- Melanie Batty left the rented house in a “night dash” after her son left for the UK
- The 17-year-old's belongings were left behind in the French hideout
- Alex's mother said she traveled to the UK with a close Italian friend
The mother of kidnapped teenager Alex Batty fled her remote hideout in France just hours after discovering the teenager was returning to the UK.
Melanie Batty reportedly left the rented house in a “night dash” with her belongings after her son resurfaced in Europe after six years on the run.
But suitcases full of the 17-year-old's clothes, PlayStation games, a laptop, books, games, health food and milk were all left behind in the £480-a-month four-bed house in the hamlet of Villefort, near Chalabre in the Aude.
According to the Sun, Alex's mother is said to be traveling with a close Italian friend, Fabrizio, and only communicates with people via email.
Before she left, the 43-year-old wrote in an email to her landlord: “I'm so sorry, but we had to leave in the middle of the night.” I'm assuming you've seen the messages by now. “I left the keys at the bar.”
Melanie Batty left the rented house late at night with her belongings after her son resurfaced in Europe after six years on the run. Alex returned to this country on Saturday December 16th, having turned his back on the family's hippie lifestyle and determined to return. Alex was 11 years old when he left the UK in 2017 to join his mother and grandfather David, 64, to supposedly spend a week's holiday in Spain.
Last Wednesday she sent another email saying, “One day I will come back.”
Alex was 11 years old when he left the UK in 2017 for a week-long holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather David, 64.
He returned to this country on Saturday, December 16, having given up the family's hippie lifestyle and decided to receive a proper education.
READ MORE: 'Terrified' Alex Batty, 17, remains under special legal protection as he builds a new life in the UK six years after disappearing on holiday in Spain
Alex is now back in Oldham, reunited with his grandmother and guardian Susan Caruana, 68.
He was represented by lawyers at a family court hearing at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice today.
She is said to have taken him to live in a traveling “spiritual community” and a police investigation into the circumstances of his disappearance is ongoing, the court heard.
A neighbor in France said Melanie was last seen on Tuesday getting into a white car owned by Fabrizio.
One of her friends said Melanie contacted her to say she was “tired of running” but “felt like she had no other choice.”
The pal said: “She believes she has some sort of mission from God and she says she has given her life over to a higher spirit.”
Gite de la Bastide in the part of the Pyrenees where teenager Alex Batty lived. The Garden of Eden. Spiritual community where Melanie Batty lived in France
Landlord Tony Smith, 81, knew her as Rose, while David called himself Peter and Alex was Zack.
He said: “When Alex made a runner I think she thought the game was over and it was time to go.”
“She started making plans when she paid me rent two days before she left, packed up and cleaned up the whole house, and put all the belongings she had left behind in the attic.”
“She took her cat with her. She loved that cat, Sky.'
The Oldham man first met Melanie last summer at a bar called Café de Sports in the small mountain town of Chalabre, before moving into the converted cowshed on December 5.
Tony believes she will come back as she is very popular in the area.
Melanie said Tony needed a place to stay after receiving “marching orders” from the community she was attending in early November.
Soon after, she brought Alex and David to Tony, hoping he would give them a job renovating another one of his houses.
He remembers Alex asking him how he could get an education at such a late age, to which the landlord suggested he join the army.
He also revealed that Melanie has turned off her phone and is using email to talk to friends. He believes she is currently in Spain.
Greater Manchester Police are treating his case as a kidnapping.