Blanche Monnier, who lived in France in the 19th century, was the daughter of a noble family who fascinated people with her beauty. However, she made her name in history not with her beauty, but with her tragic life story.
Born on March 1, 1849, in Poitiers, France, Blanche Monnier attracted a lot of attention from those around her, both for her beauty and personality and for her successful academic life.
His family was one of the respected aristocrats of the city.
When she reached the age of marriage, Monnier began to take her place as a welcome guest at invitations; She easily won the hearts of other aristocrats and nobles with her beauty, intelligence, and kindness that fascinated those who saw her. However, she was not in a hurry to choose the person she would marry.
Blanche Monnier (1 March 1849 – 13 October 1913), often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers (roughly, "The Confined Woman of Poitiers"), was a woman from Poitiers, France, who was secretly kept locked in a small room by her aristocratic mother and brother for 25 years. She was eventually found by police, then middle-aged and in an emaciated and filthy condition; according to officials, Monnier had not seen any sunlight for her entire captivity.
Her mother, Louise Monnier, also wanted her daughter to choose the candidate who was best for her and most suitable for her family.
In 1874, Blanche Monnier, now a 25-year-old young woman, finally fell in love with someone.
Monnier, who attracted the attention of Paris society and started receiving letters, decided to tell her mother about the person in her heart, who was bored with this situation and asked her to make a decision.
Monnier's decision, who was not part of high society and was in love with an older lawyer, was not welcomed by her family.
Her mother definitely did not approve of this love and tried many methods to make her daughter change her decision. However, the young woman would not give up on the man she loved.
Finally, her mother found another solution to prevent her daughter from seeing a lawyer: She tied her daughter to the bed in a room on the top floor of their house that had no light.
But this punishment would last not a few days, but 25 years.
Her mother, Louise Monnier, and her brother, Marcel Monnier, wrote a story so that no one would have any doubts about Blanche's disappearance: Blanche Monnier had gone to Spain and built a new life there, where she was happy and did not think of returning.
Living an isolated life; Monnier, who was not allowed to go to the toilet, take a shower, or get out of bed, was saved by a letter sent to the chief prosecutor of Paris on March 23, 1901.
In the letter, which was thought to have been sent by one of the employees of the house, it was written that someone was being kept locked up in Madame Monnier's house, almost imprisoned in a garbage dump, and that she needed to be rescued.
When authorities went to the house to investigate, they said they heard the smell of rot coming from upstairs and found the door locked with large chains.
Although Louise Monnier objected to opening the door, the police broke the locks and entered.
Inside, they found a woman living with insects on a bed of food and fecal residue, having dropped to almost 25 kilograms.
When Blanche Monnier was hospitalized, doctors said it was a miracle that she was even alive. The woman, who stated that she was happy to bathe and see daylight, was diagnosed with anorexia and schizophrenia.
After the facts were revealed, the entire Monnier family was interrogated.
Louise Monnier, who was asked to confess what she had done, died of a heart attack 15 days later. Marcel Monnier was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, after a short time, it was decided that she was mentally unstable and she was released.
Blanche Monnier, on the other hand, could not adapt to life again. She was treated for schizophrenia. Although She began to recover physically, she could not recover psychologically. She died in 1913 in the psychiatric clinic where she lived for 12 years.