How d’Artagnan’s Bones Became a Crime Scene
The famous Musketeer's remains may have been found under a church in the Netherlands. The man who found them refused to give them up. This is the full story.
On the evening of 20 May 2026, police arrived at the home of Wim Dijkman, a retired city archaeologist in Maastricht, and arrested him. They were there to seize a humerus fragment and two teeth that Dijkman believed had belonged to Charles de Batz de Castelmore, the French musketeer killed at the 1673 Siege of Maastricht and immortalised by Alexandre Dumas as d’Artagnan.
Dijkman is a household name in Maastricht. He spent the better part of forty years as the city’s archaeologist and conservator, was knighted for his work earlier this year, and had curated past exhibitions on d’Artagnan at the Centre Céramique in the city.
When the floor of the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk church gave way in February and a skeleton appeared beneath the altar, Dijkman was called in and first claimed it might be d’Artagnan.
