French police continue to search for clues after the remains of missing toddler Emile were found near Haut-Vernet on Saturday. In the mountain village of Le Vernet in the south of the country, about a hundred gendarmes were on the scene on Monday, as well as dog brigades, forensic experts and anthropologists.
On Sunday, the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor’s office reported that remains had been recovered and that DNA tests showed that they were the bones of missing 2-year-old Emile. According to local media, the boy’s skull has also been found.
Emile was last seen on July 8 last year, by two neighbors with conflicting stories. He had just arrived for the summer holidays at his grandparents’ holiday home in Haut-Vernet, a hamlet of 25 inhabitants located at an altitude of 1,200 meters. All houses in the hamlet and other places elsewhere that could be linked to the case were searched during the course of the investigation. The search was called off several days later because a young child was unlikely to survive the summer heat.
Police returned to Le Vernet this week. The village was cordoned off on Thursday and seventeen people, including family and neighbors, were called in to chart Emile’s last moments before his disappearance. Neighbors last saw the boy when he was walking alone on the street in Le Vernet. The police have searched for Emile at that location several times.
Possibly moved
The wooded area where a hiker discovered the bones on Saturday had already been combed several times. It is possible that the boy’s remains ended up at the site later, perhaps by heavy rainfall, predators or a person.
If Emile’s body has been moved, we will see, assures forensic doctor Bruno Frémon Le Parisien. “If the body has been there for nine months, the skeleton has become stuck in the earth and left traces. If it has been moved, then it has not, which indicates the intervention of a third party.”
According to Frémon, it is no longer possible to determine when exactly the boy died. “Normally we examine the skin, the eyes, the flexibility of the body… The totality of such details allows us to determine the approximate time of death. But the more days pass, the more difficult it is to make the assessment. In Emile’s case, nine months have passed and only bones remain,” it said.
