Blanche Monnier: Locked in an Attic for 25 Years

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]In 1901, French police opened a locked attic in Poitiers and found a woman who hadn't seen daylight in 25 years. Her name was Blanche Monnier.

[00:00:11]She was 52 years old and weighed 55 lb.

[00:00:15]An anonymous letter had arrived at the office of the Attorney General of Paris claiming a spinster was being held captive in a wealthy home on Rue de la Visitation.

[00:00:28]Officers forced their way in.

[00:00:30]In a shuttered upstairs room, they found Blanche naked on a rotten mattress surrounded by excrement, food scraps, and insects.

[00:00:40]The stench, they reported, was unbearable.

[00:00:44]Her mother, the respected widow Madame Monnier, had imprisoned her in 1876 for refusing to break off an engagement with a penniless lawyer.

[00:00:54]The man had died years earlier.

[00:00:57]Blanche never knew.

[00:00:59]Her mother died of shock days after the arrest. Her brother Marcel was charged but acquitted. Blanche, now blind to sunlight, was moved to a psychiatric hospital where she died in 1913, never recovering her mind.

[00:01:15]The anonymous letter writer was never identified.

[00:01:18]Follow for more dark history.