Blanche Monnier is known in France as "Imprisoned of Poitiers". The woman has not seen sunlight for 25 years because she has been locked in a room by her mother. She was kept secretly in it, being starved and completely fenced off from the outside world. Who discovered Blanche was locked in a room? What was the condition of the woman when she was released? What happened to her later? Check out the history of Blanche Monnier's imprisonment.
Blanche was born on March 1, 1849 in the French town of Poitiers. The girl, along with her older brother Marcel, was raised by her conservative mother Louise. The father's fate is unknown. Mrs. Monnier indulged her son, but controlled her daughter's every step. Mother Blanche cared about one thing in life. She wanted her daughter to marry a wealthy and high-ranking man, preferably from a wealthy family. It seemed very easy to implement - Blanche grew into a beautiful woman. Her eyes were large and drawn to many men, and her hair was thick and dark. Blanche was also very nice and helpful, which made her an excellent candidate for a wife. Even though the men tried many different ways to get her, Blanche was picky - rejecting every single bachelor. Nobody could mess her head enough to make her fall in love.
In 1875, Blanche finally found a man she really liked. He was several years older than her and worked as a lawyer. Even though he had an excellent material situation and a good job, Blanche's mother was not convinced of him. According to her, her daughter's beloved did not meet all expectations. She believed that the man was not very successful in his profession at all. She was also disturbed by the origin of the future son-in-law - he did not have a wealthy and influential family. Despite the objections of her mother, Blanche got engaged to her chosen one. The bride and groom only enjoyed the engagement for a few days. Then Blanche Monnier unexpectedly… disappeared.
Louise Monnier went to the police on March 1, 1875 to report her beloved daughter's disappearance. In Poitiers, news spread rapidly, so people immediately gossiped and speculated about Blanche's disappearance. Some people knew about Louise's quarrels with her daughter. This is why it was believed that Blanche had decided to free herself from her possessive mother and ran away with a lawyer. However, it soon turned out that these hypotheses were incorrect - the man was still seen in the city. Poitiers was in a turmoil. People started looking for Blanche on their own. However, neither public investigations nor police searches helped. The local press made the case public, but that also didn't help.
Louise Monnier wore black almost every day to emphasize the mourning of her daughter. All residents experienced this situation with her. People liked Blanche and they felt sorry for her mother, who was left alone - after a few years Marcel had moved out of the family home. Nobody expected the terrible truth behind Blanche's disappearance, who had not left Poitiers throughout the entire period of her search.
On May 23, 1901, the Paris prosecutor received an anonymous letter. Someone wrote in it that a "old maid" has been kept in the house of Mrs. Monnier for 25 years. There were hints in the letter that the person was extremely starved and living in his own uncleanness. The policemen were very surprised by the content of the anonymous correspondence. At first, they did not believe the letter was genuine. However, they decided to go to Louise Monnier's house to be sure. When the police knocked on the old woman's door, she looked terrified. Louise refused to let the officers into the apartment, which they thought was suspicious - they decided to search the house immediately. What they discovered in it shocked not only Poitiers, but the whole of France.
Mrs. Louise's house was tidy, and at first glance everything seemed normal. The policemen looked at each room, but found nothing in them. It was only one of the locked rooms that caught their attention. Louise nervously began to convince the officers that the room was locked because there was nothing in it. She claimed that it was a "useless storeroom", which she had not looked into for months. The policemen did not believe the woman's words and demanded to open the room. Louise reluctantly went to get the key, then unlocked the room.
There was a terrible stench in the room. He was so strong that the policemen had to change because they felt dizzy and nauseous from being in the room for a long time. The windows in the room were boarded up, so it was piercing darkness. The officers removed the planks and only then discovered the truth. It turned out that the letter sent to the prosecutor was genuine. A woman was indeed held in the room. She looked terrified. Her body was thin and naked, and her hair was matted. Worms were running on the rotten mattress on which she was sitting curled up. The policemen managed to establish that the enslaved woman was Blanche - Louise Monnier's daughter who had been lost 25 years ago.
Blanche was 52 at the time of her release. Throughout her captivity, she could not see the light of day. Nor was she seeing anyone except her mother, who brought her leftover food from the table. Sometimes Brother Marcel looked at her. Blanche's medical examinations showed that her body was already on the verge of fatal exhaustion. The woman was starving and dehydrated. Her weight was less than 25 kilograms. The medics agreed that Blanche's survival was a miracle. How did the 52-year-old behave after she was released? She began to enjoy the fact that someone would finally take care of her. She was delighted with the sun, but the joy did not last long. After 25 years in a dark room, the woman developed photophobia.
Why was Blanche trapped in the room? It turned out that her mother had locked her there, who was furious about her engagement with a lawyer. Louise demanded that her daughter break off the engagement, which she did not want to do. The mother therefore decided to teach Blanche a lesson and funded her a home prison. Louise did not release her daughter even after her fiancé died. She was afraid Blanche would fall in love with the wrong person again. That was why she still kept her daughter locked up and fed her with food scraps. Sometimes - as a lesson - she would take her absolutely nothing into her room.
Blanche Monnier's story saw the light of day in no time. The press began to call Blanche "imprisoned with Poitiers." People were amazed that for 25 years such a terrifying drama unfolded right next to them. What happened to my mother and brother? The police decided to arrest them. Two weeks after her arrest, Louise Monnier, however, died. Marcel, in turn, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for complicity in Blanche prison. Ultimately, however, following an appeal, he did not end up in prison. Marcel defended himself, claiming that it was not him who imprisoned his sister. He was acquitted.
Did the neighbors know about Blanche's closure? During the trial, it turned out that some were actually concerned about the suspicious noises coming from the Monnier house. Occasionally they heard female screams but never chose to inform the police. So who discovered that Blanche was kept in a room by her mother? It is not known to this day. Some believe that someone accidentally found out about Blanche's fate and reported it to the police. Others believe that Marcel sent the letter to the prosecutor. Officially, however, it was never found out who saved the life of the enslaved woman.
What happened to Blanche Monnier? Unfortunately, she did not manage to return to society. The woman, despite the joy of being released, could not adapt to the world around her. She did not know him at all and was very afraid of him, and her mental state was in deplorable state. She was also unable to recover physically. Blanche was therefore sent to a mental hospital where she was treated for 12 years. On October 13, 1913, the woman died at the age of 64. However, no one in Poitiers has forgotten the history of the imprisonment that happened to Blanche Monnier.
Bibliography:
- Stukan Jarosław: Serial killers, Estymator Publishing House, Warsaw 2021
- J.M. López Ruiz: Tyrants and criminals. The greatest villains in the history of the world, Bellona Publishing House, Warsaw 2016
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