by Letova
crewtime 03/11/14 (Mon) 18:53:29 #84985910
The demise of the Baumann family is among the most puzzling and obscure cases I have come across during my True Crime investigations. Despite the severity of the tragedy, and the absolutely unusual circumstances, it seems that no one outside of a few local newspapers from Cologne has even attempted to cover it, until now. It was only brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago by request of a friend from a village near where the case had taken place. I was only able to dig up anything on it from a few newspaper scans forwarded by her.
The Baumann family were, by all accounts, a quirky but happy family. At the time of the incident, the family was made up of Andreas Baumann, his wife Ursula, their thirteen year old son Theodore and their six year old daughter Angela. They lived in the suburbs of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia and were heavily engaged in their community, regularly going to local events and visiting their neighbors every couple of days. Their children were getting high grades in school and the family was financially stable, they were pretty much a model German family. Well, with one exception. Their near-militant atheism, with the family never attending any local churches, non-secular holiday celebrations and even, at one point, cutting off a close family friend after he announced his intentions of becoming a priest. Otherwise, however, there didn't seem to be anything notable about them.
At least from the outside.
crewtime 03/11/14 (Mon) 19:00:42 #84985910
In the weeks leading up to the tragedy, the behavior of the children was noted by their peers and teachers to have changed drastically. The usually social and energetic Theodore had become withdrawn and nervous, with his teachers even having raised this issue to his parents. The usually reserved and quiet Angela meanwhile had become cheerful and excited, telling her classmates that "Mommy and Daddy said we'll be together forever", before claiming that they had banned her from elaborating further.
Their parents, meanwhile, began to meet with groups of individuals with non-local license plates almost daily, their neighbors reporting seeing up to 5 cars in their driveway every evening. It wasn't the first time this happened, similar packs of guests having visited the family every few weeks, although this was seldom paid attention to at the time. We all have extended family, after all. At the same time, the Baumann parents cut off all contact with their previous friends and co-workers, remaining casual at work but refusing to talk to or meet anyone outside of it. All of this finally culminated on the 13th of November, 2005, when a tragedy finally struck the family.
On that morning, Ursula drove both of their children to school, before stopping at a butcher's shop on her way home. There, she bought a total of 10 kilograms of various animal meats, including pork, chicken and beef, then headed back home. This was the last time anyone had seen her.
Andreas left his house a few hours later, in order to pick up his daughter from school. After arriving, he struck up a short conversation with one of the teachers, who noted that he seemed exceptionally happy on that day, though he refused to say why. His son left school only an hour later, coming home by foot. Neither of the children were seen again after this point.
crewtime 03/11/14 (Mon) 19:03:16 #84985910
On the evening of the same day, a neighbor unnamed by the newspapers alleged to have heard a loud bang coming from inside the house, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Only a few minutes later, Andreas emerged from the building, before proceeding to stretch his limbs, look down at his hands and pace around. A short conversation followed, during which Andreas claimed he was just going for a walk, before he walked away from the house and onto the nearby street. Sensing something was wrong, he was followed for a short time and last seen entering a white van parked a few streets down from the family's residence and, unfortunately for investigators, far outside the view of any cameras. And with that, the last member of the family had now vanished, never to be seen again.
It took 5 days for anyone to raise alarms at their neighbor's disappearance, at which the building was finally breached by police. What they uncovered inside was quite a gruesome scene. A glass table in the kitchen had been smashed to pieces, while a hole had been punched in the nearby wall. The door leading to the guest room had been ripped off its hinges, while blood had seeped out of it and stained the carpet. The guestroom itself was a scene that, while horrific, sounds straight out a cheesy 80s horror movie.
The floor had been lined with a white tarp, almost fully covered in partially dried blood. The furniture had been replaced with tables bearing knives, surgical tools and notebooks, while symbols of unknown origin had been painted across the walls. Though no photos exist, the newspapers gave vivid descriptions of figures with multiple heads, long six-fingered hands and spirals, in addition to writing visually similar to the mongolian script. Clumps of hair and small pieces of flesh, later identified as belonging to each member of the family, were found strewn across the room. Not a single body was found.
crewtime 03/11/14 (Mon) 19:07:31 #84985910
And here, we get to the strangest part of the story. The notebooks. Inside them was a mixture of normal German writing and presumed words in the unidentified script covering parts of the guest room's walls, none of which have been deciphered. The german parts themselves were hardly discernable, although they seemed to be a kind of suicide note. Here is a fragment provided by one of the newspapers.
Tonight, it is time we join together, forever. May our [UNINTELLIGIBLE], as was shown by the Great K[UNINTELLIGIBLE]. May this night be remembered onwards. From now, to the day the skies turn pink. [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
And… that is where evidence ends, as much as it hurts me to say it. At one point, the police had claimed to have discerned a fragment of the writings alleging the family to be members of a new religious movement by the name of "Brotherhood UNITY", although the they proceeded to retract it in an interview a week later, owing it to confusion while trying to decipher the writing. Otherwise? There's no known motive, no traces of the family, nothing.
Andreas couldn't have hidden them on the property, it was flipped upside down multiple times during the search, Nothing, not even digging up the backyard provided any leads. Nor, if the neighbor is to be believed, could he have discretely disposed of them while on his way out. He wasn't spotted carrying any bags with him, after all. And what about the damage in the living room? And the growl? If the family had fought back, the damage would have surely been more extensive. And most importantly, why? Andreas was not undergoing a mental health crisis from what we know, and the family seemed to be aware that something was going to happen to them.
I really hate to end an investigation like this, with so many questions and not even a shred of evidence that could point us towards what may have happened. There is, however, a fragment of one of the reports covering it that I have found interesting. I am not sure what to think of it either, but figured I might as well copy and paste it here. For context, it was from an interview with the same neighbor who had last seen Andreas.
He was walking weird, you know? I used to be a nurse, I have seen people get up for the first time after days of laying down. He was walking like that, almost like he was learning to walk again. That's when I called out to him, asked him what he's doing. He looked away from his hands and yelled to me in this… this very young, high-pitched voice, he didn't sound like himself at all. And he said:
"Oh, hey there! Don't mind us, we're just going for a walk."