The victims totalled seven in all, and only by a miraculous chance did two more children of the storekeepers—boys of eleven and eight years of age—escape the notice of the human beasts, They were sleeping in a small room full of cases and boxes, used as a store-ym, and were found by the authorities during their investigations still asleep. They were immediately taken to a neighbour's house, but were unable to throw any light on what had happened during the previous night, though one of the boys said he woke up in the middle of the night and wishing to drink some water hoe went through the rooms to the kitchen. Everything quite dark, and he wished to light a candle, but could find no matches. He remembered stepping into something wet on the floor, and his fect were found to be covered in blood.
All the rooms were in the great: est disorder, boxes, wardrobes, chests of drawers, had been hurriedly opened and the contents lay strewn about the floors, whilst pillow-cases and mattresses had been ripped up by knives. Blood was everywhere, on the walls, on the furniture and even on the ceilings.
Motive for the Crime.
The shop in front of the living room was found to be untouched, everything was in its original place and. the front door firmly locked ani bolted. An iron bracket, such as is used as a support te curtain poles, was lying on the counter, covered in blood, and it is ¢ resumed that this was one of the blunt struments used for the deeds, whilst near it wasa half emptied gies of vodka. The murderers entered the premises by the back door, passing through the courtyard behind the building, leaving their footprints on the snow. Beyond these and the bracket there are at present no other clues.
The cold-blooded manner in which the family were one by one done to death makes one conclude that the perpetrators were fully acquainted with the surroundings and de-Hiberately planned everything beforehand. The murders must have
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