Kidnapping or medical care? Mystery and many questions surrounding the woman who has lived 11 years locked up by her husband
Forbach is a city in the department of Moselle (Lorraine) located next to the border of France with Germany.. It is small, just 21,000 inhabitants and is about 120 kilometers from Strasbourg. In the past it was important for its mining operations, but now it lives in crisis. Today Forbach is in the news for a mystery; that of a woman who has lived locked up by her husband for eleven years.
The story is starred by a 53-year-old Spanish-German woman and her 55-year-old husband of German origin. They have been married since 2001. It is a mystery not so much because we do not know what has happened, the confinement, as why and how. Was it a kidnapping? The Prosecutor's Office rules it out.
They lived on social benefits
The couple had moved to France because he found a job in a German company, but he had been unemployed for several years.. Now they lived on social benefits, reports Franceinfo. She has dual Spanish and German nationality.. In fact, he still has family in Spain: his parents and a sister with whom he is not related.
She still has family in Spain: her parents and a sister with whom she does not speak
This woman was found in very poor condition at her home in Forbach. According to the information that first came out through the press, she was locked in a room, naked, malnourished, with a shaved head and alleged signs of old fractures in her fingers and legs, so who was hospitalized urgently.
Kidnapping, torture and rape?
The French authorities went to that house early on Monday, alerted by the German police, who in turn received a call for help during the night. The woman had called a German association for the protection of victims, denouncing that she had been kidnapped since 2011.. She also spoke of torture and rape by her husband.. The man was arrested that same morning.
The kidnapping situation (…) is a non-existent reality”
However, after examining the house, the Sarreguemines prosecutor, Olivier Glady, in charge of the case, has concluded that “the kidnapping situation (…) is a non-existent reality”. In addition, the doctor who examined the woman has found no evidence of rape or injuries or bone fractures.. In el domicilio tampoco se han encontrado restos de sangre.
🔴🗣️ “The sequestration situation is a non-existent reality” says Sarreguemines prosecutor Olivier Glady.
A woman, originally from Forbach, had told the police that she was being kidnapped by her husband, who had been taken into police custody on Monday.
📺 #franceinfo channel 27 pic.twitter.com/tGqqykoQF3
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) August 8, 2023
El marido, puesto en libertad
Glady atribuye a diversas enfermedades las malas condiciones de salud en las que fue encontrada la mujer. In an appearance before the press, he indicated that the husband had been released as no incriminating elements had been found.
I had access to a television, a computer and a telephone (…) The laundry was hung on the floor and the husband had a reserve of mattresses, which he changed regularly”
“He had access to a television, a computer and a telephone (…) The laundry was hung on the floor and the husband had a reserve of mattresses, which he changed regularly,” said the prosecutor, who in view of the evidence gives veracity of the husband's statement about the accusations of his wife, who has a “disabling” illness that has worsened in recent months.
she blames her husband
The evidence, according to Glady, points to the husband taking care of the sick wife, since neither of them is registered with the French social security and they do not receive medical attention.. She blames her husband for her state of health.
The woman insists that “she is not sick”, but her story is peppered with “inconsistencies”
As explained by the prosecutor, the woman insists “that she is not sick”, but her story is dotted with “inconsistencies”.. Investigators now doubt the wife's version, which Glady described as “possibly suffering from an inflammatory disease.”. Psychiatric examinations are still ongoing.
He says that he took care of her
The version that the husband has given to the authorities is that his wife has been suffering from autoimmune rheumatism, with disabling complications for about 10 months, and that he is the one who takes care of her.. Rheumatism, according to what he said, caused him allergies, combined with a process of alopecia (which would explain the woman's shaved head).
According to witness statements, the husband took care of his wife since her state of health worsened, “accelerating in the last ten months.”