What remains a live historical possibility: That he was a genuine victim of some form of severe childhood deprivation, the nature and origin of which is unknown. That he was a person who invented or embellished a story that attracted support. That the December 1833 stabbing was an external attack. That it was self-inflicted. That his death was connected to the larger mystery of his identity. All of these remain live possibilities because none has been conclusively resolved.
The 2024 DNA study advanced human knowledge about Kaspar Hauser in a specific and significant way. It is the most rigorous scientific engagement with the case that has ever been conducted. It resolved a controversy that had been open for over two decades. And it left standing, with appropriate epistemic humility, the mysteries that it was not designed to and could not resolve.
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## Postscript: Where the Mystery Stands in 2024
As of the 2024 publication, the state of knowledge about Kaspar Hauser can be summarized as follows.
The Baden prince theory is genetically excluded. This is the consensus of the best available evidence from the most rigorous analysis that has been conducted. The theory may continue to attract interest, and its advocates may continue to argue from the logical gaps that remain — the absence of Stéphanie’s own remains from the analysis, the theoretical possibility of a matrilineal break — but the evidential basis for the theory has been comprehensively addressed and found insufficient.
The fundamental questions about Kaspar Hauser’s identity, the veracity of his account, and the nature of his death remain unresolved. These questions may never be fully resolved with the materials currently available. Nuclear DNA analysis, if ever possible, could advance the picture significantly. Access to Stéphanie de Beauharnais’s remains, should the House of Baden ever authorize it, could close the theoretical gap in the maternal comparison. Neither currently appears likely.