One further detail from the trial has been reported widely enough to merit inclusion, though it sits in a different category from the legal facts. During the proceedings, Paschoud — the family’s lawyer who had conducted the fake negotiations under the identity of the caller who was “Monsieur Rochat” — had occasion to meet Wardas in court. The SwissInfo account describes Paschoud greeting Wardas with “bonjour, Monsieur Rochat.” This is a courtroom moment that would have been publicly observable, and it reflects the theatrical dimension of a case that had its own peculiar character from beginning to end.
Part Eight: Recovery, Second Burial, and What Was Done to Prevent a Repetition
The coffin was recovered from the Noville cornfield on May 17, 1978. The metal detectors that located it through the soil above the coffin’s metal handles were the practical means of a recovery that would otherwise have required excavating a large field on the basis of imprecise recollections.
The cofin was intact. Contemporary reporting does not describe its condition in detail, which is appropriate; the interest of the case was never in anything sensational about the remains. The coffin had been buried in a field for approximately seventy-six days. It was recovered and returned to the family.
The Washington Post’s May 18, 1978 report said the family had “not said what it will do with the recovered coffin.” This reflects the state of affairs in the immediate aftermath of the recovery, before the reburial arrangements were finalized. The reburial itself took place at the same cemetery in Corsier-sur-Vevey where the original burial had been. The Chaplin family chose to return Charlie Chaplin to the same grave.