Monier was a French woman who came from a wealthy family of high society nobles. During her entire captivity she had never once seen the light of the sun. Beware harsh image.
Her tragedy Blanche Monier shocked France and dominated the headlines in the early 20th century. In “Costalexi of France” the woman, who was imprisoned in an attic of her house by her mother for 25 years because she loved the wrong man, she could never recover even after rescuing her…
Monier, known in France as “La Séquestrée de Poitiers» (The Kisser of Poitiers), came from Poitiers, Vienne, France, and was kept secretly locked away. She was finally found by the French police when she was now middle-aged, emaciated and in miserable conditions.
Monier had not seen the light of the sun even once during her captivity…
Blanche Monier was from a wealthy family of high society nobles. She was famous for her beauty and attracted many potential suitors. In 1874, at the age of 25, she wanted to marry a lawyer her mother did not like. She claimed that her daughter could not marry a “poor lawyer”. The mother, enraged by her daughter’s disobedience, locked her in a small, dark room in the attic of their house, where she kept her imprisoned for 25 years. Louise Monnier and Blanche’s brother Marcel went on with their lives, pretending to mourn Blanche’s disappearance. None of Blanche’s friends knew where she was, they all thought she had disappeared, and the lawyer Blanche wanted to marry died unexpectedly in 1885. On May 23, 1901, the Prosecutor General of Paris received an anonymous letter – the sender of which still remains unknown – which read:
“Mr. Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an extremely serious incident. I’m talking about an old woman who has been locked in Madame Monier’s house, starving and living among garbage for the last twenty-five years.”
Blanche was found by the police living in squalid conditions, her body was covered in scraps and feces, cockroaches were found around the bed and on the floor, and Blanche herself weighed only 25 kg.
A police officer described Monier’s condition and her bed as follows:
“The unfortunate woman was lying completely naked on a rotten straw mattress. Around her was a sort of crust of excrement, meat, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread…. We also saw some oyster shells and cockroaches running about on Miss Monier’s bed. The air was so suffocating, the smell of the room so strong, that it was impossible for us to stay inside any longer to continue our research.’
Her mother was arrested, fell ill and died 15 days later when she saw an angry mob gathering in front of her house. Blanche’s brother Marcel appeared in court and was initially convicted but later acquitted. Marcel Monier was deemed mentally unfit to stand up to his mother, and although judges criticized his choices, they found there was no “duty to rescue” in the criminal code at the time to convict him.
After being released from her torture, Monier continued to suffer from mental health problems. She was diagnosed with various disorders, including anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia. This soon landed her in a mental hospital in Blois, France. He finally died in 1913.
With information from wikipedia
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
