The Mauerova Cult Family

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5th October 2019  •  3 min read

The story of the Mauerova family is a bizarre and disturbing tale involving cannibalism, child abuse, identity theft and cults. This crime sounds exactly like the plot of some Quentin Tarantino movie but what happened in this family is very much true.


The Mauerova Cult Family

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Morbidology is a weekly true crime podcast created and hosted by Emily G. Thompson. Using investigative research combined with primary audio, Morbidology takes an in-depth look at true crime cases from all across the world.


The story of the Mauerova family is a bizarre and disturbing tale involving cannibalism, child abuse, identity theft and cults. This crime sounds exactly like the plot of some Quentin Tarantino movie but what happened in this family is very much true.

Klara Mauerova from Kurim in the Czech Republic often told people that she was destined to fulfill a mission for God. Her sister, Katerina, had a mission too, she said. Klara went on to have two sons – Ondrej and Jakub. The father of the sons eventually left Klara because of her bizarre behavior. Nevertheless, Klara was said to be a good mother in the beginning and would often be seen playing with her two boys. However, after the break up, Klara and her sons then moved in with her sister, Katerina.

The sisters then became friendly with 33-year-old Barbora Skrlova, an award-winning classical composer. Barbora had a glandular disease that made her look much younger than she really was. In fact, people often mistook her for a child. However, Barbora used this to her advantage. Prone to getting in trouble with the law, Barbora often posed as a minor to avoid charges being filed.  

Before coming to the Czech Republic from Scandinavia, Barbora posed – and even became legal – as a 13-year-old girl named Anicka.

Shortly after the three women met one-another, they joined a religious cult led by Barbora’s father, known as “The Grail Movement.” The cult expressed the belief that their members could get into heaven by doing good deeds. However, they also believed that they were absolved to commit crimes.

The three women unleashed a barrage of abuse on 8-year-old Ondrej and 9-year-old Jakub. The two boys were locked in a cage in the basement where they remained for a year.

During that year, they were completely stripped and given no blankets or anything soft to lay on. They were starved, tortured, beaten and sexually assaulted. In addition, the boys were burned with cigarettes, given electric shocks, scratched with forks, whipped and almost drowned.

The boys were forced to cut themselves with knive. When they weren’t kept in the cage, they would be handcuffed to a table and forced to stand in their own urine for days. If either boy vomited, they would be forced to eat it.

It was soon decided they would force feed the boys to make them gain weight. After gaining some weight, the women held Ondej down and skinned his leg as he screamed and pleaded. The three women then ate the raw flesh. They did the same to Jakub and even forced the boys to consume their own flesh. Now, when they weren’t being tortured, they were literally being eaten alive.1

The abuse was eventually uncovered by chance in early May of 2007 when a neighbour’s television baby monitor picked up graphic videos from the scene. Klara had installed the television system so that she could watch the abuse from another room. The neighbour saw Ondrej with his hands tied behind his back, lying naked on the floor.

The neighbour called police who arrived at the scene and rescued Ondrej and Jakub. They also “rescued” another young girl who identified herself as their 13-year-old sister, Anicka. The brothers and young girl were sent to a children’s home before it was finally uncovered that Anicka was actually Barbora.

Before police got a chance to arrest her, she fled to Norway where she took up a new identity as a 13-year-old boy named Adam. In Oslo, Barbora shaved her head and enrolled in school.2

Eight months later, Barbora was eventually tracked down by police. Following the arrests, all of the women turned on each other. Klara claimed that she had been brainwashed by a doctor who sent her text messages instructing her what abuse and torture to inflict on her sons. Police later discovered that the phone number of the so-called doctor actually belonged to Katerina.

Barbora also claimed that she was innocent and that she too had been tortured by the sisters but the court did not believe her claims.3

According to prosecutors, the purpose of the torture and abuse was to break the boys and enslave them for religious purposes. While the three women were part of “The Grail Movement,” apparently, they had branched out and were creating their own cult. It was this breakaway cult that called for members to prove their devotion through physical devotion.

Klara was sentenced to 9 years in prison, Katherina was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Barbora Skrlova was sentenced to 5 years in prison. They have all since been paroled.

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Footnotes:

  1. News & Politics Examiner, 18 March, 2015 – “A Very Strang Crime Story”
  2. Deutsche Press-Agentur, 11 January, 2008 – “Czech Woman Poses as Child in Mysterious Abuse Case”
  3. Deutsche Press-Agentur, 24 October, 2008 – “Six Sentenced in Bizarre Czech Child Torture Case”

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Norma
Norma
4 years ago

OMG they deserve life. This is sick!!

Hop
Hop
2 years ago
Reply to  Norma

I agree, but they dont deserve life they deserve death. Torture, slow & them begging to just die.

Greenlee Smythe
Greenlee Smythe
4 years ago

Wow…
The fact they got paroled in less time than many TV series’ lifespan— for literally eating children—is incredibly disturbing.
They definitely deserved a much longer punishment.
It takes a special kind of evil to do those things, the kind that just isn’t reformed in five to ten years.

Changing wind
Changing wind
3 years ago

That is what I was thinking after seeing “innocent” on netflix where african american men were given multiple life sentences for a murder they didn’t commit to begin with – this is absolutely shocking to me that these women are now out living their lives

Nella
Nella
3 years ago
Reply to  Changing wind

Black* men. No one else feels the need to use a nationality (which both “African” and “American” are, not races) to describe people of color.

Susanna Vesna
Susanna Vesna
2 years ago
Reply to  Nella

Calling someone “Black” sounds a 1000 times more racist, then specifying what origin these people represent – African American, Latin American, Asian American, Native American! One is actually showing respect to the people’s roots, rather than brushing them with some basic “colour”! Stop making shit up to seem virtuous online!

Crystal
Crystal
2 years ago
Reply to  Susanna Vesna

I am a black woman and I’d like to explain you why saying “black” is not racist. I can completely understand why you may THINK so, but the reality is unless an individual’s ancestors immigrated to the United States post slavery, we cannot directly trace our roots, traditions, etc back to a particular country in Africa. We CHOOSE to identify as black because slavery has mixed and matched our ancestry 1000 times over and black is inclusive of the parts of us that are African, Caribbean, American and anything that cannot and has not been traced to us individually. In… Read more »

cjhollar1@gmail.com
cjhollar1@gmail.com
1 year ago
Reply to  Crystal

Well said👌

Tracy
Tracy
9 months ago
Reply to  Crystal

Very well said. And I would like to add that the correct terminology has changed over the years. Personally I have always tried to use the correct terminology but it has gone back and forth. Your reasoning makes perfect sense. But just because someone says the wrong thing doesn’t necessarily make them racist. It could honestly mean they just don’t know any better. I dont watch tv and my time online is fairly minimal. Personally I try not to even use words that denote race because as far as I’m concerned we are all people. But that said many are… Read more »

Sharone
Sharone
2 years ago
Reply to  Susanna Vesna

Not all black people are from Africa. And to assume that is being ignorant, going by your comment it’s really odd that white Americans don’t refer themselves as European American? Referring to someone as black or white is not racist whatsoever as you don’t really know their roots and background.

Jing
Jing
3 years ago
Reply to  Changing wind

What do African American people have to do with this case? This didn’t even take place in America….

KarmaD
KarmaD
1 year ago
Reply to  Jing

Thought the same thing. Going on about races when you’ve literally just read about kids being eaten ffs.

lina
lina
1 year ago
Reply to  Jing

It was a comparison to a case on Netflix where black men were sent to prison for life for crimes they didn’t commit, to this case, where these women are already out of jail after eating children. It was a comparison of cases. Someone just used the wrong words. That’s all.

Sigunda
Sigunda
1 year ago

I wonder who was also watching the torture broadcast? I am not buying that it was just the mom watching from another room. This case screams pedo elite involvement and the sentences kind of confirm that theory.

Ever Rain
Ever Rain
3 years ago

They literally ate their children and got 5 years in prison…I smoked a joint (of plain ole marijuana) and got 2 years probation. That’s crazy!

cjhollar1@gmail.com
cjhollar1@gmail.com
1 year ago
Reply to  Ever Rain

Sad world we live in

cjho
cjho
1 year ago

Very sad

Vilhelm Black
Vilhelm Black
3 years ago

The boys are no doubt scarred for life, which is the sentence these monstrous adults deserved – LIFE.

unknown
unknown
3 years ago

this is disgusting the children need more happynies then this

Michele Piteo
Michele Piteo
3 years ago

pathetic sentences

Gaz
Gaz
3 years ago

Kara is now living her life in morecambe in the UK. It has only come to the surface of her identity and she is working in a factory in morecambe. All us workers are in shock and cant believe we are only hearing about this today as I speak. I’m only doing some digging rite now about it. How she is now working and living as part of society is totally uncomprehendable. I’m honestly still in shock

Mira
Mira
3 years ago
Reply to  Gaz

Do you live in morecambe? Or you found out that you are working near this woman? That is scary!

Perry
Perry
1 year ago
Reply to  Gaz

Updates?? This is terrible please tell me you all denounced her to the police or maybe accidentally ripped her to shreds

Knut Olestad
Knut Olestad
2 years ago

moron

Old
Old
2 years ago

I remember when this happened. The internet and the way we shared information was nothing like today and very few Americans knew about it. I can’t even remember how I found out about it but, I always remembered it and would check on it every few years. If I am not mistaken what little coverage the story did get, they were calling it the ant colony cult? Different from the one in Canada. I wish I could find the publications that reported on this back then. I hope the kids got therapy.

Perry
Perry
1 year ago
Reply to  Old

One of the kids died from all the torture and the other goes by a new name. I hope he is ok

Tracy
Tracy
9 months ago
Reply to  Perry

Really? And they still only got a few years? That’s beyond tragic.

None Ya
None Ya
2 years ago

Every time I think I’ve heard and seen it all something like this pops up… Whose image are people made in again?!

Michael Tobin
Michael Tobin
2 years ago

Yeah, because the justice system is so great in good ole right wing ‘Murica… Go practice campaigning for Trump2024 and stfu.

Stacey
Stacey
2 years ago

Someone needs to find all three of those vile creatures and EXTERMINATE THEM. Then can endure eternity in hell for their evil crimes. At least the world would be rid of them.

Perry
Perry
1 year ago
Reply to  Stacey

Kara has been identified to work ina factory in moracambe, France

Leek
Leek
2 years ago

Where was the father???

Victoria A Fain
Victoria A Fain
2 years ago

I understand all judicial systems have issues. In the US we sometimes and I stress sometimes over punish. But here they clearly deserved a harsher sentence. They tortured these children and then started cutting them up and eating them while they were still alive. I wish I knew how to fix judicial systems but that one is beyond me. I hope these children grew up happy and got the help and support they needed.

trackback

[…] she was a willing participant or victim in the crimes she committed. One theory involved an alleged small religious cult that Klara and Katerina, the women who first took in Barbora, were members of. Another theory is […]

Julie
Julie
2 years ago

They are depraved, evil individuals they should have got the death penalty my heart aches for the children.

Dawn
Dawn
1 year ago

Way to be the idiot that tries to make it political!

ngji
ngji
1 year ago

dang

Ryan
Ryan
9 months ago

Are you joking paroled already ! Prison till death and that’s being merciful they tortured and ate children ?? Wtf Czechs .

Richard Hudspeth
Richard Hudspeth
1 month ago

9, 10, 5 years WTF! And all been parolled for torturing, eating kids, evading police 🤦‍♂️

Lindsay
Lindsay
8 days ago

Wow. I got 5 years of probation for getting caught with 2 pure THC cartridges, and these women get 5 years for child abuse and and cannibalism. This world is sick.

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