THE BLANCHE MONNIER WHO WAS KEPT HIDDEN IN HER ROOM FOR 25 YEARS, JUST FOR FALLING IN LOVE

 Blanche Monnier Was Kept Hidden In Her Room For 25 Years, Just For Falling In Love

Blanche Monnier's prominent French family was dismayed she fell in love with a commoner. So they confined her to a tiny, lightless room for over two decades.

In May 1901, the attorney general of Paris received a strange letter declaring that the prominent Monnier family in the city of Poitiers, France was keeping a disturbing secret. According to the letter, a “spinster” had been held prisoner inside the Monnier household for 25 years, and she was living “in her own filth.” That prisoner was Blanche Monnier.

The unknown author wrote the letter by hand and did not sign it. And up until that point, the Monnier family had had a stellar reputation.

Regardless, the contents of the anonymous letter disturbed the attorney general so much that he decided to investigate the case immediately. What police officers found inside the Monnier family’s house would shock France.

Blanche Monnier — a Monnier family member who was once thought to be overseas — had been hidden inside a padlocked room in the home for a quarter of a century. The once-vibrant socialite was now dangerously underweight, covered in feces, and surrounded by rotting food and bugs. Even worse, she had been imprisoned by her own mother, simply because she had fallen in love with a man that her family didn’t approve of.

The High Status Of The Monnier Family

FacebookA rare image of Blanche Monnier before she was held captive by her own mother.

When the police arrived at the Monnier home, they must have had some misgivings. After all, the aristocratic family was highly respected.

Parisian high society recognized Madame Louise Monnier for her charitable works. According to the Daily Mail, Madame Monnier had even received a community award in recognition of her generous contributions.

Louise Monnier’s late husband had been in charge of a local arts faculty, and the couple’s son Marcel was a law school graduate and worked as an administrative official with the Puget-Théniers commune. The couple also had a daughter named Blanche Monnier, who had been born in 1849.

Often described as “very gentle and good-natured,” the young socialite was widely considered to be physically beautiful, so it’s no surprise that she attracted many suitors as she got older. And considering her family’s prestigious place in society, she was often in the public eye.

However, one day in 1876, Blanche Monnier simply vanished. According to Nine Entertainment, Louise Monnier told people that her daughter had “gone away” or was traveling. As time went on, many of the family’s acquaintances assumed that the young socialite had moved somewhere overseas indefinitely and stopped asking the Monnier family questions about her.

But little did they know that Blanche was being held captive in her own home. And it wasn’t until over two decades had passed that an anonymous letter to the attorney general of Paris would finally reveal her terrible fate:

“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.”

The Discovery Of Blanche Monnier

Wikimedia CommonsBlanche Monnier in her room in 1901, not long after authorities discovered her.

When authorities arrived at the Monnier house in 1901, it was clear that the family did not want them there, especially Louise Monnier. According to The Crime Wire, investigators had to force their way into the home.

At first glance, nothing seemed to be amiss. But upon further investigation, the police noticed a putrid odor coming from upstairs. The smell was the strongest at one door in particular — and that door was padlocked shut. The police broke into the room, unprepared for what lay within.

The room was pitch-black, as its only window had been shuttered and covered with thick curtains. As light streamed in, authorities saw that the horrendous stench was partially due to the rotting scraps of food that littered the floor. But the odor was also coming from a decrepit bed in the room — where an emaciated woman lay. That woman was Blanche Monnier.

When the police officers broke into the room that day and opened the shuttered window, it was the first time Blanche Monnier had seen the sun in over two decades. Her family had kept her imprisoned in the dark room ever since she had “disappeared” as a young, promising socialite in 1876.

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