THE SIX WHO NEVER LEFT

More than a century after six people were murdered in a single nite at a remote Bavarian farm in 1922, no one has ever been charged.
At Hinterkaifeck, a secluded farmstead north of Munich, three generations of one family and their recently hired maid were murdered on the evening of March 31, 1922. For four days, the crime remained undiscovered. When neighbors finally looked into it, they discovered a case that would go down as one of Germany's longest unsolved homicides: the weapon came from the family's own farm, a neighbor had a lengthy and contentious relationship with the household, and the subsequent investigation questioned over a hundred people without ever filing any charges.

Using contemporary investigative techniques, a Bavarian police academy reexamined the case in 2007. The team came to the conclusion that the murders would probably never be proven in court, but they never disclosed the identity of the most likely suspect.

This book traces the case from the family's recorded past to the initial inquiry, its decades-long silence, and the 2007 review. It is based on historical and archival research, and it takes great care to distinguish between what the evidence truly proved and what is still conjecture, suspicion, or an unproven assertion.
Who was inside that farmhouse, and why has no one ever found out? is still the question that has plagued every investigator involved in this case.