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The Mysterious Dead Girl Whose Looks Attracted Thousands of Admirers
The mystery of L’Inconnue de la Seine
When they pull the mysterious teenage girl from the Seine, they wonder if it was suicide. Not a single injury marks her body. No sign of violent struggle. In fact, the peaceful expression on her youthful face makes it hard to believe she’s suffered at all.
They place her body in the Exhibition Room of the famous Paris Morgue, rebuild in the heart of the city in 1867. Long green curtains frame the exhibition window. Behind it lie two rows of corpses on angled slabs of rock: displayed like museum artifacts for easy viewing.
Pressing up against the glass, the occasional family member arrives to identify a loved one. But mostly the bodies serve as a tourist attraction for thousands of daily visitors. Men jostle each other to get a closer look at death. Mothers hold their toddlers high above the crowd, delighting in their children’s squeals of excitement. Young men and women stare with appropriate looks of pity that barely hide their hungry enthusiasm.
The young, drowned girl’s peaceful expression fascinates the crowds, but no-one comes to claim her. In death, she is alone. Perhaps life had been lonely too and that’s why she’d chosen to end it?
