A 15-year-old mystery that has puzzled a small village in eastern France may finally be resolved after new homeowners stumbled upon the body of a man who vanished over a decade ago.
While renovating their recently purchased home in Erstroff, a village near the German border, the homeowners 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, stating that the scene suggested a suicide.
A rope was still hanging in the attic where Iffly’s body was discovered on November 2.
The previous owner’s wife continued to live in the house until her passing in 2020, apparently unaware of her husband’s remains in the attic.
A 15-year-old mystery that has puzzled a small village in eastern France may finally be resolved after new homeowners stumbled upon the body of a man who vanished over a decade ago (pictured: Erstroff, eastern France)
While renovating their recently purchased home in Erstroff, a village near the German border, the homeowners discovered the remains of Aloïs Iffly, who disappeared in 2009 (stock image)
The house was sold in 2023, which lead to the new owners beginning a series of renovations and repairs.
During their efforts to locate the source of a roof leak, the homeowners found the ‘skeletal remains’ of Iffly tucked inside a cubbyhole, according to Glady.
Regional newspaper Le Republicain Lorrain, which first reported the discovery, described extensive but unsuccessful efforts to locate Iffly after his disappearance.
With the remains now sent to Strasbourg for an autopsy, authorities hope to confirm the cause of death, potentially bringing closure to one of the region’s longest-standing mysteries.
It comes after a man who vanished almost 30 years ago at the age of 17 following an alleged kidnapping was found alive in his neighbour’s house in a hole in the ground in a sheep pen underneath stacks of hay.
Named as Omar Bin Omran (or Imran) and said to be one of nine children, he is believed to have disappeared in the city 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, potentially bringing closure to one of the region’s longest-standing mysteries (pictured: Erstroff, eastern France)
The truth was much closer to home: the missing man was found in his neighbour’s house less than 200 metres away from that of his own family.
A 61-year-old was arrested after Omar, now 45, was rescued on May 12.
Footage was shared on social media and broadcast on Algerian television networks of the moment that he was found in what appeared to be a hole in the ground, described by authorities as a sheep pen, within the home of his alleged captor.
The blurry video shows torchlights shining into a pit surrounded by hay as Omar furtively looks up, seemingly in shock at the search party surrounding him, stray pieces of straw in his hair.
Other images have since been circulated of the bearded man emerging from the hole, thought to be a sheep pen, and of him as a teenager, sitting with a dog and with young children before he disappeared.