The French police found the body of an 83-year-old man from Alphen aan den Rijn on Thursday. On Wednesday, the body of his 80-year-old wife was found. The couple had been missing for a few days.
Nothing is known about the cause of death. The police previously stated that the woman probably did not die as a result of a crime. “There is sufficient reason to believe that it just happened to them,” said a spokesperson for the organization Namens de Familie to news agency ANP.
The man and woman were last seen on Friday in Saint-Dizier. That is located in northern France, about 150 kilometers below the Belgian border. “My parents-in-law were seen there at a bakery at five past nine in the morning; 100 percent certain,” their son-in-law shared on social media on Tuesday.
The couple was on their way to their second home in the French village of Planchez, which is near Dijon. According to the French police, they went missing in the area between Saint-Dizier and Planchez.
A toll payment was registered in Orange, much further south. That toll payment is part of the investigation, a spokesperson for Namens de Familie told NU.nl. “Were they actually there or is it an (administrative) act of toll payment?”
It is not known where the woman and the man were found. This is being kept secret at the request of the French authorities.
