The Oak Coffin
Cases unlock in order, like levels. This is case 171 of 200.
Above Vevey, Tuesday, March 14, 1978, 10 pm. In the drawing room of a villa on the shore of Lake Geneva, a black telephone is wired to the police recorder, and nobody takes their eyes off it.
On the night of Wednesday, March 1, the oak coffin of the maestro Severin Haldenstein, buried on February 4 in the village cemetery, was ripped out of its grave. Since the 3rd, a man calling himself "Monsieur Lenoir" has been phoning the private line of the widow, Ilona Haldenstein, demanding 500,000 francs. She refuses to pay.
Today, at 8:12 pm, he called again, from a booth at Vevey station, and promised to send a photograph of the coffin as proof. The police reached the booth too late.
Three people knew the grave and the house well. One of them knows where the maestro is sleeping tonight.
Salon of a villa on Lake Geneva in 1978, with a closed piano and a portrait of a conductor.
Suspects
Tullio LanfranchiChauffeur and mechanic of the Haldenstein villa, 34 years old
Fernand GilliéronVillage gravedigger, 61 years old
Mathilde RossierSecretary to the maestro Haldenstein, 38 years old
The real case
The theft of Charlie Chaplin's coffin
Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, 1978
Read the real case