This is an incredible story about a French socialite Blanche Monnier.
Blanche Monnier was a very beautiful young woman.
Born into a family of aristocrats in Paris, France.
Being their only daughter, her family was very protective of her.
In 1876 she fell in love with a lawyer that was not only older than her but broke as well.
Blanche’s mother who did not approve of the relationship developed an intense hatred for the man and demanded that Blanche should end the relationship.
But she had fallen so deeply in love with the man and had set her heart on marrying him.
Amid the imbroglio, Blanche vanished.
Nobody in France could tell of her whereabouts.
Her family told anyone who inquired about her that Blanche had passed away — quite suddenly.
Her family mourned her and went on with their daily lives.
Little did anyone know that the Monnier family was hiding a terrible secret.
On May 23, 1901, the Office of the Attorney General of Paris received an anonymous letter with the following content.
“I have the honour to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up at the home of Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved and living in putrid filth, for the last 25 years.”
Shocked by the letter, the police began to investigate despite the family’s sterling reputation in the community.
Police officers broke into the house and searched the premises for Blanche, but they found nothing.
As they were preparing to leave, an officer noticed a staircase that led to an attic, so the officers rushed upstairs only to find the door padlocked.
They broke down the door but heard nothing and the room was pitch black. However, there was an ominous foul odor coming from the room.
A lantern gave them some light as they rushed toward the only window in the attic. The boards were promptly removed, allowing better light into the attic.
There, in the corner was a bed, and when the police officers carefully removed the blanket they were horrified by what they saw.
They saw an extremely malnourished woman, cowering in the bed, covered in food and excreta, squinting in the light she had not seen for 25 years.
Now weighing only about 25kg.
It was later discovered that, she had been kept in that secret enclosure for nearly a quarter of a century and have never been exposed to light or another human being in all that time.
A witness described this gruesome discovery in the following words.
“This woman was lying naked on a straw mattress.
All around her a crust had formed from excrement, food scraps, oyster shells, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread.
Her only companions were the rats, bugs, and insects that ran across the bed.”
Madame Monnier, Blanche’s mother who had won an award from the Committee of Good Works for her generous contributions to the city, was immediately arrested.
She died in prison 15 days after confessing to the abysmal abduction of her own daughter.
Blanche’s fiancee’ had also died just a few years after the secret incarceration by her mother.
Although Blanche received excellent medical care that was made available to her, however because the many years of cruelty, imprisonment, and lack of proper nutrition had taken a toll on her, she died thirteen years later from a combination of health-related issues.
Credit: Marie Williams
Photos: Courtesy of Vintage News Daily
Comments
Post a Comment