If the flagrance investigation ended “automatically” on Monday, the investigators of the Marseille research section are continuing their hearings.
He remains untraceable. Nine days after the disappearance of little Emile from the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, in the Alpes-Maritimes, a preliminary investigation was opened to find the causes of the disappearance. New hearings took place this weekend and the search for evidence continues on the spot.
The two-and-a-half-year-old boy disappeared while he was with his grandparents and other members of his family in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. We know that he was last seen in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet that day, but since then, despite the means mobilized, still no lead has been favored by the investigators.
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However, investigations and legal proceedings are continuing. The investigation for flagrance, opened on July 9, for “search for the causes of a worrying disappearance” ends “automatically” on Monday July 17 and becomes a preliminary investigation, always for the same reason. And in fact, the opening of a preliminary investigation is done “automatically“, explains to franceinfo the prosecutor of Digne-les-Bains, 8 days after the opening of a flagrance investigation. While no lead is favored at this stage, the prosecutor has made the choice, for the moment , not to open a judicial investigation: it would then have been entrusted to an examining magistrate.
Continuation of the procedure
According to Article 53 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the flagrance investigation can only last a maximum of eight days. It is opened in very specific cases, when a crime or misdemeanor is being committed, and is opened by decision of the public prosecutor. He must then justify the notion of urgency in a case. On July 9, Rémy Avon, prosecutor of Digne-les-Bains, announced the opening of a flagrance investigation barely 24 hours after the disappearance of Émile, activating then “research operations which [étaient] vital priority for this child”.
This procedure then makes it possible to provide a rapid criminal response and provides investigators with technical means. Under certain conditions, a flagrance investigation can be renewed for eight additional days. For this, the prosecutor must justify that certain acts could not be carried out during the first phase of the investigation.
Investigators now have fewer powers
In the case of the research into the disappearance of Émile, the prosecutor officially declared the end of the research on July 12, considering that it was time to move on to a time “long” of the investigation. From now on, the investigators of the research section of Marseilles and the agents of the Institute of criminal research of the national gendarmerie (IRCGN), dedicate their time to the analysis “the considerable mass of information and elements collected”had specified Rémy Avon.
Also according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, “After a period of eight days, these investigations can continue in the forms of the preliminary investigation”. This investigation regime, which can last up to two years, nevertheless reduces the powers of the investigators. For example, the search conditions under the preliminary inquiry regime are stricter than during the flagrance investigation. They must take place with the consent of the people in whom the operation takes place.
In Vernet, all the houses in the hamlet of Émile’s grandparents have already been searched last week, without this providing investigators with new clues, acknowledged the prosecutor.
The search continues to try to find clues
But the prosecutor of Digne-les-Bains had another possibility and could, according to the procedure, directly open a judicial investigation, which would have been entrusted to an investigating judge. It then makes it possible to give investigators the means to prove the existence of an offence. Except that at this stage, in view of the few clues obtained during the research and the first analyzes, nothing makes it possible to say whether it is an accident, a kidnapping or even a homicide.
However, the investigators continue their work and do not lose sight of their objective: to collect clues, evidence of what may have happened this Saturday afternoon, July 8, when Émile left the home of his grandparents. . The hearings still continued, as well as the analyzes of all the data, in particular telephone data, which are considerable. Investigators can also rely on the more than 1,200 calls received via the emergency number set up when the call for witnesses on the disappearance of Émile was published eight days ago.