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Disappearance of little Émile: a family shrouded in mystery
A hiker discovered the bones of little Émile, who disappeared in July 2023, near the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, Saturday March 30. The family wishes to remain discreet, but the grandfather’s profile has been intriguing since the start of the affair.
(Franceinfo)
A hiker discovered the bones of little Émile, who disappeared in July 2023, near the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, Saturday March 30. The family wishes to remain discreet, but the grandfather’s profile has been intriguing since the start of the affair.
150 inhabitants live in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). Little Émile’s grandfather owns a vacation home there. The family is known to be very pious. In a photo taken last week in the streets of the village, we see the silhouette of the grandfather for the first time. His daughter, Marie, eldest of ten children, and his son-in-law, Colomban, are at his side. At the announcement of death of the little boy, the young couple spoke about their faith, Sunday March 31, through the family lawyer.
The grandfather, never implicated
Mary and her siblings were all educated at home. Since Émile’s disappearance, the family has refused any contact with the media. Only a journalist from Famille Chrétienne magazine, Samuel Pruvot, spoke with them. “Some people insinuated that they were fascists, people of the extreme right, and so they wanted to say: ‘This is who we are. It’s true that we have a traditional profile, we like the Latin mass, but we are Catholics“, he relates. Since last summer, the grandfather’s past has also been mentioned even if the latter has never been implicated.
His name appears in two ongoing investigations. First as a victim, in a case of arson which destroyed his previous vacation home, in 2019. Then, as an assisted witness, for five years, in an investigation into violence against children placed in a institution of Pas-de-Calais. Her daughter has always said she trusts her.
