Antoine de Massy, 29, cousin of Prince Albert II, found dead in Monaco; one person detained

Body found near the Larvotto

Antoine de Massy, 29, was found dead on Sunday evening, 25 October, in a small park on the Larvotto seafront in Monaco. The body lay in a green area below the boulevard du Larvotto, behind Villa Sauber. His relatives grew uneasy when he failed to turn up for a family lunch planned for noon that Sunday, and they contacted the Monaco Public Security Department. Some hours after the alert, the body was located. Investigators are now trying to reconstruct his final movements and what happened before he was found.

One person detained

On Monday morning, 26 October, Monaco-Matin reported that a person seen in surveillance recordings near the site had been detained and questioned. Reports do not say whether that person is suspected of anything or is being held as a witness. Examining the camera footage allowed investigators to identify this person as present near the place where the body lay. No cause of death has been announced, and investigators have not excluded any line of inquiry, including the possibility of a simple accident. The Monaco prosecutor general has opened an inquiry to establish how he died.

Palace response

The Palace of Monaco confirmed the death in an official statement that expressed the sorrow of Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene. The couple sent their condolences to his relatives and to everyone close to him. The statement recalled his passion for tennis and his family's long ties to the sport in the principality. Antoine was the son of Baron Christian de Massy and Cecile Gelabale, and a grandson of Princess Antoinette, elder sister of Prince Rainier III. That made him a second cousin of the reigning sovereign, Albert II.

A family rooted in tennis

Antoine had been drawn to tennis since childhood. In a 2012 interview with Vogue, he said his father had introduced him to the sport at the age of three. He later moved to Miami, Florida, to train intensively while continuing his studies, and he dreamed of representing Monaco at the Olympic Games. His aunt, Elizabeth-Ann de Massy, once led the Monte-Carlo Country Club and the Monegasque tennis federation, Tgcom24 reported. The Palace's message linked his death to that sporting tradition.