Blanche Monnier
French woman kept locked for 25 years (1849-1913) · France · On the map · Died at 64
She disappeared from society at 25 and reappeared at 50 - skeletal, filthy, locked in darkness by her own mother. The police found Blanche Monnier in a shuttered attic room in 1901 after a quarter-century of captivity her family never explained.
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About this person
Blanche Monnier was born in Poitiers on 1 March 1849 into an aristocratic French family. At 25, she vanished from view. Her mother and brother kept her locked in a small room, hidden from the world, for 25 years. When police finally broke in, they found a middle-aged woman in an emaciated and filthy state who had not seen sunlight once during her entire confinement. The case made her known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers - the Confined Woman of Poitiers. She died on 13 October 1913.