 The story surrounds the baffling double murder of Madame L <unk> and her daughter at their home in the Rue Morgue , a fictional street in Paris . According to newspaper accounts , the mother was found in a yard behind the house , with multiple broken bones and her throat so deeply cut that her head fell off when the body was moved . The daughter was found strangled to death and stuffed upside down into a chimney . The murders occurred in a fourth @-@ floor room that was locked from the inside ; on the floor were found a bloody straight razor , several bloody tufts of gray hair , and two bags of gold coins . Several witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder , one male and French , but disagreed on the language spoken by the other . The speech was unclear , and every witness admits that he does not know the language he claims to have heard . 
