SPINSTER IN THE ATTIC

 

In 1876, a young French woman, Blanche Monnier, went missing at the age of 25. Her mother, a rich aristocrat in Paris, and her brother, Marcel, mourned her disappearance but continued on with their lives. 
Twenty Five years later, on May 23rd, 1901, the office of the Attorney General in Paris received an odd Anonymous Letter. 

It read...

Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier's house, half starved, and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty five years - in a word, in her own filth

Despite the Monnier's upstanding reputation in Paris, the police decided to investigate anyhow. At first, Madame Monnier and her son tried to stop them from entering the home, but eventually the police kicked in the door and Madame Monnier had no choice but to let them investigate.

At first they found nothing out of the ordinary, until they got to the attic. There, they noticed some wooden crates which appeared to be hiding something. They moved the crates aside, and there they discovered a padlocked door. They demanded Madame Monnier remove the padlocks, which she eventually did after some arguing with the authorities about it. 

When they opened the door a horrible stench so rancid it made them want to vomit, met their nostrils. When they crawled in to the room, what they found horrified them.
A woman was found in the tiny room, laying on a filthy mattress, her long dark hair matted, her body skin and bones. She weighed only 55 pounds.
When officials asked her what her name was she replied "I am Blanche Monnier." They were so surprised with her answer they had to ask her several times to repeat herself. This was the woman who everyone believed had died 25 years before.

So why was Blanche Monnier locked away for 25 years in a tiny room in the attic of the family home? Because she fell in love with a man her mother did not approve of. At first Madame Monnier tried to reason with her, but Blanche refused. And so, a prisoner she became for the next 25 years. 

When the news broke and the residents of Paris started to learn of the horrible events, they became enraged. A mob arrived on the doorstep of the Monnier estate, demanding Madame Monnier and Marcel show themselves. Eventually the police arrived and the mob dispersed. Madame Monnier and her son were eventually arrested and taken to prison. Fifteen days later, Madame Monnier died. The circumstances surrounding her death are varied, but many believe she took the cowards way out and ended her own life. 

Marcel would live to stand trial but he was acquitted after he claimed Blanche could have left at any time but chose not to (even though the door was padlocked when the police found her) and he walked free to the horror of the crowd in the courtroom.

As for poor Blanche, now 50 years old, the years of being locked away from society had taken their toll on her mental health. She would eventually be committed to a sanitorium where she died in 1913.