Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Authorities in France opened a murder investigation on Monday after finding a corpse that had gone unnoticed in an abandoned mansion for 30 years.
Officials said the body was found in the basement of the Paris mansion, which sold for about $41.2 million in January, during renovations on Feb. 26.
"They found him in a place that had not been visited either by the bailiff who had made the report or by anyone else. No one had visited the cellar," Bruno Picard, a lawyer who oversaw the house's auction, told CNN.
The building in Paris' 7th arrondissement, has been abandoned since the mid-18th century and includes an interior courtyard and private gardens.
Paris police identified the body, which was found with knife injuries and broken bones, as Jean-Pierre Renaud.
"Thirty years on, it appears to have been the result of a fight between homeless people," police said. "He had alcohol problems. The house seems to have been used as a squat when he died, but we can't be sure he died here."
