A MAN who has lived under the cloud of suspicion after the death of his wife today spoke of the trauma of a never ending wait for answers.

Robert Lund has yet to be given any conclusive evidence about what happened to his wife Evelyn since she vanished in France three years ago -- despite the release of autopsy results.

Evelyn, who moved from Winter Hill, Darwen, to southern France with her second husband in 1996, vanished after failing to make a journey from a friend's house in Montpellier.

Her body was found on the back seat of her Toyota Landcruiser in Realmount Lake, 15 miles from the couple's converted Raysaac farmhouse, ten months later.

The grim discovery was made after the level of the lake fell by an unprecedented 30 metres.

But autopsy tests using the latest technology have failed to show what happened and the case remains open and "inconclusive." That means that Robert's life is on hold -- unable to sell their house or move on. He also claims that the French authorities will not tell him where the body of his 53-year-old wife is being kept.

The former Blackburn council tree protection officer, who celebrated his 51st birthday on Saturday at the home named Journey's End, said the frustration of the last three years had taken its toll.

He has since been off his job as a manual worker for ten months due to mental health problems.

Robert said tests carried out by the French authorities used Diatoms technology to establish where Evelyn died -- whether it was before or after she entered the lake.

A spokesperson for the British embassy in France said: "Autopsy tests have been carried out but the results were inconclusive. We are still waiting the results of further tests being carried out in various laboratories and the cause of death has yet to be established."

Speaking from France, Robert said: "It is like banging your head against a brick wall and is bordering on inhumane.

"Nobody will speak to me and I have had no word from anyone for months. There is not one person dealing with this inquiry and the people who have been left in charge are obstinate and pigheaded. The tests were inconclusive because there is nothing to find.

"They won't even tell me where the body is being held. Some rumours say Bordeaux, others Paris or Toulouse."

But Robert, who has lived as a prime suspect in the murder-style probe, said he feels like the victim. He was hauled in by police for 24-hour questioning in April 2000 -- three and a half months after she disappeared.

"The hardest part is the feeling that I cannot get on with anything," he added.

"Life is on hold. Legally everything is blocked and I feel totally shut out. If I had done something and they had evidence I would be in jail. It is very very frustrating."

Evelyn's daughter Patricia Taylor of Franklin Road, Witton, Blackburn, declined to comment but has severed all ties with Robert.