Landlord Vanished Days Before His House was Set on Fire. His Tenant Has Now Been Arrested After a Mutilated Body was Found By Becca Longmire

A 39-year-old French woman has been arrested in Switzerland after being accused of setting fire to her home and being linked to the disappearance of her 75-year-old landlord.

On Saturday, Nov. 1, French authorities discovered the mutilated body of a man on the banks of the Saône River in the commune of Fédry. Formal identification is yet to take place, but it’s thought the remains could be those of a missing man from the Swiss village of Sainte-Croix, the local public prosecutor’s office said, per a news release shared on the State of Vaud website.

Police have arrested a woman whom the man, who was reported missing on Friday, Oct. 31, was renting accommodation to in Sainte-Croix. Two days after his disappearance, on Sunday, Nov. 2, the property was set on fire “and its occupant was apprehended shortly after by Swiss customs officers,” the translated release stated.

Authorities said, “She was questioned by the public prosecutor and placed in pretrial detention for setting fire to her apartment. She is also suspected of involvement in the disappearance of her landlord. At this stage, she is still presumed innocent.”

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The arrest came a day after a man’s body was found in Fédry, a small village in neighboring eastern France, AFP news agency reported, per CBS News. The Swiss village where the missing man and the woman lived is around 62 miles from the village where the body was found, the outlet noted.

The body was dressed only in underwear when it was discovered, and had been “severed in two at the waist and covered in a white substance,” the outlet reported, citing Arnaud Grécourt, prosecutor for Haute-Saone’s Vesoul district.

Grécourt said multiple injuries, including “burns on the back, several wounds on the skull, on one hand, on the neck, and on the torso,” were found on the man’s body, per French radio network RTL.

“Wounds on the hands suggest defensive wounds. Several of the wounds observed point to the use of a sharp instrument,” the prosecutor added, per the outlet. Initial autopsy results suggest the victim appears to have died from hemorrhaging caused by a stab wound to the chest.

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Jean Roblet, mayor of the French village where the remains were found, spoke about the body being discovered while speaking to RTL.

“You don’t see this every day … I’ve never witnessed anything like this,” Roblet said, per the outlet.

Local police in the State of Vaud told PEOPLE in an email that no further information will be released at this stage of the investigation.

The Vesoul Judicial Court and the local French prosecutor’s office dealing with the case didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.