The grandfather of a little boy who disappeared without a trace from a sleepy French village eight months ago has been investigated as part of an active criminal investigation into child abuse, a we learned today.
Two-year-old Émile Soleil was staying in the isolated Alpine home of Philippe Vedovini, 58, when the child went missing in July last year.
In a mysterious case which has drawn comparisons to the hit BBC series The Missing, starring James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor, in which a young boy disappears while on holiday with his family in France, he n There has been no trace of him since.
Investigators refuse to rule out any hypothesis about the tragedy, including kidnapping and murder.
Émile was officially in Mr. Vedovini’s care the day he disappeared, while his parents were taking a break.
A witness saw Mr. Vedovini, a physiotherapist-osteopath, cutting wood in front of his house when Émile allegedly walked away from the property in Haut-Vernet, a hamlet south of Grenoble.
Two-year-old Émile Soleil (photo) was staying in the isolated Alpine home of Philippe Vedovini, 58, when he disappeared
Investigators refuse to rule out any hypothesis about the tragedy, including kidnapping and murder.
The gendarmes carefully search the surroundings of the village of Vernet
On Wednesday, several French media outlets, including Le Parisien and the highly respected investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchainé, reported worrying new information about Mr. Vedovini.
“It is especially his past that raises questions,” writes Le Parisien, which details a sexual abuse scandal in a Roman Catholic school in the 1990s.
She also confirmed that Mr Vedovini – who denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any offense following the child abuse investigation – “came to the attention of the police and is one of their numerous avenues of inquiry.”
Mr. Vedovini was training to be a monk while working at Riaumont, a Catholic community that includes a boarding school for troubled youths in northern France.
Located in Liévin, in Pas-de-Calais, it was run by Benedictine monks who received multiple complaints from former students between 2014 and 2017.
They said they suffered sexual abuse, including rape, in the early 1990s, as well as regular beatings.
Mr. Vedovini, known as Brother Philippe when he worked at the school between 1991 and 1994, was implicated in the investigation as an “assisted witness”.
Questioned by police in April 2018, he admitted to inflicting “somewhat harsh” physical discipline, but said he had never broken the law, according to a source close to the investigation.
Volunteers take part in a search operation for Emile on July 10
French gendarmes take part in the search for two-year-old Emile
Eleven former colleagues – seven religious and four lay people – ended up being indicted on various charges.
The Béthune public prosecutor confirmed on Wednesday that the criminal investigation was “still ongoing” and “should be concluded soon”.
There was no immediate comment on the revelations from Mr Vedovini, nor from his lawyers, all of whom have been approached.
Mr. Vedovini renounced his vocation as a monk to marry his wife, Anne Vedovini.
Both remain devout Roman Catholics and raised 10 children, including Émile’s mother, now known by her married name of Marie Soleil.
The family has not commented on the details of Émile’s disappearance, but in an interview with Christian Family magazine last month, Mr. Vedovini said: “Obviously, I look like I’m a dominator who terrorizes everyone… This is all false, but I don’t care.
“The media hurts us, but the people around us are truly amazing.”
The family’s far-right political background was also investigated by the police.
Émile’s father, Colomban Soleil, 26, was arrested for “attack against foreigners” in 2018.
Volunteers take part in the search operation for Emile on July 10
Last week, detectives again raided Emile’s grandparents’ holiday home in Vernet, and simultaneous searches also took place in other parts of France, some linked to the young boy’s extended family.
He appeared before the judges in Aix-en-Provence and was released after committing to maintaining public order.
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 last year.
Their electoral slogans at the time identified them as “friends of Éric Zemmour” wishing to “clean up the system”.
A rural search for Émile was carried out after the little boy’s disappearance, but it turned up nothing.
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 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.
Émile’s family called on people to pray to Benoîte Rencurel, a French shepherd who is said to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary from 1664 to 1718.
Police released a photo and description of Emile, who is nearly one meter tall, with brown eyes and blonde hair.
Two gendarmes carefully search the area around a house in search of the missing young boy
The inhabitants of Vernet now call the place the cursed “village of the damned” because of its links to the disaster.
He was wearing a yellow top, white shorts with a green pattern and hiking shoes at the time of his disappearance.
The inhabitants of Vernet now call the place 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.
Many inhabitants of Vernet then participated in the search in the high mountains for possible survivors.
They also opened their homes to the families and friends of those who perished in the disaster.
The residents of Vernet were also shaken by the murder of a village café manager 15 years ago.
Jeannette Grosos, who managed Café du Moulin, was brutally killed by a customer in 2008.
Mayor François Balique declared: “It was a real tragedy for the whole village, from which it had difficulty recovering.”
A Vernat resident said Wednesday: “Everyone says it, Vernet feels like a village of the damned.”