Experts fear the mystery surrounding the tragic death of two-year-old Émile will never be solved after his remains were discovered eight months after he disappeared from the family’s Alpine home.
“I’m afraid that whatever we do in this case, it will remain an enigma,” admitted former prosecutor general Jacques Dallest, as investigators were no closer to discovering how the boy’s bones and skull turned up near the house after of a thorough search.
“I am not sure that even if we discover the rest of the body, we will have enough elements that will allow us to determine the causes of death,” he added, as reported. The times.
The remains of young Émile were found by walkers last Saturday “on a path between the Church and the Chapel” in the quiet Alpine village of Le Vernet, in the southeast of France, according to Mayor François Balique.
The place, barely a kilometer from where Émile disappeared while staying at his grandfather’s house in July, had already been searched by the gendarmes with a “tooth comb”, according to the mayor told Le Figaro.
With little else to do, investigators are now wondering whether the bones could have been moved by a person or an animal, while authorities are asking why the remains were not found sooner.
Hikers discovered the remains of two-year-old Émile Soleil (pictured) near the isolated family home from where he disappeared in July last year.
Restrictions remain in place while police gather more information about the remains found.
A hiker discovered the remains on March 30, about eight months after Emile apparently wandered away from the family home on July 8 of last year.
Authorities were able to identify that the bones belonged to Emile, but were frustrated that they had been moved.
Jean-Luc Blachon, the prosecutor leading the case, said the walker was not a suspect and suggested she just “wanted to do the right thing” by taking the remains to police and returning them to the scene.
But Blachon also admitted that police were no closer to solving the mystery.
“Between the child’s fall, the homicide and the murder, we still cannot favor one hypothesis over another,” he said at a news conference last week.
On Monday, Mayor Balique said he could not understand why the remains had not been found sooner.
‘There are people who regularly use the nearby path. I used it last week. Volunteer searchers have been there, I’m sure.
“I was there during the beatings. [on the ground by those searching for Émile] and the gendarmes could not have lost him with the dogs.
‘In autumn there was even logging there. The woodcutters didn’t see anything either. It’s incomprehensible.’
‘I can’t help but believe that an adult is involved in this matter. “Émile would never have gone alone to the place where they found him,” he added.
Gilles Thézan, a resident of Haut-Vernet, told Le Parisien: “There is a trick.”
«The body was found just one or two kilometers from Haut-Vernet, in a place that had already been searched and investigated, in particular with dogs.
‘Everything was raked from top to bottom. There’s no way someone wouldn’t have seen it before.
Marie-Laure Pezant, a gendarmerie spokeswoman, said the bones may have been placed there by a person or animal, or moved by changes in weather patterns.
But a source close to the investigation insisted that “it is unlikely that the animals brought human remains to the town where someone disappeared.”
This photograph shows a general view of the alpine village of Le Haut-Vernet on March 31, 2024.
As of last week, there were no traces of the boy since his disappearance, and investigators refused to rule out any theories about the tragedy, including kidnapping and murder.
Émile was officially in the care of his grandfather, Philippe Vedovini, on the day of his disappearance, while his parents took a break.
A witness saw Mr Vedovini, a physiotherapist-osteopath, chopping wood outside his house at the time Émile is believed to have left.
Volunteers joined authorities last July to help search the small village area. population 25but there are no undiscovered clues.
Last Thursday, investigators returned to the village to reconstruct the latest sighting with 17 people, including family members.