Pauline Picard disappeared April 1922, Goas al Ludu, Brittany, France. Body Found May 22, 1922.

Revised December 2024

On April 6, 1922, two-year-old Pauline Picard disappeared whilst playing on her family’s farm in the village of Goas al Ludu, Saint-Rivoal, 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 entered the village and enticed Pauline with candy. A neighbor said she saw two strangers who hung around the farm when the disappearance occurred. Yet more stories said Pauline had been stolen by gypsies, although none had been observed in the vicinity at the time of her disappearance.

Gendarmes and police inspectors searched the countryside for the next month 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.

The Picard family

Pauline’s father was François, her mother Marianne, and she had eight siblings. Of the eleven, only François Picard spoke French; the rest of the family spoke Breton.

Where is 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. It is part of the canton of Pleyben and the district of Châteaulin in the Monts d'Arrée Commune.

The mystery girl in Cherbourg - was it Pauline?

On 6 May 1922, the police notified the Picard family that she had possibly been found in Cherbourg, 250 miles (400 km) away, wandering the streets. The circumstances of this discovery are unclear given conflicting media reports. For example, Le Matin reported in 1922 that the girl had been abandoned in the hallway of a local home on Rue Coypel; in 1924, L'Ouest-Éclair said she was abandoned at a woman's house on Rue Crespel; and in 2017, Ozy described her as being found in the company of "a mysterious woman dressed in rags" who tried to abandon her in a store but was chased down and given the child back.

The child was taken to a hospice but refused to speak a word.

1922 photograph of the girl from Cherbourg believed to be Pauline Picard

It was reported that when the girl's photo was shown to Pauline’s mother, Marianne, she said, “It is really my daughter. My poor little Pauline! But how is she so far from us?” (French: “C'est bien ma fille, s'écria-t-elle, ma pauvre petite Pauline ! Mais comment se trouve-t-elle si loin de nous ?”) . They immediately took a train to Cherbourg to bring their missing daughter home.

After arriving in Cherbourg on May 8, the Picards immediately traveled to the hospice to see the girl. Upon seeing her for the first time, they were sure that the girl was their daughter.

Initially, the girl has no reaction to seeing the parents, and she remained mute. The parents tried to speak to her in their local language, Breton, and she appeared to understand nothing. The Picards stay with her, talking and caressing her, and she remains 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 and items found with her were not recognizable by her parents.

After two hours with the girl, the Picards began to doubt she was their daughter. The public prosecutor urged the family to stay at the hospice for another day, with Le Petit Parisien reporting that the girl was likely not Pauline Picard. On May 9, Pauline’s father, François, assured the press it was his daughter, as she had the same hair and the same blue eyes. The public prosecutor gave the girl over to the Picard family, who left Cherbourg the next morning.

The hospice sent her home with her 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.

Any doubts that the mysterious infant was Pauline Picard were explained away as being amnesia caused by post-traumatic stress disorder, assuming the child had been abused by her kidnapper. Doctors believed that returning her home would help her recover, but there was no explanation how Pauline had traveled to Cherbourg.

After arriving in Goas al Ludu on May 12, the girl remained mute but she was frightened and cried when taken to the abduction area.The nurses from the hospice from Cherbourg who had accompanied the family back to their home, were convinced that the girl gave the impression she was comfortable in her surroundings.

A local farmer, 49-year-old Yves Martin, visited the Picard home on May 13 and questioned whether the girl was really home. (French: “Alors, dit-il en breton, la petite est de retour? C’est bien elle? So," he said in Breton, "is the little girl back? "It's her?").

Martin then said, variously reported as "God forgive me. I am guilty." "God help me, I'm guilty!", and in French: “Dieu est juste, c'est moi le coupable !”, "God is right, I'm the culprit!"') before running off "in wild laughter" and being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Quimper on May 14.

Discovery of remains

In late May 1922, a decomposing, mutilated body was found near the Picards' farm. Le Matin that, on May 25 1922, a cyclist found the body 3,300 or 1,600 feet (1,000 or 500 meters) from from Goas a Ludu. Le Petit Parisien reported that it was May 26 when a cyclist found the body 2600-3000 feet (800–900 meters) from the family's farm; and The New York Times reported from Paris that it was May 25 when a farmer found the corpse one mile (1.6 km) from the village.

Sources reported that when the local gendarmes were brought to the body, villagers, including the Picards, followed. The body was found in a ditch that had been thoroughly searched after Pauline’s disappearance, and government officials from Brasparts and Rennes formally confirmed this.

The girl's body was completely naked, decapitated, and missing its hands and feet. The body was accompanied by the skull of a fully-grown man, suggesting a second victim; the man's head "could not be identified, foxes have partly devoured the face." Nearby, a pair of goloshes, socks, and a fustian dress were neatly folded and arranged; the Picard family identified these bloodstained clothes as being their daughter's, worn the day she disappeared. Strangely, her torso and stomach were intact, a body part often eaten first by scavengers.

By May 27, 1922, Le Petit Parisien was certain that the body found was that of Pauline Picard, as was François Picard when the body was first discovered. Yet later, when questioned (French: “N'est-ce pas votre enfant?”. '"Is not this your child?"') by a Rennais commissioner, he seemed uncertain whether the remans were his daughter: "It's her clothes., But, is it her body? Oh! the other is so similar!" (French: “C'est bien ses vêtements.. Mais, est-ce son corps? Oh ! l'autre est si ressemblante !”).

On May 27, 1922, a judge from Châteaulin was expected to arrive and take charge of the investigation, with the magistrates investigating the case having been seriously embarrassed.

Dr. Pouliquen examined the body and, finding evidence of wounds, sent it to Châteaulin for closer examination. Dr. Gouriou later studied the body and found a stab wound in the groin measuring one 0.4 inches (1 cm) in length and two 0.8 inches (2cm) in depth. 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.

Though his preliminary cause of death was violent murder, investigators were leaning towards accidental death due to exposure. An autopsy provided no conclusive evidence for either cause of death.

The Châteaulinois judge determined the body as being that of Pauline Picard and her cause of death accidental. She was buried in Saint-Rivoal in a white, wooden coffin.

How her body appeared in an area searched “so well that if someone had lost a wallet, it would have been found”, in the words of a local priest, couldn’t be explained. Locals, including some police, continued to suspect homicide, pointing out that it was unlikely for animals to eat the head and extremities before eating the abdomen.

By June 1922, however, rumors were circulating in Brittany that Pauline was still alive, having been kidnapped by a wealthy family who left the body of his dead daughter in Pauline’s place. Le Petit Parisien predicted that these new revelations would prompt a re-opening of the investigation.

Pauline picard body — The remains of Pauline Picard

The girl from Cherbourg

Following the discovery of Pauline’s body, the big question was - who was the girl from Cherbourg that they had been caring for?

At the end of May 1922, the lady who had been seen trying to abandon a girl in Cherbourg was found. However, it was later discovered she had her daughter with her. It was speculated that the girl’s parents had emigrated to America.

The girl was sent back to a hospice on June 13, 1922, at the request of prosecutors there. Almost two months later, she was speaking complete sentences in the Breton language, prompting newspapers to declare her a Breton, and to suggest again she was the real Pauline Picard.

News coverage of the girl, whom they referred to as "the girl with the pretty smile" (French: “la fillette au joli sourire”), led several families to request to try and adopt her. She was named Marie-Louise Pauline by the civil court of Cherbourg and placed in the care of the Franciscan Sisters of Notre-Dame-du-Vœu. Unfortunately, she died on January 2, 1924, from measles.

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 Christophe Kéramon (born c. 1860s), an umbrella salesman. He worked as a farmhand for the Picards and had been invited to breakfast the day of Pauline's disappearance. He had previously been imprisoned for five years for rape. 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 disappearance day, he was left alone with Pauline and was overheard telling her she was going with him.

Kéramon was arrested for not carrying his ID (carnet anthropométrique), questioned and served a month in prison before his release on May 10 for offences relating to fraud. Testimony from François Picard placed Kéramon 3.7 miles (6 km) away when Pauline was last seen, so he was released.

A middle-aged farmer, Yves Martin, visited the Picards and said he understood their daughter had been found. When told 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.

Two other suspects were foreigners seen by a local woman loitering and watching Pauline the day she disappeared, but investigations led nowhere.

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