Ryan Green - The Kurim Case: A Terrifying True Story of Child Abuse, Cults & Cannibalism

The story begins in Kuim, a tiny town of around 10,000 inhabitants in the region of South Moravia, about 9 miles North-West of Brno, which is the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Like all small towns that lie in the shadow of a big city, Kuim is relatively quiet and subdued, without much big business and commerce. Most of its infrastructure is low-density residential and houses, mostly single-storey, dominate the architecture, with the occasional block of flats rising no more than a few storeys high. Aside from a church and a castle the former dating back to the 13 th century and the latter in the 15 th there isnt much in the way of sightseeing to be done in Kuim. The most interesting things that happen on any average day are the morning and evening rush as people from the town and further out make their way to and from their jobs in the larger city.

On a Monday morning in early May 2007, a discovery was made that would go on to shatter the peace and relative obscurity the town had previously enjoyed, and its reputation would henceforth be one no settlement would want to be associated with.

On the morning of the 7 th May, a new father tested a baby monitor of the type that relays video, which he had bought several months previously. His name was Eduard Trd, and his wife had just gone into labour earlier that morning. She was giving birth to their first child. One can easily imagine his excitement and anticipation as he unboxed the baby monitor, thinking about the child that he would soon be nurturing.

As he switched the screen on, he received a bit of a surprise. Rather than the interior of his own house, what appeared was an image he considered at first as just odd: a small naked boy he did not recognise, looking to be perhaps six or seven years of age, his hands bound up and playing with a roll of Scotch tape. The image was grainy monochrome. The camera sending the signal was operating in extremely low-light or near-complete darkness, and he could see just enough to discern that it was a small room.

Clearly, this was the result of a glitch, the monitor picking up the signal of a nearby set of the same type. Perhaps distracted by his impending parenthood, Trd didnt immediately connect the scene in front of him with abuse. The boy didnt look miserable rather, he seemed quite content with his improvised toy. Maybe he was just playing in his favourite little space, perhaps pretending to be in a bunker or secret enchanted room, as little boys sometimes do.

Trd went on with his day. At 5 oclock that evening, following a visit to his wife and child in the maternity ward, he revisited the invading video stream once again. The boy was still in the little room. Surely if he was just playing he wouldnt still be in there after six whole hours children dont usually have that much patience with any one game. This time, though, the image that confronted him was more disturbing: the boy was still tied up and was eating something off the floor.

Zstal jsem sedt jako opaen [I was shocked], Trd later recounted to the press. He had spent about a quarter of an hour puzzling over the footage on his screen, trying to discern whether it was real or not. Eventually, Trd decided that whatever it was, it was worth letting the police know about it. Just in case he lost the feed before they arrived, he recorded the footage.

The police arrived not long after, and after looking at the footage, they decided to investigate. Miroslav Gregor, the leading officer at the scene, made a few quick deductions in his head: baby monitors are usually designed to transmit to a receiver within the same premises. Pedpokldali jsme, e zazen m mal dosah [We figured that the baby monitor would have had short range] he later recounted, e me bt maximln ve vedlejm dom. [That it couldnt have been further than next door.]

None of the immediate neighbours, when questioned, admitted to having a small boy in a dark room somewhere on their property. One of the doors they knocked on was that of Klra Mauerov, a 29-year-old woman who had moved in about half a year earlier, in December of 2006. Klra was a reclusive woman, and aside from the occasional glimpses, had hardly been seen by her neighbours since moving to Kuim.