The strange story of Pauline Picard
Pauline Picard, disappeared April 1922, Goas al Ludu, Brittany, France. Body Found May 22, 1922.
In April 1922, two-year-old Pauline Picard disappeared whilst playing on her family’s farm in the village of Goas al Ludu, in the region of Brittany, in northwest France.
That day, more than 150 people combed the Picard family farm and surrounding woods and countryside for signs of the missing toddler. But nothing was found. Pauline’s family assumed she’d wandered off from the farm and succumbed to the cold or been attacked and eaten by a wild boar. Yet it was strange that her body had not been recovered. There was talk of a chimney sweep that came into the village and enticed Pauline with candy. A neighbor said she saw two strangers who hung around the farm during the time the disappearance took place. Yet more stories said Pauline had been stolen by gypsies, although none had been observed in the neighborhood at the time of her disappearance.
The gendarmes and police inspectors in the area spent the next month searching the countryside but found no trace of Pauline. She had vanished completely.
What followed, was a bizarre case of mistaken identity and then a horrific discovery of not just one but two sets of partial remains in a field that had been thoroughly searched.
Goas al Ludu
The village of Goas al Ludu has only one dwelling and it is located near the town of Saint-Rivoal in the department of Finistère , in the Brittany region, in France. Located in the canton of Pleyben and the district of Châteaulin , it is part of the Monts d'Arrée Commune.
The mystery girl in Cherbourg - was it Pauline?
In May, the police arrived at the farm with a photograph of a little girl who’d been found wandering alone in the city of Cherbourg, about 217 miles (350 km) away on foot.
She was found abandoned in the hallway of a local home on Rue Coypel and was brought to a hospice. The little girl was seen a few days earlier in town with a poorly clothed woman who tried to abandon her in a store but was chased down and given the child back.
Her relieved parents agreed that, yes, the picture was of Pauline. Her mother burst into tears saying "that's my daughter". But how on earth had she gotten so far from her home. Had she been snatched? They immediately took a train to Cherbourg to bring their missing daughter home.
When the Picards first saw the girl at the hospice in Cherbourg they weren’t convinced it was Pauline. The girl has no reaction to seeing the parents and she remains mute. The parents tried to speak to her in the local language, Breton, and she appeared to understand nothing. The Picards stay with her, talking, caressing her and she remained indifferent towards them. She looked like an underfed version of their daughter and she didn’t seem to recognize family members. Medically she had no issues. The clothing she was found in was not recognizable by her parents.
But, the parents were convinced the girl was Pauline after spending a few days with her. When asked if they are sure, the father replied that of course, she has the same hair, the same blue eyes.
The hospice sent her home with the parents in hopes that her surroundings would spark her memory and get her talking. The hope was that this girl was just traumatized and malnourished and that she’d quickly recover.
On the way home the girl is said to speak three words in Breton on the train. Then upon returning to the farm in Goas al Ludu the little girl’s siblings immediately recognize her as Pauline and the family as a whole seem to have doubts as to the girl’s identity. The girl was said to be asking for bread and calling the family cat in the local language.
Discovery of a body
Then at the end of May 1922, a farmer crossing a field about a mile from Goas al Ludu discovered the horribly mutilated and decomposing body of a small girl, naked and the head cut off. Close by, carefully folded, lay the clothes which Pauline had been wearing on the day she went missing. The clothes were not scattered around, indicating someone had placed them there. The farmer rushed to the village and returned with the gendarmes (local police), followed by the inhabitants, among them the Picards, who recognized the clothes as those worn by Pauline the day she disappeared. The body could not be identified, the face having been partly devoured by foxes.
The body was in an area that searchers had covered many times before in the initial search operation. The head, hands, and feet were missing and a severed head was found nearby.
Medical examination of Pauline’s body
An examination of the remains was done and the severed head was found to be an abnormal size for a child. Later it was found to be that of an adult male, which had been partly eaten by foxes. Strangely, her torso and stomach were intact, that being a body part often eaten first by scavengers.
The medical examiners were unable to state a cause of death. Marks on some of the bones could have been cuts or bite marks from scavengers. Her stomach could be empty because she starved outside or because her captors didn't feed her.
The final report stated that Pauline probably froze to death after becoming lost. But, could someone have abducted Pauline, lost her, and planted a dead body that resembled her?
The girl from Cherbourg
Following the discovery of Pauline’s body, the big question was - who was the girl from Cherbourg that they have been caring for?
At the end of May 1922, the lady who had been seen trying to abandon a girl in Cherbourg was apparently found. However, it was later discovered she had her daughter with her. It was speculated that the girl’s parents had emigrated to America. In mid-June, the Picards send the girl back for adoption in Cherbourg.
Aftermath and investigations
The field where Pauline was discovered, was carefully searched when she went missing, so the police focused on the theory she had been placed there some days later. The neatly folded clothes made it seem more likely foul play was involved. Who was the second victim, the skull found near Pauline’s body?
Possible suspects
Early in the investigation, suspicion fell on a man called Keramon, an umbrella salesman. He worked as a farmhand for the Picards and had been invited to breakfast the day of Pauline's disappearance. He was said to cuddle her a lot and had been heard telling Pauline (twice) that he'd find her a good home near another town. Around 1 pm on the day of the disappearance, he was left alone with Pauline and was overheard telling her that she was going with him. Police followed the path he would have taken to leave town and decided he couldn't have committed the crime based on the timing. He was jailed and released on May 10 for fraud, but this was not related to the disappearance.
Then a middle-aged farmer, Yves Martin, visited the Picards and said he understood their daughter had been found. When told that she had, he asked, "Are you sure it's Pauline?" Then he added, "God forgive me. I am guilty." Then in wild laughter, he rushed from the farm and the following day was taken to a lunatic asylum raving mad. It is thought possible that he killed Pauline.
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Sources
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/2t3mil/pauline_picard_1922_possibly_a_mystery_and_a/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Rivoal
https://morbidology.com/the-mysterious-case-of-pauline-picard/
https://imgur.com/a/SZkA4
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MIC19220804.2.4
