to Hinterkaifeck, along with Mueller being a major sex-pest, could possibly explain why the authorities couldn't pin the crime on any of the actual suspects)

There's even more details, but I'm kinda waffling here, so I suggest anyone interested look further into this.