Published
Updated
Video length: 2 min
Death of little Émile in Le Vernet: the testimony of the hiker who found his body
An expert report must be delivered in the coming days, following the discovery, at the end of March, of little Émile’s skull. Meet the woman who found his bones while hiking.
(FRANCE 2)
Other bones and clothing were found in the following days, in early April. After genetic analyses, a report was submitted to the courts.
It is on a path located on the heights of the commune of Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) on which Sadia hikes regularly. She agreed to return there, Friday September 27, to tell about the discovery she made there on March 30: a “little ball“, A “skull, all white”on the way, “centered, right in the middle.” “I said to myself: ‘Oh, it’s little Émile'”she remembers. This is the first bone found after the disappearance of this two and a half year old child on July 8, 2023.
The 62-year-old hiker explains that she then decides “to take a small bag” to wrap the skull, taking care not to put his fingerprints on it. She slips it into her backpack and brings it back with her to the police station. The piece of skull was found more than a kilometer and a half from the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, where the child was last seen alive.
After Émile was identified, the gendarmerie carried out further research. In the following days, new bones and clothing were found.
Since then, genetic analyzes have been carried out. They are now finished. A report was submitted to the investigating judge at the Aix-en-Provence criminal center (Bouches-du-Rhône), but has not yet been made public. More than a year after the child’s disappearance, the mystery of his death remains unsolved.
Watch the full report in the video above.