The mystery of an elderly woman who vanished without trace has been solved two years later thanks to Google Maps.
Marcel Taret was the sole carer for his 83-year-old wife, Paulette Landrieux, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. She reportedly needed help remembering to eat or to take her medications and would sometimes wander off.
In November 2020, Marcel left Paulette on her own for a few minutes so he could put some laundry on the washing line. It turned out to be the last time he saw her alive.
Before popping out to the garden, Marcel had set his wife up in front of the TV with some lunch. He imagined that she’d still be watching her favourite programme when he came back. But to his surprise, she wasn’t there.
Marcel went from room to room looking for his wife. He searched the outside of the house but she wasn’t there. He even knocked on some neighbours’ doors but they hadn’t seen her.
He called the police and, less than an hour later, there was a search and rescue helicopter over his home in Andenne, Belgium.
But night fell, with no sign of Paulette. Weeks past and Paulette didn’t turn up. Nobody had any idea where she was – weeks turned into months and then months turned into two full years that nobody had seen Paulette.
By that point Marcel had resigned himself to the fact that he likely would die without ever finding out what happened to his wife.
But an incredible coincidence helped solve the mystery of Paulette’s sudden disappearance.
The day that she vanished coincided with the day that Google’s Streetview camera car visited Andenne. In 2022, one of Marcel’s neighbours made the connection and examined photos of the street where the couple lived.
In the pictures, Paulette can be seen walking across the street away from her home while Marcel can just be glimpsed in the garden.
Investigators traced the route that Paulette appeared to be taking, and finally discovered her fate. Across the street was a steep hill that led down to a thick bramble bush.
Inside that bramble bush they found Paulette’s body. When the search for her was going on, it is believed she was trapped down there and died.
