Missing In Nantes — The Vanishing of Léa Petitgas

In 2017, Léa Petitgas was a 20 year old living in Nantes, the sixth-largest city in France. She had long brown hair, sparkling green eyes, and pale skin that made her appearance particularly striking. Léa was also very petite, standing at just 4'8", which often made her seem younger than she actually was.

As a child, Léa’s parents divorced, but she remained especially close to her father. Those who knew her described her as easygoing and joyful, though somewhat quiet and occasionally immature. She was also seen as a very naïve young woman, which sometimes left her trusting others too easily.

Léa had previously lived with her boyfriend in Vannes, a city about 70 kilometres away, but after their breakup she moved back to Nantes. There, she rented a small studio apartment in a quiet neighbourhood close to the city centre.

Although Léa was working, she had been struggling financially and often found it difficult to keep up with her bills. To help her get by, her father regularly sent her money.

On Thursday, 14th December, Léa had requested the early 9am shift at work so that she could finish earlier and head to a babysitting job she had arranged later that day. The commute from her apartment usually took around 40 minutes.

First, Léa would walk a few minutes to a bus stop, then take a bus, and finally a taxi for the last part of the journey. But that morning, something disrupted Léa’s routine. She never made it to work — and she has never been heard from again.

Although Léa’s colleagues found it unusual that she had failed to show up for work, her absence was not immediately reported to her family or friends. It wasn’t until two days later that one of Léa’s friends realised she hadn’t heard from her in several days and began to grow concerned.

Léa had been due to spend that Saturday evening at her friend’s home, but after repeatedly failing to reach her, the friend decided to go to Léa’s apartment building to check on her. She knocked on the door but received no response. However, she could hear the distressed cries of Léa’s two cats from inside the apartment.

The friend happened to have a spare key, so she let herself in. Inside, it quickly became clear that the cats had not been fed for days. As someone who loved animals and doted on her pets, Léa would never have willingly left them without food.

Convinced that something was wrong, Léa’s friend reported her missing, and an investigation into her disappearance soon began.

By tracing Léa’s final known movements, police were able to piece together a rough timeline of the hours leading up to her disappearance. The night before she vanished, Léa had spoken with her father on the phone. During the call, they had a serious conversation about her financial difficulties, including the fact that she was now four months behind on her rent.

Later that evening, a male friend from art school visited Léa at her apartment. The two spent the evening drawing together before he left at around 11:30pm. Police later questioned the friend as part of their investigation, but he was ultimately cleared of any involvement in her disappearance.

The following morning, Léa’s mobile phone connected to her apartment’s internet router at around 8am, suggesting she had just left for work. As she moved through the neighbourhood, the phone automatically connected to several nearby Wi-Fi networks until around 9am.

The final signal from her phone came at approximately 10:30am, when it briefly connected to a network in a neighbourhood far from both her home and her workplace. Investigators were unable to determine why Léa would have been in that area, as she did not know anyone there and appeared to have no reason to visit.

After that moment, her phone never emitted another signal. To this day, it remains unclear whether the device was still in Léa’s possession at the time.

Police conducted a thorough search of Léa’s apartment, but there were no signs of disturbance and nothing appeared to be out of place. The only items missing were the things she would normally take with her on her commute to work, including her winter coat, hat, scarf, purse, phone, and laptop.

From there, the investigation quickly stalled. With no clear evidence, witnesses, or viable leads to follow, the case gradually went cold.

In recent years, however, an officer involved in the investigation stated:

Those closest to Léa remain adamant that she did not disappear voluntarily. They insist she would never have abandoned her cats, nor left behind her tablet, which she spent much of her free time using to draw.

It has now been nearly eight years since Léa was last seen. Since the day she left her apartment, there has been no activity on her social media accounts or bank cards.

If Léa did set out for work that morning, there is no way to know for certain whether she ever made it to the bus. No passengers have ever come forward reporting a sighting of her, and any CCTV footage from public transport was automatically erased within 72 hours of her disappearance.

The timing of her vanishing remains particularly puzzling. Léa left home during the busy morning rush hour, a time when the streets would have been full of people. Disappearing without a trace under such circumstances seems especially unusual. Some have speculated that someone familiar with Léa and her daily routine may have taken advantage of the fact that she was a young woman living alone.

As of 2026, the investigation into Léa Petitgas’s disappearance remains open. If she is still alive today, she would be 29 years old.