A 15-year mystery that has baffled a small town in eastern France may finally be solved after new owners stumbled upon the body of a man who disappeared more than a decade ago.
While renovating their recently acquired house in Erstroff, a village near the German border, the owners discovered the remains of Aloïs Iffly, who disappeared in 2009 at the age of 81.
Local prosecutor Olivier Glady confirmed the identification on November 4 and stated that the scene suggested a suicide.
A rope still hung from the attic where Iffly’s body was discovered on November 2.
The previous owner’s wife continued to live in the house until her death in 2020, apparently unaware of her husband’s remains in the attic.
A 15-year mystery that has baffled a small town in eastern France may finally be solved after new owners stumbled upon the body of a man who went missing more than a decade ago (pictured: Erstroff, eastern France) .
While renovating their recently purchased house in Erstroff, a village near the German border, the owners discovered the remains of Aloïs Iffly, who disappeared in 2009 (file image)
The house was sold in 2023, prompting the new owners to begin a series of renovations and repairs.
During their efforts to locate the source of a roof leak, the owners found Iffly’s “skeletal remains” hidden inside a cubicle, according to Glady.
regional newspaper Le Republicain Lorrainwhich first reported the discovery, described extensive but unsuccessful efforts to locate Iffly after she disappeared.
Now that the remains are being sent to Strasbourg for an autopsy, authorities hope to confirm the cause of death, which could close one of the region’s oldest mysteries.
It comes after a man who disappeared almost 30 years ago, when he was 17, following an alleged kidnapping, was found alive in his neighbor’s house, in a hole in the floor of a sheep pen, under piles of hay.
Named Omar Bin Omran (or Imran) and said to be one of nine children, he is believed to have disappeared in the town of Djelfa in Algeria 27 years ago.
His family assumed he had been killed during the civil war between the North African nation’s government and various Islamist rebel groups that raged for 10 years in the 1990s and early 2000s.
With the remains now sent to Strasbourg for an autopsy, authorities hope to confirm the cause of death, which could close one of the region’s oldest mysteries (pictured: Erstroff, eastern France).
The truth was much closer to home: the missing man was found in his neighbor’s house, less than 200 meters from his own family’s house.
A 61-year-old man was arrested after Omar, now 45, was rescued on May 12.
Images were shared on social media and broadcast on Algerian television networks of the moment he was found in what appeared to be a hole in the ground, described by authorities as a sheep pen, inside the home of his alleged suspect. captor
The blurry video shows torches glowing in a hole surrounded by hay as Omar furtively glances up, apparently shocked by the search party surrounding him, with loose bits of straw in his hair.
Other images have since circulated of the bearded man emerging from the hole, believed to be a sheep pen, and of him as a teenager, sitting with a dog and small children before disappearing.