Emile’s skull, teeth and now clothes were discovered in recent days in Vernet. The Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor still does not rule out any leads.
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Despite progress in the investigation near Haut-Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the mystery remains as to the causes of little Émile’s death. The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor announced on Tuesday April 2 that the little boy’s clothes were found by the gendarmes during searches in the area where a walker discovered his skull on Saturday. The search continues but uncertainty still reigns in the village.
It was a 25-minute walk from his grandparents’ house, on a forest path that had already been raked, that Émile’s skull was found. Then his clothes, 150 meters below, near a stream. Between the fall, manslaughter or murder, no theory can be favored, insisted the Aix en Provence prosecutor on Tuesday. In the village, for the 130 inhabitants of Vernet, doubt persists. Magali and Jean-Jacques own a house there, with their three children. “We imagine that the body must have slipped with the heavy rain. There was snow, it’s steep so we are left with all the hypotheses”asks Jean-Jacques.
“As long as the criminal trail has not been ruled out…”
“Certain elements of the prosecutor’s speech point towards the accidental thesis, others towards the criminal thesis, continues Magali. So ultimately, it adds stress as long as the criminal trail has not been ruled out. We are much less serene about the idea of letting our children play freely outside. Knowing that in our villages there is no fence, children come and go, go from one field to another.” Jean-Jacques confirms: “There is no longer the same carefreeness that there could have been before. It’s heavy”
The search near Haut-Vernet will continue as long as necessary, specify the investigators, while the bones and clothes of Émile which were found are the subject of in-depth analyzes by experts from the gendarmerie. “Our greatest fear is never having answers.”slips a resident of Vernet.