It was a person who was walking in the area who spotted the bones. Nine months after the disappearance of little Emile in Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), bones belonging to the little boy were discovered on Saturday near this hamlet, the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday March 31. Genetic identification analyzes made it possible to conclude “that these were the bones of the child Emile Soleil”, wrote the prosecutor in a press release. The gendarmerie will undertake “additional research” in the area where the remains of the boy’s body were discovered, including dogs and drones, the gendarmerie told franceinfo. Follow our live stream.
No link with the reconstruction carried out on Thursday. The discovery did not take place during the simulation organized two days earlier, a source close to the matter told franceinfo. Thursday, 17 members of the child’s family, as well as neighbors and witnesses, were gathered in Haut-Vernet to retrace the day of the disappearance.
Additional analyses. The Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie will, for its part, continue its analyzes of the bones to try to clarify the circumstances of the child’s death.
A long investigation. The investigation, first opened in Digne-les-Bains for “disturbing disappearance”, was quickly entrusted to two investigating judges from Aix-en-Provence, then reclassified as criminal grounds for “kidnapping” and “sequestration “, mid August. No lead had been put aside, even if the theory of a fatal fall had seemed to fade following the multiple hunts organized in the surroundings of the hamlet, located at an altitude of 1,200 meters.