New owners of the home make a grisly discovery 15 years after the previous owner disappeared in France

New owners renovating a house in eastern France made the shocking discovery of human remains believed to be those 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 from the German city of Saarbrücken, said Olivier Glady, prosecutor in the nearby town of Sarreguemines.

The remains were found “in a hard-to-reach place under the roof, the entrance of which was almost hidden,” Glady told 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 source of rainwater leaking into the roof structure, one of the owners entered the cavity almost without realizing it and found the skeletal remains inside,” Glady said.

The body “is very likely” that of the previous owner, who disappeared in 2009 when he was 81, he added.

Local police are investigating the cause of death and the remains have been sent to Strasbourg for forensic examination, squadron leader Benoit Vautrin said, according to the regional newspaper. Le Republicain Lorraine.

Le Republicain Lorrain reported that the man’s disappearance had gone unsolved despite numerous intensive searches in the area. The newspaper identified the man as Aloïs Iffly.

His wife died in 2020, which led to the sale of the house.

“The scene where the body was found suggests suicide,” prosecutor Glady said, adding that a rope was found still hanging from the ceiling.