Google Maps solved case of missing woman who disappeared 'without a trace' after accidentally capturing her chilling final moments
The disappearance of an elderly woman was finally solved after two years, thanks to Google Maps.
Paulette Landrieux disappeared on November 2, 2020, near her home in Andenne, Belgium leaving no trace.
At the time, local police issued a search alert for the 'potentially confused woman,' who had a habit of wandering off without notifying anyone and randomly knocking on her neighbours’ doors.
But, despite a massive search effort involving sniffer dogs, thermal vision helicopters and drones, she wasn't found.
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Her disappearance happened while her husband was hanging out the laundry.
After two years of searching without success, her family began to assume she had fallen into the nearby Meuse River. Landrieux's case was on the verge of being closed - until 2022.
Someone made one last attempt to find the 83-year-old by looking up images of her house on Google Maps.
Miraculously, with the power of Google Street View, a policeman spotted the pensioner crossing the street towards her neighbour's garden.
It was then he discovered that these images showing Landrieux in a white jumper and black trousers were her final moments.
Police were quickly sent to the area and found her body at the bottom of a hill, right below the neighbour's garden.
Investigations revealed she had fallen from an open section of the garden and died shortly after.
Even more chillingly, on the far right of the image, her husband can be seen at the back of the house completely unaware it will be the last time he sees his wife alive.
The tragic case recently resurfaced in a video posted on YouTube by Chilling Scares.
"The one thing that confuses me is how tf for nearly TWO YEARS nobody at the neighboring house realized there was a dead body in their yard. That's insane,' one viewer commented.
The story has also resurfaced on the Google Maps subreddit, where people have shared their disbelief. Some have called it 'sad' and 'chilling' and quite 'scary.'
One comment read: "Though she was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Google was there at the right place at the right time."
Another user replied: "That's so creepy.imagine the Google Street view truck just passed there minutes before her death."
Someone else added: "The chances that google maps driver driving by at the exact moment is crazy. Sad that the husband was there not knowing that was the last day he’d see her."