Talk:Without a Trace/@comment-84.52.157.217-20170823190356/@comment-4134582-20171219002919

That's just meant to show that this has been going on for a while and the halfling isn't the first. Their excuse is they're too old to get food from other sources, yet they still need to eat. They haven't just suddenly become old, they've been old for a long time. The bloodstain in the hut and the ability to ask them about it exists independantly from this quest, unlike other witcher sense things which only appear while the relevant quest is at the relevant stage for them to show up (e.g. the formaldehyde for Carnal Sins). Perhaps someone stayed in that hut one night and they killed them in their sleep, perhaps they crawled into town wounded from wild animals. Either way, it's just to show that this old couple have been doing this for a while and the halfling isn't a one off (the same thing is meant to be shown by their weird murder basement and the nature of their excuse).