A missing girl returns home at last. Then her parents are left stunned when she doesn’t seem to know their language

In the early 1920s, a story out of France captured international headlines and left both police and the public baffled. A toddler who vanished without a trace was found weeks later, apparently alive and well, yet when reunited with her grieving parents, she didn’t seem to know them.

According to The New York Times, the child couldn’t speak their language, failed to respond to her own name, and appeared to have no memory of the home she was supposed to belong to. What began as a joyful reunion quickly became one of the most haunting mysteries of the century: the strange case of Pauline Picard.

What happened to Pauline Picard?

Picard was around two years old when she disappeared from her family’s small farm in Brittany in April 1922. After an extensive search turned up nothing, authorities across France were alerted. A month later, police hundreds of miles away located a lost little girl wandering alone.

She matched Pauline’s description closely: same age, hair, and facial features. When officials sent a photograph to the Picard family, Pauline’s mother was certain it was her daughter. The relieved parents traveled across the country to bring her home, believing their nightmare was finally over. But within days, doubts began to grow.

The child did not recognize the family dog or respond to familiar names and phrases. The Picards spoke only Breton, yet the girl appeared to understand only French. Neighbors whispered that something wasn’t right, that perhaps the child was not Pauline at all. Authorities, however, reassured the family that trauma or shock could explain her silence and confusion.

In the 1920s, child psychology was still in its infancy, and wartime displacements had left many families separated and confused about identities.

Picard’s discovery

Then came the most horrifying twist. Weeks after the girl’s return, a local farmer discovered the decomposed remains of a small child in a field not far from the Picard home. The body was nude and damaged by the elements, but the clothes found nearby were identified as Pauline’s.

Even more disturbing, reports described a second skull — believed to belong to an adult — lying close to the child’s remains. Though investigators ultimately ruled that the body was indeed Pauline’s, how it came to rest so close to the family’s own property, and who the other remains belonged to, was never explained.

Newspapers speculated wildly: Had the girl found in another region been switched at birth? Was she a victim of trafficking? Some suggested she was a “changeling,” invoking old folklore about spirits or faeries replacing human children.

Others accused the authorities of incompetence or cover-up. The child who had been returned to the Picards was quietly placed in an orphanage soon after, where she reportedly died of illness in 1924, her true identity never determined.