The hiker who found the remains of French boy Émile Soleil reportedly collected the two-year-old’s skull and handed it over to local military police.
Hikers found Émile’s bones on Saturday in the idyllic Alpine village of Le Vernet, where he disappeared last July.
A source close to the investigation told MailOnline that only part of the body was found, with some bones and the skull recovered.
Prosecutors have not yet given a cause of death, but said forensic investigators were continuing to analyze the skull and bones found.
However, sources close to the investigation have claimed that police fear the hiker may have removed key evidence when she moved the remains, and one source told The Figaro newspaper ‘it would have been better if I hadn’t touched anything’.
The area has reportedly been cordoned off and police are carrying out forensic studies at the location where Émile’s remains were found. Tests will also be carried out to try to determine how long his body remained in that part of the ground.
The hiker who found the remains of French boy Émile Soleil (pictured) reportedly collected the two-year-old’s skull and handed it over to local military police.
A French gendarme stands on the road to the small village of Le Haut-Vernet, in the southern French Alps, in Le Vernet on April 1, 2024, after a hiker found the “bones” of Émile Soleil, a little boy who went missing last summer.
Hikers found Émile’s bones on Saturday in the idyllic Alpine village of Le Vernet, where he disappeared last July.
Detectives launched a frantic search in Le Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, on July 8, after Émile’s unexplained disappearance.
There had been no trace of the boy since he disappeared eight months ago, and investigators refused to rule out any theories about the tragedy, including kidnapping and murder.
Émile was officially under the care of a local physiotherapist on the day of his disappearance, while his parents were taking a break.
Some of the boy’s bones were discovered by a hiker Saturday in an area of the small French village, just two days after police returned to the crime scene to recreate what happened.
The mayor of Le Vernet, François Balique, told Le Figaro newspaper that the remains were located “on a path between the church and the chapel” of the town, an area he said had been previously “having been thoroughly searched by the gendarmes” with a “tooth comb”.
He said it was “absolutely incomprehensible” that Émile had gotten into trouble alone.
‘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,” Balique said.
This adds an extremely disturbing element to the progress of the investigation, one source said, suggesting that the remains had been deposited there some time after Émile’s disappearance.
The road towards Haut-Vernet is blocked by a gendarmerie checkpoint in the village of Le Vernet, France, pictured on Sunday.
The Alpine village of Le Haut-Vernet in France photographed on Sunday, after French investigators found the remains of the boy who disappeared last summer.
Police closed the town on March 27 to everyone except investigators and residents.
The entrance to the village of Le Vernet, in the southern French Alps, near where Émile disappeared
“It is unlikely that the animals brought human remains to the town where someone disappeared,” the source said. “This leads to the theory that one person brought Émile’s remains, and possibly very recently.”
National gendarmerie spokesperson Marie-Laure Pezant said that anthropologists who are also “specialists in soil analysis” are studying the site where the partial remains were found.
“We have experts from the gendarmerie criminal investigation institute who traveled to Haut-Vernet to be able to analyze the discovery area,” he said today during a press conference, as reported. Radio France. “This investigation will begin with them today.”
He said anthropologists hope to “identify whether these bones were in place or whether they could have been brought by different means: a human person, an animal that would have transported them, or the climatic conditions that would have modified the soil and what would have brought them.” so far.’
Pezant acknowledged that there is “a small possibility” that investigators may not have found the body when they conducted their previous searches.
He added: “We had committed a lot of resources, but given the configuration of the site with abundant vegetation in July, it could have complicated the investigation and, perhaps, we could have overlooked it.” It is a hypothesis that exists. Furthermore, there is also the possibility that these bones were later returned to the area.’
There was no trace of Émile since his disappearance eight months ago
Saturday’s macabre discovery was described today as a key development in a criminal investigation that has baffled detectives.
Volunteers participate in a search operation for Emile on July 10, 2023
French gendarmes participate in search operation for two-year-old Emile in July 2023
Volunteers participate in the search operation for Emile on July 10, 2023
Two gendarmes meticulously search the surroundings of a house on July 13, 2023
Lead prosecutor Rémy Avon, who is leading the judicial investigation into Émile’s disappearance, said all possibilities that Émile had been murdered, kidnapped or involved in an accident were being examined.
He confirmed that Émile’s parents’ home, in the southern town of La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, was searched in July, while grandparents’ homes nearby and in the Alps were also raided.
A witness claimed to have seen physiotherapist Vedovini, who was caring for the boy at the time, chopping firewood outside his house at the time Émile is believed to have left.
Vedovini is a devout Catholic who abandoned his vocation as a monk to marry his wife, Anne Vedovini.
They raised 10 children, including Émile’s mother, who is now known by her married name, Marie Soleil, after marrying Émile’s father, 26-year-old Colomban Soleil.
Police have also examined the family’s far-right political background. Émile’s father, Colomban Soleil, 26, was arrested for “attacking foreigners” in 2018.
Émile’s family had asked people to pray to Benoîte Rencurel, a French pastor who was said to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary between 1664 and 1718.
Meanwhile, the residents of Vernet referred to the place as a “town of the damned” due to its connection to the disaster.
This was a call for witnesses after the disappearance of the little boy
The gendarmes meticulously searched the outskirts of the town of Vernet last July.
The restrictions remain in place while police gather more information about the remains found Saturday. Officers are seen stationed on the Le Haut-Vernet road on Sunday.
In March 2015, Vernet was also cordoned off after a terrible plane crash in which 150 people died, including two babies.
The Germanwings Airbus A320 was deliberately shot down by co-pilot Andrés Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies.
Many inhabitants of Vernet then participated in the search for possible survivors in the high mountains. They also opened their homes to family and friends of those who died in the disaster.
Vernet residents were also shocked by the murder of the manager of a local cafe in the village 15 years ago. Jeannette Grosos, manager of Café du Moulin, was brutally murdered by a customer in 2008.