Maraussan: Two 66-year-old twins compared to “living corpses” found by the police

A family living in self-sufficiency was discovered in Maraussan, in Hérault, on Wednesday, September 25. An elderly couple and their two children, 66-year-old twins, were found. The latter are in a worrying state and will be taken care of by social services.

Simple reports from neighbors that resulted in the discovery of a family living in self-sufficiency and in the most worrying conditions. The police discovered a household of four people showing several signs of distress on Wednesday, September 25, during an intervention carried out at the request of the mayor of Maraussan, a small town located northwest of Béziers, in Hérault, reports Midi Libre.

The mayor of Maraussan, Marlène Puche, thought she would send the municipal police on a simple neighborhood dispute, after a resident reported harassment by a neighbor, and during the intervention nothing seemed suspicious about the elderly couple apart from the few signs unsanitary conditions. It was necessary to wait for a new report and a second intervention by the police accompanied by a social worker to shed light on the living conditions of the family who were apparently living under the authority of the matriarch.

When the police arrived, the 88-year-old mother appeared agitated, “screaming at the top of her lungs” according to the description given by Midi Libre. The 90-year-old husband was found “lying on a chaise longue, very emaciated, with a head injury” after a fall down the stairs, but it was the couple's two children who attracted attention. The two daughters, twins, aged 66, were found prostrate in their bedroom, mute and skeletal. A witness to the scene compared them to “living corpses”, “skeletons with claws on their fingertips”, from the local newspaper: “They were sitting close together in a fetal position”.”””You see the pictures of the Buchenwal victims”? Well, they are the twins. (…) I had never seen such a picture, and yet I have seen them in my professional life,” reports a member of the rescue team. They have been living in the family home for years after being forcibly repatriated, reports Le Midi Libre.

In addition to the worrying state of health of the twins and the husband, the interior of the home suggests “total distress”. The four members of the household lived in self-sufficiency and had not consulted doctor for about fifty years, according to the Occitan newspaper. Firefighters and emergency medical services teams therefore intervened to take care of the four individuals. The mother was evacuated to the hospital in Béziers after heated exchanges with the police and emergency services. The husband was taken to a nursing home before being taken to hospital for treatment, while the two girls have to be placed under guardianship, as they are “totally incapable of caring for themselves and even feeding themselves” according to neighbors. They initially refused to leave the house and will be taken into care by social services.