Bones bearing the DNA of little Emile, who disappeared in July 2023 in Haut-Vernet, were found on Saturday March 30. A discovery which marks the end of the suspense but leaves many questions unanswered.
Easter celebrations are now associated with this macabre story. The inhabitants of the small hamlet of Le Vernet, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence learned, on Sunday March 31, of the discovery of bones belonging to little Emile, the 2-year-old boy who disappeared in July 2023. A skull was found by a hiker not far from the house of his maternal grandparents who had custody of him for the holidays. “It’s unthinkable! The entire area was raked with a fine comb, dissected, how could they have missed it?” wonders Carine, one of the 25 residents of the town, reports Le Parisien.
This is THE question that comes up on everyone’s lips. Nearly 9 months after the boy’s disappearance, no search had been successful. However, impressive measures – searches, searches, analyzes – had been deployed quickly. Search operations were organized on July 9, the day after the disappearance, then in mid-September, around a body of water in Vernet, south of the hamlet. Divers inspected it, without results, Franceinfo recalls. The concrete slabs of a chalet located on the heights of the hamlet were also inspected by the gendarmerie, but these checks yielded nothing either. Finally, in mid-October, the farm of a young farmer in Haut-Vernet was searched, with the help of drones and tracking dogs. The operation proved, once again, unsuccessful.
The former director of the criminal research institute of the national gendarmerie (IRCGN) François Daoust affirms that the fact of having only found Emile’s skull would lead to “much longer and more complex research”. An inventory group (GEL) responsible for research on the topography of the place and anthropologists are dispatched to the site this Monday, April 1. Many gray areas remain to be clarified, particularly with regard to the causes of little Emile’s death which, for the moment, remain unknown. The investigation is continuing and will last as long as necessary, said Colonel Pierre-Yves Bardy. “There are no time limits on investigations. As long as investigators need to work in a secure environment, the area will be off-limits,” he said.
On vacation at his maternal grandparents’ second home, the boy was last seen by two neighbors on July 8, late in the afternoon, while he was walking alone in the streets of the small hamlet de Vernet populated by only 25 inhabitants.
The investigation, first opened for “disturbing disappearance”, was entrusted to the investigating judges of Aix-en-Provence then reclassified as criminal grounds for “kidnapping and sequestration”, recalls the French daily.
While numerous searches had so far failed to find Emile’s body, on Thursday March 28, investigators organized a “scenario” which brought together 17 people – family members, neighbors and witnesses. — to retrace chronologically the evening of July 8.
