The case of a missing 83-year-old woman ended in tragedy, as Google Maps helped solve the mystery surrounding Paulette Landrieux.
Landrieux was a Belgian woman suffering from Alzheimer's and was last seen alive at her home on November 2, 2020.
Marcel Landrieux was his wife's full-time carer and apparently turned his back for just a few moments to put some washing on a line.
When he returned, his wife was missing.
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Marcel reportedly set Paulette up in front of the TV with a plate of food and assumed that because she was watching her favorite show, she'd be there when he returned.
Podcaster MrBallen explained her story in a recent video and said: "Paulette needed help remembering to eat or to take her medications on time. Sometimes she would just wander off without telling Marcel and he would have to go and corral her and bring her back home."
After looking outside and checking with the neighbors, Marcel Landrieux became concerned when no one had seen his wife.”
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“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."
A police search and rescue helicopter was flying over the city of Andenne within an hour, but still, there was no sign of Paulette.
MrBallen continued: "Over the next few days and weeks Paulette didn't turn up. Nobody had any idea where she was, and weeks turned into months and then months turned into two full years that nobody had seen Paulette."
With Marcel resigning himself to the idea that his wife tragically wasn't coming home, there at least came some closure in the form of a bizarre twist thanks to Google Maps. The day Paulette vanished coincided with when the Google Street View cameras were in the area, and when a neighbor was checking out the shots, they spotted Paulette wandering away from the house.
Even more harrowing, Marcel can also be seen in the background, hanging up the washing without realizing his wife is leaving the house.
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Following the projected path that Paulette was going on, the police were able to track her final movements. As MrBallen says: "Across the street was a steep hill that led down to a thick bramble bush."
It was here that Paulette’s body was found: "When that huge search for her was going on, very likely she was just trapped down there. She didn’t understand what was going on couldn’t necessarily yell up to communicate with anybody and so she stayed down there and died."
Even though some people might find Google Street View invasive by constantly snapping pictures without many people knowing, at least it helped solve the case of Paulette Landrieux.