The mystery of the disappearance and change of Pauline Picard (7 photos)

The mother was distracted literally for a minute by household chores when something terrible happened - a two-year-old baby, calmly fiddling around in the yard, disappeared. True, the daughter was found. But it was no longer Pauline.





Being a parent is the hardest and most difficult work. There are no lunch breaks, weekends or vacations in this job. It requires complete dedication and boundless love. These people had to face a very difficult life experience - losing their child.



Picard family house

In April 1922, two-year-old Pauline Piccard was playing on the family farm in Goas-el-Loudou, Brittany, France, from where she disappeared.





Farm today

The mother turned away for a couple of minutes, and the girl disappeared. After searching the area on their own, Pauline's concerned parents recruited local police and dozens of volunteers. The search turned out to be fruitless. The parents, crushed by grief, began to lose hope. But a few weeks after Pauline disappeared, fate smiled on them.

Information has emerged that a girl matching Pauline's description was seen in Cherbourg. A local police officer found the baby on the street and placed her in a shelter until the circumstances were clarified.

Authorities showed a photo of the baby to Pauline's mother, who burst into tears when she recognized her daughter. French newspaper Le Matin reported on May 8 that Madame Picard said: "This is my daughter." The Picards quickly took the train to Cherbourg to pick up the girl from the orphanage. But after spending about two hours with her, they realized that the girl did not recognize them. Yes, the little girl looked like Pauline, but she behaved differently.

Reunion. Is it happy?



However, they took the girl home to the family farm, hoping that her memories would return. As Le Matin reported in its May 12 article, the Picard family's children recognized Pauline immediately. The neighbors also believed that it was the lost girl. And the local police decided that the family had been reunited. Everyone was filled with joy and relief that the baby had been found. And no one really cared how she ended up in Cherbourg in the first place. How could she travel such a long distance - 320 kilometers - in just a few weeks?

After the Picards and their daughter were reunited, things didn't quite go according to plan. From the very beginning, Pauline seemed very skittish and shy and never spoke in her native dialect. Her parents explained this as psychological trauma. At some point, the Picards reported that Pauline was herself again and seemed to remember the farm. However, the more time the family spent together, the more the Picards doubted that this was really their daughter.

Terrible find



Girl found in Cherbourg

On May 27, Le Petit Parisien newspaper reported that a cyclist discovered the body of a little girl about 800 meters from the Picard farm. The body was badly decomposed, limbs and head were missing. Neatly folded clothes lay next to the body. Pauline's mother confirmed that these were the clothes her daughter was wearing at the time of her disappearance. Interestingly, the body was located in a place that investigators searched repeatedly.

Neighbors also reported that they had walked past the area many times and had never seen a body there. They assumed that someone had put it there quite recently.

The same article reported that a local crazy farmer named Yves Martin asked the police if they had found little Pauline. When they gave a positive answer, the madman asked if they were sure that it was Pauline. Then he said that he was guilty and left, his eyes sparkling wildly.

After a detailed examination of the area, the head was found not far from the body. But it turned out to be too big for a two-year-old child.

Unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions



Girl found in Cherbourg

Further attempts to find out something from Martin were unsuccessful. The man’s mind finally became clouded, and he was placed in a psychiatric hospital.

Many townspeople believed that Pauline was still alive. Assuming that this is true, then who was the girl who wandered around Cherbourg alone? Why didn't her real parents ever find her? How were the Picard family and neighbors able to identify the girl as Pauline? What did Yves Martin mean? Was he responsible for one or both victims? And whose head did the police find? Perhaps this is simply a situation in which, due to severe stress, the psyche worked in such a way as to wishful thinking and recognize someone else’s child as one’s own. After all, the family so desperately wanted to believe that Pauline was alive.



However, everything ended sadly for the lost one. In the summer of the same year, she was sent to a shelter, where traces of the girl were lost. And the Picards lived their whole lives tormented by the question of what really happened to their daughter.