VICTIMS OF MURDER FARM AT TANNÖD BURIED
STILL NO CLUE TO MURDERERS AND MOTIVE
Einhausen. The members of the Danner family murdered in the isolated village of Tannöd, in the parish of Einhausen, were laid to rest on Monday with a large crowd present.
The murder raised painful questions, said Father Hans-Georg Meissner at the funeral ceremony, addressing a congregation of over four hundred.
“We are left behind in pain and grief. We stand by their open grave, unable to comprehend this heinous crime.”
As reported earlier, the body of farmer Hermann Danner was found last Tuesday, together with the corpses of his wife, Theresia, his daughter, Barbara Spangler, her children, Marianne and Josef, and Maria Meiler, employed as a maid at the farm.
According to the findings of the post mortem, all the victims died as a result of massive trauma to the head area. The murderer or murderers probably used a pickax found at the scene of the crime as a weapon.
The nature of their injuries, say the police in charge of the case, allow that assumption to be made. The investigating officers at the scene were shocked by the brutality with which the blows had been inflicted.
The bodies of Herr and Frau Danner, and of their daughter Barbara and granddaughter Marianne, were found by neighbors in the farmyard barn, hidden under a pile of straw.
The bodies of the other murder victims at the farm were found in the farmhouse.
The family lived a secluded life on their property. Maria Meiler had only just gone to work as a maid at the farm.
According to information from the police department responsible for the case, the above-named persons were presumably murdered on the night of March 18/19. The findings of the post mortem confirmed that supposition.
There were also traces of injury to the neck of Barbara Spangler’s dead body.
The possibility that this crime was a case of murder committed in the course of a robbery cannot be ruled out.
According to the neighbors, the family, who lived so privately, was prosperous. It is reported that there were large amounts of cash, jewelry, and securities in the house.
The closets in the main bedroom of the house appeared to have been ransacked.
However, there is no clue to the identity of the murderer or murderers.