For over a year and a half, the toddler's face has regularly returned to haunt the news. What happened to Emile Soleil, aged two and a half when he disappeared in the summer of 2023? An initial hypothesis was ruled out by investigators on Thursday, March 27: The child did not get stray on his own to the place where his bones were found nine months later.

At a press conference, Aix-en-Provence prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon delivered the initial conclusions of the lengthy expert assessments carried out since the start of the investigation, now insisting on the probable "intervention of a third party," supported by two key elements: the child's bones and clothing found at the end of March 2024 were "transported and deposited shortly before their discovery" and his skull bore "scars suggestive of violent facial trauma."

In a sudden twist in an investigation that had seemed to be stalling for months, the little boy's maternal grandparents, an uncle and an aunt were taken into custody at dawn on Tuesday by investigators from the Marseille Gendarmerie, who questioned them at length on suspicion of "voluntary manslaughter" and "concealing a corpse." Almost 48 hours later, all four were released "without charge," said the prosecutor.

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