Blanche Monnier, a well-known French socialite, vanished in 1876. But she wasn’t missing at all, for twenty-six years she had been locked inside a room of her family’s home.
Blanche was 25 when she fell in love with an older lawyer named Emile. To say her mother, Louise Monnier, disapproved of the relationship would be an understatement, calling it beneath the family’s status. When Blanche refused to give him up, Louise took matters into her own hands.
A room in the upstairs attic was prepared, the windows sealed, the door locked, and from that moment on Blanche disappeared from public life. The Monnier family continued on with their lives, attending events, hosting guests, and accepting sympathy for their “missing” daughter.
In 1901, an unsigned letter reached officials in Paris, urging them to look closer at the Monnier home. When police finally searched the upper floor, they uncovered Blanche alive inside the locked room a discovery that quickly made front page news.
Blanche's mother Louise Monnier was taken into custody but did not survive long after the arrest. Her brother Marcel Monnier faced charges, though the case was later dismissed on appeal. As for Blanche, she spent the remainder of her days under professional care, at the Hospital de Poitiers less than a mile from the house where she had been held for decades.
Blanche Monnier de Poitiers
March 1, 1849 ~ October 13, 1913
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