The discovery of the remains of Emile, who disappeared eight months ago at the age of two, causes a wave of grief and emotion throughout France

The number one news in France is the discovery of what has been confirmed to be the skull of the child who went missing on July 8, 2023 in the commune of La Bouilladise, Bouches-du-Rhone department, in the southeast of the country.

The skull was discovered on March 30, at an altitude of 1,200 meters in the Haut-Vernet hamlet of 25 inhabitants, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, by a woman on a hike, and forensic analyzes confirmed that the remains belonged to the little boy Emile.

The hope that Emile might be found alive by a miracle gave way to grief in the family’s hometown. “It affects all the residents, it hurts us, we always put ourselves in the place of the parents, the family. We all have children,” Eddy told France Bleu Provence, quoted by BFM-TV. Emotion shared by Evelyne, a resident of the area: “When it comes to children… it’s very sad and the investigation will take a long time, as usual. I don’t understand this.”

“We are very emotional and very sad. It’s a story that left its mark on the village, not just the village, obviously: such a small child, it’s almost a national story, a common story. The turn this story takes…we were already in drama, now we are in tragedy”, reacted the mayor José Morales, who is thinking about a tribute. “We would like to show our support for the family and will try to do something to suit them.”

Authorities have now launched a full-scale investigation to find out the cause of Emile’s death. In Haut-Vernet, the place where the skull was discovered, the canine brigade of the gendarmes was mobilized. Colonel Pierre-Yves Bardy says these dogs have an extremely fine sense of smell and can detect traces even almost nine months after the child’s disappearance.

For now, investigators are completely in the dark: accident, homicide, murder – no hypothesis is ruled out at this point. When she disappeared on July 8, Émile had just arrived for the summer at his maternal grandparents’ second home. The family had been vacationing there for years. Two neighbors claim to have seen him on the village’s main street, but their accounts are contradictory, Actu.fr website reports.

The little boy was seen there around 5.15pm, wearing a yellow top, white shorts and hiking boots. His parents, very religious Catholics who live in La Bouilladisse, Bouches-du-Rhône, were not present that day.

In any case, Saturday’s discovery lends new credence to the accidental fall theory: the hypothesis of a fatal fall seemed to fade after the numerous unsuccessful searches in recent months around the hamlet, located at an altitude of 1,200 meters on the slopes of the Trois-Evêchés massif , Actu.fr also writes.

This dramatic reversal of the situation occurred two days after a kind of reconstitution of the facts was carried out for the first time since the launch of the investigation. During the re-enactment, 17 people were summoned, including all those present on the day of Émile’s disappearance, to try to determine their actions in the final moments before his disappearance.

The investigation is expected to be difficult and the outcome uncertain, but the authorities promise not to spare any effort to find out the mystery of the production of this tragedy that shocked the whole of France.