French police say two-year-old Émile may be dead and his killer may have taken his body after accidentally hitting him ‘with a car or tractor’ – a chilling echo of BBC drama ‘The Missing’.
The search resumed today in hopes of finding the boy alive. A helicopter flew to spread the voice of Émile’s distraught mother across the region in an attempt to find her missing son “who was always chasing butterflies”.
The hamlet of Haut-Vernet has now been barricaded to non-residents after extensive searches to locate the boy who disappeared on Saturday while on holiday with his grandparents were unsuccessful.
Now, after days of thorough searches – which involved 800 gendarmes, firefighters, volunteers, helicopters, thermal imaging drones and sniffer dogs – police have admitted they have to consider other options.
“Either the body was hidden after an accident or removed,” said a gendarmerie spokesman, adding that sniffer dogs had since found a body in the area.
The horrific development is chillingly reminiscent of the BBC series The Missing, in which a young boy disappears on holiday with his family in France, only to be killed in a hit-and-run accident while chasing a fox.
Émile was playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house in the hamlet of Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday afternoon when he disappeared
Volunteers take part in a search for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile, who has been reported missing
French gendarmes take part in a search for two-and-a-half-year-old Émile, who has been reported missing
“It is obvious that after 48 hours we have switched to another dimension.” “The hearings are ongoing,” said the gendarmerie spokesman, referring to the questioning of residents and potential witnesses.
According to La Provence, officers are investigating whether Émile may have been hit by a car or tractor and his body taken away.
“Of course we still have hope of finding him alive, but elsewhere.” “If he had been dead in the area, the dogs would have smelled him,” reported Le Point, the spokesman.
“If he was alive and hidden, we would have found him with the resources we used.”
On Tuesday morning, flight trackers received a recording of the mother’s voice, which they were told to play “as loud as possible” through the plane’s speakers.
“They hope that Émile will be hidden in the countryside and will come out when he hears his mother’s voice from a helicopter,” said an emergency services source.
“Émile was always on the hunt for butterflies and could have traveled a long way before hiding somewhere for a nap,” the source added.
During the search, Émile’s mother, a devout Christian, called on her fellow Catholics to pray for her son’s return and asked them to invoke the prayers of Benoîte Rencurel – a French religious figure who saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary from 1664 to 1664 should have 1718.
Police are also investigating another hypothesis that Émile may have been kidnapped – although they rule out any suggestion that he was kidnapped just 24 hours ago.
“He is two and a half years old and could already walk a long way. But all the hunts we’ve carried out over the last two days should have allowed us to find him,” said Marc Chappuis, the police officer in charge of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, where Emile went missing on Saturday afternoon.
A group of gendarmes are looking for little two-year-old Emile in a steep area just outside Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
French gendarmes are briefed before they take part in a search for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile
Volunteers are looking for Émile, who was playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house in a hamlet just outside Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence between Grenoble and Nice, when he disappeared
French police are conducting an extensive air and land search for a missing two-year-old boy who disappeared from a village in the south of the country over the weekend
A French gendarme takes part in a search for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile, who has been missing for two days
A group of gendarmes goes in search of little Emile. French police are conducting an extensive air and land search for the missing two-year-old boy
Regarding the treatment of the disappearance as a kidnapping, Rémy Avon, the prosecutor, said at the same press conference: “All hypotheses remain valid, none are preferred or excluded.”
“We aim to conduct investigations at all levels,” he affirmed.
Parallels to BBC drama series The Missing
James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor starred in the show’s first season (2014) as a couple struggling to come to terms eight years after their son was kidnapped during the 2006 World Cup.
In a shocking twist, it turned out that the missing boy Ollie had not been kidnapped but had instead been chasing a fox and found himself in the middle of the road.
James Nesbitt in The Missing, 2014
A drunk hotel owner where the family was staying ran his car over him and hid the boy’s unconscious body in his trunk, believing he was dead.
But instead of being taken to hospital, the boy was taken to a safe house, where it was determined he was breathing.
While the boy’s mother accepts that he is dead, Tony continues his search for Olly as no body was ever found.
The Missing stars James Nesbitt as Tony and Oliver Hunt as Oliver
Three days later, the two-year-old is still nowhere to be found after police searched about 20 houses in the small, forest-surrounded Alpine village.
In view of the increasing fears, the prosecutor emphasized that so far “there is no evidence of a criminal offense that could be the basis of this disappearance”.
“Once there is no crime, there are no suspects,” he repeated.
However, he also told Franceinfo radio that the police had no idea what could have happened to him.
“At this point in time we have no evidence that would allow us to follow any particular theory (as to his whereabouts),” the local prosecutor said.
Mr Chappuis confirmed at the press conference that Tuesday’s search system would be adjusted to be “more targeted”.
Police had already expanded the search area to three miles on Monday after finding no trace of the boy. A helicopter, thermal imaging drones and sniffer dogs came to the rescue.
“We remain present on the ground,” said Mr. Chappuis. “We use special means to search for clues and clues and respond to the needs of the judicial investigations.”
He added that the hamlet had also been closed to outsiders from 8am on Tuesday “to ensure the search operation could proceed smoothly”.
Mr Avon also confirmed that, despite the testimonies of witnesses, no new element has been put forward “that could explain the disappearance of little Émile”.
Émile was playing in the garden of his unnamed grandparents’ house in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday afternoon when he disappeared.
His parents – who are also not named – stayed at their home near Marseille, 200 miles away, during the summer holidays.
The family was about to leave the house they were staying in when Émile took advantage of the inattention, officials said. His grandparents came to put him in the car and found him gone.
At around 5:15 p.m., the grandparents then alerted the authorities to Émile’s disappearance [4.15pm BST] Family members, police, rescue workers and villagers began searching for the boy on Saturday.
François Balique, the mayor of Le Vernet, said on French television yesterday that the boy was walking well for his age.
“It’s a small village of about 20 houses… we see everything.” “He might have walked a bit and maybe got lost or hidden,” he said
The original 5km search area for the Émile has now been expanded to include a helicopter, thermal imaging drones and sniffer dogs to assist
Emile was last seen playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house on July 8, while people are now searching for him
Volunteers take part in a search for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile, who has been missing for two days
Surrounded by forests, the area around Le Vernet is popular with hikers.
Émile, originally from Bouches-du-Rhône near Marseille, was spotted by two people as he left his grandparents’ home.
Mr Avon, the prosecutor, said people “then lost all trace of him”.
Marie-Laure, co-owner of the only bar in Le Vernet, said: “We were preparing for the evening service when we were informed that the child had disappeared.”
“We all went to see what we could do to help as soon as possible.” “We’ve looked at places he could be, we’ve been looking for him really everywhere.”
So far, the police have searched all the houses in the village and asked anyone with information to come forward.
Officials posted a photo and description of a child on social media and broadcasters, saying he had brown eyes, blond hair and was 90 cm (almost 3 feet) tall.
They said he was wearing a yellow top, white shorts with a green pattern, and hiking boots at the time of his disappearance.