The Villisca Murders of 1912

[RichardX]

Any familiar with this one? Some interesting insights for the Borden murders including the ability of someone to enter a home and kill several family members with an ax (from wiki):

On June 9th of 1912, the Stillinger sisters, Ina (8) and Lena (12), were invited to spend the night at the Moore house. When the day was ending, the visiting girls and the Moore family went off to a church, and came back to the Moore house at 9:00. They were likely not aware that there was an intruder or intruders who are thought to have been inside the attic or cellar, waiting for them to fall asleep, so they could attack. Once they were asleep, the intruder took the family axe and went up to the master bedroom, where Mr. Josiah Moore(43) and Mrs. Sara Moore(39) were asleep, and bludgeoned them in the heads. The murderer went into the children's room and bludgeoned Herman Moore (11), Mary Katherine Moore (10), Boyd Moore (7), and Paul Moore (5) in the head like their parents. The killer possibly returned to the master bedroom to add more blows to the parents. Afterward, the murderer went downstairs to the guest room where Ina and Lena were sleeping, and hacked them in the heads. Lena may have been killed trying to get away and keep from being killed in a sexually traumatic way. Her undergarments were on the floor, her nightgown was rolled up, and there were wounds on her arms. But, there was no way to see if she was sexually traumatized or not. In the morning, their neighbor was suspicious when she noticed that the Moore family did not come out to do their morning chores. Before going to check their house, she fed her chickens and went to knock on their door. The neighbor then called Mr. Moore's brother, Ross, to see what was going on. Ross got in and returned, having left her on the porch, saying to call the sheriff, because he saw that the guests and the family inside were murdered. The investigation of the Villisca Axe Murders ruined the town's peacefulness and innocence. After the years of trying to solve the case, the police and investigators gave up in 1917. The case remains unsolved, and the house is now a tourist attraction.

[Allen]

There are some parallels but I think the Borden murders are set apart in that the killing happened in broad daylight, with many witnesses in and around the outside of the house, who in all probability would've seen a killer entering or exiting.

[SallyG]

Yep...done a lot of reading on this one! This one is puzzling...lots of possibilities for a motive and murderer.

[Yooper]

I've done some limited reading on the Villisca murders. In my opinion, this case seems to point to a transient as the perpetrator, much unlike the Borden case. Putting all of the possibilities and probabilities aside, I tend to trust the tracking dogs brought in and put on the scent. They aren't encumbered with whys and wherefores, they just tell us who went where! They followed the scent on the axe presumed to be the murder weapon from the Moore house down to the river, not once but twice.

There is another thread here on the forum where the case is discussed, in fact, there may be several.
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