Frenchman found dead in attic 15 years after vanishing

Prosecutors said Monday that the startling discovery of a human skeleton, perhaps belonging to a former owner who disappeared 15 years ago, was uncovered by new owners remodelling a home in eastern France.

“A corpse reduced to a skeleton was found on Saturday afternoon” in Erstroff, just across the border from German city Saarbruecken, said Olivier Glady, prosecutor in nearby town Sarreguemines.

“In a difficult-to-access spot under the roof whose entrance was almost hidden,” Glady told AFP on Monday, describing the burial site.
After the widow of the previous owner passed away in 2023, the new owners purchased the house and began renovations.

“While looking for the source of rainwater leaking into the roof structure, one of the owners entered the cubbyhole almost without realising, and found the skeletal remains inside,” Glady said.
The body “is very likely” that of the former owner, who disappeared in 2009 when he was aged 81, he added.

The remains are being taken to Strasbourg for forensic analysis while the local police investigate the cause of death.

Despite multiple thorough searches of the area, the man’s disappearance has not been found, according to the regional newspaper Le Republicain Lorrain.

The mansion had to be sold after his wife passed away in 2020.
According to prosecutor Glady, “the scene where the body was found hints at suicide,” and a rope was discovered still dangling in the attic.