During renovation work in Erstroff, eastern France, homeowners made a startling discovery - a skeleton in the attic of an outbuilding. The body is believed to be that of the former occupant of the property who went missing in 2009, as per a statement from the local prosecutor's office released on Monday.
It is suspected that the man may have taken his own life, given that a rope was found attached to a beam near the body. The remains were found on a Saturday in an outbuilding connected to the main house, in a small room under the roof accessible only through an almost invisible trapdoor.
The deceased individual is believed to be the former owner, a man born in 1927, who vanished in 2009. Despite a thorough police investigation that concluded in 2016 with no leads, no trace of him was ever found. In December 2021, a local court officially declared him deceased.
The remains have been transferred to the Strasbourg Institute of Forensic Medicine for further examination. An autopsy will be conducted, and the identity of the deceased will be confirmed using DNA samples from surviving family members.
