Public prosecutor Olivier Glady said the man's remains had been found tucked into a cubbyhole(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Homebuyers discover previous owner's body in the attic 15 years after he went missing

The homeowners made the grim discovery while renovating their purchase in Erstroff, a small village in eastern France near the border with Germany after they went into the attic to find a leak

by · The Mirror

A decade-and-a-half-long mystery may have been solved when the new buyers of a house stumbled across the body of the missing former owner in the attic.

The homeowners made the grim discovery while renovating their purchase in Erstroff, a small village in eastern France near the border with Germany. The new owners found the “skeletal remains” of previous inhabitant Aloïs Iffly who had vanished in 2009 aged 81 prompting a massive manhunt.

The scene suggested a suicide, with a rope found near the body, according to local prosecutor Olivier Glady, who confirmed the body was indeed that of Iffly on November 4. Iffly’s wife had continued to live in the house until her death in 2020, seemingly unaware of the grisly scene in the attic above her.

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The buyers found the grim scene after going up to the attic (stock image)( Image: Getty Images)

In 2023 the house was sold to the current owners who started renovating and repairing the building, including trying to find the source of a leak in the roof, which led to them exploring the attic and discovering its grim secret, local paper Le Republicain Lorrain reported. Glady described how Iffly’s remains had been found tucked into a cubbyhole.

"While looking for the source of rainwater leaking into the roof structure, one of the owners entered the cubbyhole almost without realising, and found the skeletal remains inside," explained Glady. The body has now been sent to Strasbourg for autopsy, which will hopefully confirm the cause of death and put one of the area’s long-standing mysteries to rest.

Immediately after making the discovery on Saturday, November 2, the couple called the gendarmes. "A body was indeed discovered on the property, and the Metz criminal investigation unit was in place to take these bones into account in order to analyse them," said Squadron Leader Benoit Vautrin, commander of the Forbach gendarmerie.