The British teen found alive in France six years after he was abducted messaged his grandmother that he wants “to come home,” new reports said.
Alex Batty, now 17, was found in southern France on Wednesday, and his identity was officially confirmed by family members on Thursday, the BBC reported.
The teen was reportedly picked up on the side of the road by a passing delivery driver, Fabien Accidini, who allowed him to use his Facebook account to message his grandmother.
“Hello Grandma, it’s me Alex. I’m in France Toulouse. I really hope that you receive this message. I love you, I want to come home,” Batty’s message allegedly read.
Susan Caruana, Batty’s grandmother, was his legal guardian when he first vanished in 2011.
She is too frail to travel to France, but has reunited with her grandson over video call, the BBC explained.
“I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,” Caruana said in a statement through the Greater Manchester Police.
“I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t wait to see him when we’re reunited,” she added.
“I said to myself, ‘That’s strange. It’s 3 am in the morning, it’s raining, he’s all by himself on the road between two villages,” Accidini said of the moment he noticed Batty standing by the side of the road.
The teen had nothing but a rucksack, a skateboard, and a flashlight – and said he had been walking for four days, Accidini recalled.
Batty told Accidini that he had been living in a nomadic community with his mother and that he left to start his own life, the driver said.
“I typed his name into the internet and saw that he was being looked for,” Accidini told the BBC.
Batty’s original plan was to get to a big city and find an embassy to ask for help, he added.
Batty was only 11 years old when his mother, Melanie Batty, and his maternal grandfather, David Batty – neither of whom had custody of him – took him to Spain for a pre-agreed holiday on Sept. 30, 2017.
The trio was last seen at the Port of Malaga on Oct. 8 – but never returned to the UK.
Caruana, who had legal guardianship of him, later told the press that she believed Melanie and David took the child because they had a “different belief system.”
David Batty is believed to have died about six months ago, French prosecutor Antoine Leroy said at a news conference Thursday.
Melanie Batty, however, may have already left France for Finland, Leroy added.
Melanie and David brought Batty into a nomadic life where they traveled often with solar panels, the prosecutor continued.
The trio lived in Morocco before arriving in France, and Batty appeared to have left his mother because he did not want to follow her to Finland, Leroy said.
Batty is now at a young person’s center in Toulouse and may return to the UK with police and other officials, the BBC reported.
“Alex and his family remain our focus – and we still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been,” Assistant Chief Constable Sykes of the Greater Manchester Police said.
“I can only imagine the emotions they have experienced throughout this ordeal. I would ask that they be granted privacy as they come to terms with what has happened and as they try to find a way to move forwards with their lives together.”
With Post wires