As the story is told, once upon a moonless night in May of 1843, the Castner-Parke family were brutally murdered by the hand of an unknown assailant.
There were no witnesses to the crime though a young hired hand and the two young Castner boys, asleep in the house, survive.
No evidence of the murderer or a murder weapon were ever discovered.
Parke, a wealthy farmer, his sister, Marie Parke-Castner, her husband John Castner and their infant daughter Mattie, all perished that dark night.
John B.
As the story is told, once upon a moonless night in May of 1843, the Castner-Parke family were brutally murdered by the hand of an unknown assailant