Disturbing new details revealed by Émile Soleil investigators: Little French boy’s clothes were found 500 feet from his skull, and his bones did NOT provide new clues about how he died

Clothes and shoes belonging to a little French boy who died mysteriously in the Alps were found almost 500 feet from his slightly fractured and mutilated skull, it was revealed this evening.

Jean-Luc Blachon, the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor, revealed disturbing new details in the case of two-year-old Émile Soleil on Tuesday.

His death was confirmed after his skull and bones were found in remote countryside on Saturday, close to the isolated family home from which he disappeared in July last year.

Mr. Blachon told a press conference that the gendarmes “also discovered Emile’s clothes 150 meters away.”

The “T-shirt, pants and shoes” were “not gathered in the same place, but scattered over a few meters,” said the prosecutor, who is leading the criminal investigation into Emile’s death.

Mr Blachon said wild animals may have scattered Emile’s remains and could also be responsible for “small fractures” and “bite marks” on his skull.

A fall could have damaged Émile’s skull, but Mr Blachon said other hypotheses, including “murder or manslaughter”, had not been ruled out.

A tooth was also missing but, according to Mr. Blachon, “the examination of the bones does not allow us to give the cause of Émile’s death.”

A walker out for a walk over the Easter weekend discovered the remains in an extremely steep area, about a “25-minute walk” from the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, near Grenoble.

Émile was staying at the family vacation home there and was officially in the care of his grandfather, Philippe Vedovini, 58, on the day of his disappearance, while his parents took a break.

Asked whether the area where Emile’s remains had already been searched, Mr. Blachon replied “yes, but without using drones or specialized dogs.”

He added: “At present, we cannot say whether Emile’s body was already in the searched area. I can’t say that every square meter was searched.

“The topography there is difficult with steep slopes which make observation and excavations difficult.

“It was also very hot in July 2023, with temperatures exceeding 30°C in the shade. which could have affected the effectiveness of tracking dogs and infrared cameras.

Mr. Blachon said an anonymous woman discovered the skull and bones “between noon and 2 p.m., during a walk on a path she remembered having traveled a month earlier.”

He added: “She was disturbed by this discovery and placed (the skull and bones) in a plastic bag. She went home and called the police. She was able to locate exactly where she found it (the skull)’

There has been no comment on the discovery of Emile’s remains by his family, who were all present at Easter Sunday mass when they were informed.

Mr. Vedovini is a devout Catholic who gave up his vocation as a monk to marry his wife, Anne Vedovini.

Earlier this month it emerged that Mr Vedovini had been investigated as part of an active criminal investigation into historical child abuse.

Mr Vedovini – who denies any wrongdoing – was training to be a monk when he worked at a school linked to sexual abuse, including rape, in the early 1990s.

Mr Vedovini, known as Brother Philippe when he worked at the school, was involved in the active investigation as an “assisted witness”.

When questioned by police in April 2018, he admitted to inflicting “somewhat harsh” physical discipline, but claimed he had never broken the law, according to a source close to the ongoing investigation.

The Vedovini couple raised 10 children, including Émile’s mother, now known by her married name Marie Soleil after marrying Émile’s father, 26-year-old Colomban Soleil.

The family’s far-right political background was also investigated by the police.

Émile’s father was arrested for “attacking foreigners” in 2018 and released after pledging to keep the peace.

At the time, Mr. Soleil was an activist linked to Action Française, the far-right nationalist and royalist group, as well as the neofascist social stronghold.

Three years later, in 2021, Mr. Soleil and his wife both ran in local elections in the Marseille region, supporting the Reconquest party of Éric Zemmour, the convicted racist and Islamophobe who tried to become president from France.

Senior prosecutor Rémy Avon, who is leading the judicial investigation into Émile’s disappearance, said the possibilities that Émile was murdered, kidnapped or involved in an accident were all being investigated.

He confirmed that Emile’s parents’ home, in La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, was raided in July, while grandparents’ homes nearby and in the Alps were also raided.

The saga evokes the BBC fiction series The Missing, in which a young boy disappears while on holiday with his family in France, only to be killed in a hit-and-run after chasing a fox.

The inhabitants of Vernet have described the place as the cursed “village of the damned” because of its links to disasters.

In March 2015, Vernet was also sealed off following a horrific plane crash in which 150 people died, including two babies.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 was deliberately shot down by co-pilot Andres Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies.

The residents of Vernet were also shaken by the murder of a village café manager 16 years ago.

Jeannette Grosos, who managed Café du Moulin, was brutally killed by a customer in 2008.

A resident of Vernat said: “Everyone says it, Vernet feels like a village of the damned. »