Emile's disappearance came to a tragic end on Saturday, March 30, when a hiker discovered human bones that were quickly identified by police as those of the 2-year-old boy. But what happened to the toddler and the cause of his death remain a mystery.

Emile had just arrived in the small village of Haut-Vernet in southern France for a family holiday with his grandparents, when he disappeared on July 8, 2023. The child had been playing in the garden of the family home, in the middle of this tiny cluster of around 20 homes, when he apparently escaped the vigilance of his relatives, who immediately contacted the authorities. Gendarmes and firemen were quickly mobilized and an initial judicial inquiry was opened in the nearest city of Digne-les-Bains.

Calls for witnesses and initial searches, carried out from the evening of July 8 within a 5 km radius of Haut-Vernet, proved fruitless, despite the very considerable resources deployed: drones, helicopters equipped with thermal imaging cameras, dog teams and so on. Some 40 gendarmes were also put to work, carrying out checks in the few houses in the village and interviewing witnesses. Only one lead emerged: Two local residents claimed to have seen the little boy walking down a street in the village at around 5 pm.

Record resources

Numerous volunteers were mobilized to carry out new searches the following day, in an wider perimeter. But "no clue, no information, no element" emerged from these initial investigations, said Rémy Avon, prosecutor in Digne-les-Bains. After 48 hours of fruitless searching, an abduction alert was triggered and an investigation was opened by the Marseille Gendarmerie's research section.

The prosecutor's office did not rule out any hypothesis and continued to interview witnesses, but "for the moment, there is no evidence of a criminal offense likely to be behind this disappearance," said Avon. Change of strategy: The volunteers were sent home and the village was secured by the gendarmes, who carried out a complete search of the 30 buildings in Haut-Vernet and all vehicles.

Meanwhile, in mid-summer with scant news stories, the case took on a national dimension and speculation was rife. Over 1,200 people responded to the call for witnesses launched by the prosecutor's office. On July 12, prosecutor Avon reported unsuccessful leads, such as a trace of blood on a vehicle, eventually identified as that of an animal and denounced the role of the media which was putting "very heavy pressure" on the village and its inhabitants. While not ruling it out, the prosecutor's office considered it very unlikely that Emile could have disappeared on his own, and if so, his life would be in danger after 72 hours alone in the wilderness.

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