new searches carried out by around fifty gendarmes

A new series of searches has been carried out since Tuesday, November 7 in the morning by around fifty gendarmes, almost four months after the disappearance of little Émile in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), we learned this Tuesday franceinfo with the gendarmes, confirming information from the newspaper The Parisienot.

These searches, according to our information, are carried out in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence by the gendarmes of the Marseille research section and by the department’s gendarmerie group. They are also carried out in other departments. Tuesday at 1 p.m., several homes had been searched and others were still to be searched in the afternoon.

According to a source close to the case, investigators now know who was present at Le Vernet on the day of little Émile’s disappearance. “We are trying to take an interest in all these people, that’s why there are searches in other departments, to target people who were present but who do not live in Vernet”specifies this source.

Missing since early July

These searches are carried out in connection with the investigative work on the digital media of people who were present at the time of the disappearance, this source also adds. In mid-October, a search had already been carried out by the gendarmes in the home of a resident of Haut-Vernet.

Émile, two and a half years old, disappeared on July 8 in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) while he was on vacation with his grandparents. He had escaped their surveillance. A flagrant investigation was opened on July 9 to “search for the causes of the worrying disappearance”. At the end of August, she was then transferred to a preliminary investigation for “abduction, arrest, arbitrary detention and sequestration”.