The Body In The Trunk: France's Shocking 19th Century Murder Case
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was a murder mystery that gripped 19th century France and changed crime investigation forever.
Who was the body in the trunk? What were the groundbreaking techniques used in the forensics investigation? And how did the murder case unfold from there?
Taking Anthony and Maddy back to France in 1889 and through this story is historian and author Dr. Cat Byers.
This episode was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. It's us, your hosts Maddie Pelling and Anthony Delaney. |
| 0:04.2 | But before we begin the show, we want to ask for a few seconds of your time. |
| 0:08.2 | If you're enjoying After Dark, and we love you, if you are, we would love you just a little bit more. |
| 0:13.5 | If you could vote for us in the listeners choice category at the British Podcast Awards. |
| 0:18.0 | So go to the show notes now, click the link and just then search for After Dark. |
| 0:23.2 | Fill in your name and your email and don't forget to confirm. They will send you an email. |
| 0:27.2 | You need to confirm. The whole process probably takes about 30 seconds. |
| 0:30.7 | If you've already voted, we are so, so grateful. If you haven't, stop what you are doing right now. |
| 0:35.4 | Vote for us before you enjoy this show. |
| 0:38.0 | Hello or actually should I say bonjour and welcome to After Dark because in today's |
| 0:42.4 | episode we are going to be talking about a murder case that captured the imagination of 19th |
| 0:47.3 | century France and is said to have pioneered certain areas of the forensic sciences. |
| 0:53.4 | But first, let's get into the heart and the heat of the action. |
| 1:02.0 | It was the height of summer 1889 and the city of Lyon shimmered under the sun. |
| 1:08.0 | Just beyond its edge, in a wooded ravine near the quiet village of Millarie, |
| 1:13.2 | the air crackled under heat and the unsettling stench of decay. Two local men followed the scent |
| 1:20.9 | and stumbled upon a large trunk, abandoned in the underbush, with a mixture of curiosity, suspicion and hesitancy, they pried it open. |
| 1:34.1 | What they found inside was horrifying. The contorted, decomposing body of a man, crammed inside like cargo. |
| 1:43.1 | His features were bloated and distorted. The scent of death came in a wave |
| 1:48.1 | and clung to the air around them like a curse. The trunk itself bore no name, no clear origin. |
| 1:56.4 | A mystery was born. The body inside was beyond recognition and whispered no immediate clues as to who it was |
| 2:05.1 | or how it had got to this remote location. Just the chilling certainty that this man had not |
... |
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