New owners renovating a house in eastern France have made the shocking discovery of a human skeleton that is likely that of a previous owner who disappeared 15 years ago, prosecutors said Monday.
“A body reduced to a skeleton was found on Saturday afternoon” in Erstroff, just across the border with the German city of Saarbrücken, said Olivier Glady, prosecutor of the neighboring city of Sarreguemines.
The remains were found “in a difficult to access place under the roof whose entrance was almost hidden”, Glady explained to AFP on Monday.
The new owners were renovating the house after purchasing it in 2023 following the death of the previous owner’s widow.
“While searching for the origin of the rainwater seeping into the roof frame, one of the owners entered the shed almost without realizing it and found the skeletal remains inside” , Glady said.
The body “is most likely” that of the previous owner, who disappeared in 2009 when he was 81 years old, he added.
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP via Getty Images
Local police are investigating the causes of death and the remains have been sent to Strasbourg for forensic examination, squadron leader Benoit Vautrin said, according to regional newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain.
Le Républicain Lorrain reports that the man’s disappearance remains unsolved despite numerous intensive searches in the surrounding area. The newspaper identified the man as Aloïs Iffly.
His wife died in 2020, leading to the sale of the house.
“The scene where the body was found suggests a suicide,” said prosecutor Glady, adding that a rope was found still hanging in the attic.
