Captured by the harvester? What could have happened to the missing Émile
By Sarah Platz 7/18/2023, 7:18 PM
France fears for Emilio. Ten days ago, the two-year-old boy disappeared while on vacation with his grandparents in the south of France. A large search operation remains unsuccessful. Was the boy kidnapped? It was an accident? Researchers have different theories.
There are still no traces of little Émile. It’s been ten days since the two-and-a-half-year-old boy disappeared from his grandparents’ garden in Le Vernet, France. Police, volunteers and even the army searched the small mountain village for six days. They scoured the small town’s buildings, inspected vehicles and interviewed more than two dozen people. In addition to sniffer dogs, helicopters and thermographic drones were used. But all this did not lead to the goal – last Thursday the search operation was unsuccessful.
However, this is not the end of the missing person case involving the boy. Instead of on-the-spot searches, the focus is now on analyzing leads, according to French television broadcaster BFMTV, from the public prosecutor responsible in Digne-les-Bains. Earlier this week, an investigation was officially launched, as reported by the newspaper “Le Figaro”. This formality was necessary because, according to French law, police measures cannot be continued after eight days without an official procedure.
Prosecutor Rémy Avon made it clear to BFMTV that searches basically go in all directions. “No thesis is preferred, no thesis is excluded,” he stated. Because “perhaps we have unknowingly collected a crucial clue”. It is about researching “the causes of the worrying disappearance”.
animal attack
For this, the investigators reconstructed the day of the disappearance, July 8, as far as possible. What is certain is that Émile spent holidays with his grandparents in Alpe-de-Haute-Provence, France. In the afternoon, he was with them and many other relatives when he was briefly out of sight, according to the newspaper “Le Figaro”. Shortly afterwards, around 5:15 pm, two neighbors saw the boy alone in an alley. They did not raise the alarm because, according to local media, it is not uncommon for children to wander the village alone. But what happened to Émile after this latest sighting?
Suspicion quickly arose that an animal might have had something to do with his disappearance. An attack by a bird of prey is conceivable, BFMTV reported last Friday, citing the public prosecutor. In fact, some vultures live in the region. Although animals rarely approach humans, young children are much more vulnerable to attack than adults. In the meantime, however, the authorities managed to rule this out.
They consider it equally unlikely that Émile was attacked by a wolf. This possible cause of disappearance was mainly discussed by residents of the village of 125 people. However, attacks by wolves on humans are extremely rare. Above all, the searches found no trace of the missing boy in the village, in the surrounding fields or in the forest.
Accident
Apparently, the accident theories are more appropriate. So Émile may have had an accident in the mountains. François Balique, the city’s mayor, told French radio “franceinfo” that it is possible the boy got lost in the mountainous area at an altitude of 1,200 meters. It is also possible that the boy was in hiding. According to the “Chron”, he was fascinated by butterflies and often chased them. A local helper told the British newspaper that he could imagine Émile leaving the house to do this, then getting tired and falling asleep in a hiding place.
To lure the two-year-old boy out of his possible hiding place, the police also searched the place with loudspeakers, from which Émile’s mother’s voice could be heard. However, this measure was also unsuccessful. If the small child really stayed hidden, the high temperatures of up to 35 degrees last week and the long time without water could have been his undoing.
Another concern has recently emerged. The two-year-old may have been hit by a farm machine, perhaps a combine harvester. Farmers in the region expressed this assumption to BFMTV. They believe that Émile was not found until autumn, when farmers feed their animals hay that has already been harvested. “Sometimes we see deer,” a resident of Le Vernet told the station. Likewise, the resident said the child may have been caught in a machine while running through tall grass. “That would be awful.” According to the broadcaster, investigators are now using a highly sensitive metal detector to search for fields and bales of hay for the boy. Even that was not successful.
crime
Finally, the theory of a crime remains. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, kidnapping or involvement of the family itself is not ruled out. According to the Chron, French investigators confirmed that Émile’s parents’ home in La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, had been searched. However, no other indications in this regard or in relation to a kidnapping are public knowledge. In an interview with “Figaro”, Mayor Balique ruled out that Émile’s family could have anything to do with the disappearance of the two-year-old boy. He also considers a kidnapping very unlikely. On the one hand because it is very quiet in Vernet, on the other hand because strangers in the small community would immediately draw attention.
Balique therefore has a different hunch. “The best I can imagine is a traffic accident,” he told the paper. The driver may have put the boy in his car in a panic and drove off. The police also investigated this theory, according to the “Chron”. The fact that the tracking dogs used were unable to track the boy fits this theory. “If he was dead in the area, the dogs would have smelled him,” a police spokesman told Le Point newspaper.
There is no evidence, at least publicly, as to which of the theories seems more likely. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has not yet commented on the matter. The fate of little Émile remains completely uncertain, even ten days after his disappearance.