As the search resumes this Tuesday, July 11, to find Émile, two and a half years old, missing since Saturday afternoon, the prefect and the prosecutor recalled that the emergency number is reserved for testimonies that can bring elements to the investigation.
The new search system has been in place since Tuesday morning, at Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, to find Émile. The two-and-a-half-year-old boy has not been found for more than 60 hours, having been seen for the last time on Saturday afternoon at his grandparents’ house in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet.
>> LIVE: follow the latest information on searches to find Emile
During a press conference on Monday, July 10, the prefect of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the public prosecutor of Dignes-les-Bains detailed the new research system “more targeted and selective“. So the beatings of volunteers are over, for example: the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, place of Émile’s disappearance, has been “actualized” and closed to the public. 80 gendarmes from the departmental brigades or the high-mountain platoon ( PGHM), as well as a dozen soldiers specializing in brush clearing are now on site to redirect the search,
More than 500 calls received since Émile’s disappearance
The authorities have also specified elements for the general public. If, in order to help the investigators in their research, a call for witnesses was launched on Sunday afternoon, showing a photo of the little boy with blond hair, an emergency number is also relayed. The 04.92.36.73.00 is dedicated to people with information on this disappearance. And only for that.
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“Anyone who has useful information can call the number“, but the prosecutor nevertheless called not to “to interfere with useful calls”. The prosecutor and the prefect have indeed deplored that of the more than 500 calls received in two days, the vast majority are proposals from volunteers to help with research or ask for news of the child. They recalled that the investigators rely on this number to collect valuable testimonies, clues or information that could advance the investigation or guide the investigators.
The call number obviously remains active for all people who have useful information.
No new items
On Sunday, an investigation for “search for causes of worrying disappearance” was opened and entrusted to the research section of the Marseille gendarmerie, supported by the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Digne-les-Bains.
For the public prosecutor of Dignes-les-Bains, “all hypotheses remain valid, none is privileged and none is excluded”. Rémy Avon added that there was noyou don’t “new elements likely to explain the disappearance of little Emile” despite “numerous witness hearings”.
However, the research continues and the investigation is now taking a judicial turn. Witness hearings will continue and investigators will also continue to analyze telephone records. There are also two houses left “abandoned“to be searched. Helicopters and dog teams will be mobilized, if necessary.