From Wondery

Miss Lizzie Borden said she was at work in the barn about 10 o'clock.

A heavy fall and a subdued groaning attracted her into the house, and a terrible sight met her view.

On the lounge in the cozy sitting room on the first floor of the building lay her father, Andrew J. Borden, dead.

His face presented a sickening sight. Over the left temple, a wound had been made as if the head

had been pounded with the dull edge of an axe. The left eye had been dug out and a cut

extended the length of the nose. The face was hacked to pieces and the blood covered the man's shirt and soaked into his clothing.

Everything about the room was in order, and there were no signs of a struggle of any kind.

Lizzie Borden rushed to the staircase and called the servant, who was washing a window in her room on the third floor. So noiselessly had the

deed been done that neither of them was aware of the bloody work going on so near them. Giving the

alarm, she rushed up the stairs to find her stepmother, only to be more horrified. In a neat chamber in the northwest corner of the house,

on the floor between the bed and the dressing case,

lay Mrs. Abbey Borden, stretched full length,

one arm extended, and her face resting upon it.

Over the left temple, the skull was fractured, and no less than

seven wounds were found about the head. She had died evidently where she had been struck, for her

life blood formed a ghastly clot on the carpet. Dr. Bowen was the first physician to arrive,

but life was extinct, and from the nature of the

wounds it is probable that the suffering of both victims was very short. The police were promptly

on hand, and strangers were kept at a distance. Miss Borden was so overcome by the awful circumstances that she could not be seen, and kind

friends led her away to care for her.

People were at a loss for what could have been the motive for such a deed.

...