Angerstein then stabbed himself several times, causing severe but not life-threatening wounds and called for help. When help arrived Angerstein claimed he had been attacked by bandits, who had killed everyone in the house and left him for dead. The victims were his wife Käthe Angerstein, his mother-in-law Katharina Barth, his maidservant Minna Stoll, his 18-year-old sister-in-law Ella Barth, his bookkeeper Reinhold Diethardt, his clerk Heinrich Kiehl, his gardener Alex Geiß, and the gardener's assistant Rudi Darr.