It was an early example of the cause célèbres that would dominate the end of the 18th century, and it raised new questions about nobility and social status in Old Regime France.

During the ensuing weeks, when Pivardière did not reappear, rumors began to spread that Chauvelin had murdered her husband, and François Morin and Jean Bonnet, judges from Châtillon, launched a criminal investigation.

All Morin and Bonnet had to show for their efforts were several transcripts and two maidservants, Catherine Lemoyne and Marguerite Mercier, in their custody as witnesses.

The following months resulted in Lemoyne and Mercier's testimony of the events of 15 August changing wildly, perhaps due to influence from Morin and Bonnet.

Multiple witnesses confirmed his identity, but the momentum stalled when Lemoyne and Mercier asserted that the man was not Pivardière.

The momentum took another drastic shift when the man claiming to be Pivardière disappeared again, and even more in February with the arrest and imprisonment of the prior Charost.

Chauvelin and Charost's attorneys argued that it was because Pivardière feared an arrest for bigamy, a crime that was punishable by death in Old Regime France.

They asserted that in 1695, Pivardière had taken the name Louis Dubouchet, moved to Auxerre, and married Marie-Elisabeth Pillard, the daughter of a deceased innkeeper.

[10] Logically, according to Chauvelin and Charost's attorneys, Pivardière did not want to travel to Paris without being granted a safe conduct that would protect him from being arrested on bigamy charges.

On July 23, the Parlement of Paris rendered its verdict, which ordered a transferral of the witnesses, suspects (save for Chauvelin), and evidence to Chartres, where a new investigation would begin.

The court case surrounding his supposed murder, however, gained considerable public attention and, at the turn of the 18th century, raised questions about judicial corruption and nobility.

In 1990, director Antonín Moskalyk (Czechoslovakia) created an episode Písmo (Handwritting) of the TV series Dobrodružství kriminalistiky (Adventure in Criminological Investigation) inspired by the case.