Horror in France: after almost a year of searches, a hiker finds the skull and teeth of a boy who disappeared in the Alps

On a hot July 8, 2023, little Emile, just two and a half years old He ran away from his grandparents’ house in the small town of 25 inhabitants in Haut Vernet, in the French Alpes de Provence and disappeared. The case shocked France. Nine months later, the discovery of the boy’s bones in the Haut-Vernet came like a bolt from the blue, out of nowhere, on Easter Sunday, when his parents, very Catholic, They were at mass.

A hiker from the village he found his skull and his teeth, 1 kilometer as the crow flies from their grandparents’ house and took them to the Gendarmerie. Only 48 hours have passed since magistrates, gendarmes, soldiers, medical examiners, specialists, dogs and drones returned to search the area to try to reconstruct his disappearance.

According to the gendarmes, this is a contraindicated behavior because it disturbs the possible crime scene: a particle of skin and DNA may have been lost during the journey. She will be questioned about her current activities and her activities at the time of Emile’s disappearance, but she will not be detained.

The bones and teeth were sent by helicopter to experts at the Criminal Investigation Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN), in Pontoise, for identification. The appearance of the skull is far from being the epilogue of this story, still surrounded by gray areas.

The discovery once again moved the town, where since then, the neighbors look at each other with suspicionand in France. Emile’s body It didn’t appear. The Haut Vernet was isolated again to allow the best specialists to disembark and work again to try to find the rest of the skeleton, to find out if it was an accident or if he died from a blow.

A reconstruction from a few days ago

Emile was searched intensively after his disappearance and then the magistrates They organized “a reconstruction” of his disappearance on Thursday last week for eight hours, in the Haut-Vernet.

The 17 witnesses present in the city on 8 July were invited to reproduce the gestures and movements on the day of the disappearance, in order to detect any inconsistencies. Emile’s grandfather, Philippe V., 58, always said so I was with him in front of the house, loading the carwhen the boy ran away from his surveillance.

Two witnesses came forward: one claimed to have seen Emile heading towards the laundry, located under the house. The other stated, on the contrary, I saw him going up the road that crosses the towntowards a cabin located above the maternal grandparents’ house.

Two days after this reconstruction the skull appeared a passage area for hunters, their dogs, hikers and the inhabitants of the municipality. They assume that there may have been a displacement of the body by an animal or a human being. Forensics need to determine how long those bones were exposed to the elements.

When bones speak

9 months they are not enough to reduce Emile’s body to the state of a skeleton, according to the forensics. It can take at least two years, without human or animal intervention.

It disappeared in the middle of summer and the heat accelerates the cadaveric phenomena. But it will be the bones that reveal the reasons for his death. Traces of animal or human bites can be detected only by sight, and the remains will certainly be x-rayed and scanned. This may reveal fractures or changes to the body or if little Emile fell and fractured his head, he received a bullet or a knife.

There was a small stream nearby. The bones found will not be able to reveal whether he drowned or was drowned and if there was human intervention, who they were.

There are wolves and foxes in the Vernet mountains. The involvement of a predatory animal was one of the clues analyzed by investigators the summer he disappeared.

The mayor of Vernet had denounced “the attack by wolves on the town’s domestic animals in 2017”. He considered it “a serious and immediate danger for domestic animals and in particular for the troops of sheep and cattle grazing freely in the mountains”. The boy may also have been attacked by eagles or foxes or fed on their remains. There are no lynxes or bears in the high mountains of Provence.

The day Emile disappeared

Emile was two and a half years olda yellow t-shirt, shorts and hiking boots when he disappeared. His grandfather was a few steps away, preparing the car. The little one had just gotten up from his nap and during the holidays he was entrusted to the care of his grandparents. His parents work in another city.

No one was surprised to see him on the street. Two witnesses saw it. In that high mountain village the kids play freely, in nature and everyone knows them. Until now.

After nine months of “hope” and “dismay”, the news fell like a bomb. Little Émile’s head and teeth were discovered one kilometer as the crow flies from the village of Haut-Vernet, where the boy was last seen.

The town, clinging to the Trois Évêchés massif, was surrounded again on Sunday by gendarmes, who hope to quickly provide answers to the family.

The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday that a hiker had found “bones”.

“She is a local resident and we don’t know if she actually went hiking,” he explained.

The family’s statement

The family, which She doesn’t have many ties to her neighbors and is extremely Catholiche broke the silence with the voice of his lawyer, Jérôme Triomphe, who sent a statement to the press.

“They have just found the mortal remains of little Émile. If you feared this heartbreaking news, now is the time for mourning, contemplation and prayer. “Marie and Colomban know now, on this Easter Sunday, that Emile watches over them with the light and tenderness of God,” writes the lawyer.

The criminal lawyer called on the press to respect the “pain and sadness” of his clients and not to request them in this time of mourning. “The investigators continue their work in the necessary secrecy of the investigation so that the causes of Émile’s disappearance and death can be discovered,” Triomphe underlined.

The boy’s parents, in conclusion, wanted to thank “all those who helped and supported them, as well as the investigating magistrates and the investigators, for their work, their professionalism, their personal commitment and their humanity, which gave them great comfort in this moment.” recent months and in particular on this day.”

The confirmation arrived on Sunday morning, while the little boy’s parents were gathered for Easter mass, a celebration that celebrates the resurrection of Christ. A disturbing coincidence.

Where were the remains found?

The remains were located near an identified road between the church and the municipal chapela zone already “particularly sought after” by the gendarmes, noted the city mayor, François Balique.

“We couldn’t miss him during the hunt,” say locals. The path It is a place of daily passage for hunters and their dogs, hikers and inhabitants of the Alto Vernet. Not to mention the forestry work carried out in the area during the autumn.

To “ensure the tranquility of the inhabitants of Haut-Vernet and its surroundings”, the city council has once again issued an ordinance to prohibit access to visitors who are not residents of the municipality.

The area has been completely cordoned off by the gendarmerie, who will carry out meticulous work to try to find the rest of the body. But also to understand if the place of discovery is that of death or if the bones have been moved.

In any case, the researchers They ruled out the trace of a landslide in that high mountain area. In the early afternoon, the criminal investigation unit of the departmental gendarmerie of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence should have arrived on site, the famous forensic officers in white uniforms, specially trained to carry out investigations at crime scenes. Until then the prosecutor declined to comment further.

Accident or murder?

The news shocked all the inhabitants of Hauts-Vernet, immersed in mystery and suspicion for months. “It was a shock, but at the same time it doesn’t surprise me – confided one of them – we knew that the little guy was up there, somewhere, all this time”. “I hoped he was still alive,” the counselor said sadly.

At the moment people are overwhelmed with emotion, but later they will want to have answers. Accidental or criminal, the causes of death are still unknown. The autopsy and anthropological analysis could provide some answers, if the bones showed traces of fractures linked to a fall or human action, with the use of a blunt object.