A maid working at a Bavarian bed & breakfast in the southern German city of Passau found three people dead, impaled on long crossbow bolts, when she checked on the room.
When the maid first looked into the second floor room, she thought the figure on the bed was a doll and called a colleague to help push the door open.
They were met with a bizarre and horrifying scene — a 54-year-old man and two women, aged 30 and 33, dead with crossbow bolts through their mid-sections and two crossbows lying on the floor.
Local press reported that the man and the youngest woman were from Rhineland-Palatinate in the west of the country and the 33-year-was from 482km away in Lower Saxony, but they arrived together at the guesthouse.
A hotel manager told the Daily Beast that the trio arrived late on Friday night local time, in a white ute after battling through driving rain.
The group left an impression on other guests, with the man wearing a formal suit and sporting a long white beard and his female companions dressed entirely in black.
"It was a strange group," one guest told Merkur news, adding that "they said good evening and just wanted to get to their room quickly".
The hotel manager said the group had asked for food on their arrival but, on finding that the kitchen was closed, accepted packaged salty snacks and Coca-Cola. He said they were hungry so booked breakfast for the next morning, but never arrived.
Local press reports that none of the other guests heard any strange noises overnight, though the storm and the fast-flowing river beside the guesthouse might have muffled any noise.
Police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the deaths and post-mortem examinations have been ordered.
By Saturday evening police announced that there was no further evidence at the guesthouse and it reopened for business. The room in which the bodies were found remains sealed.
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