Bones of missing two-year-old French boy found

Emile disappeared last July while staying with his grandparents in a French Alpine village. Photo: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

French investigators have found the «bones» of a toddler who disappeared from a tiny Alpine village last summer and are trying to figure out how he died, a prosecutor said on Sunday.

The discovery is a first. a breakthrough in the case of two and a half year old Emil, who disappeared on July 8 last year while staying with his grandparents.

He was last seen at the house by two neighbors. walking alone in the late afternoon on a street in Le Vernet, 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) up in the French Alps.

“Police were informed on Saturday that bones had been found near the village of Le Vernet,” said prosecutor Jean -Luc Blachon

Genetic testing allowed them to “conclude on Sunday that these are the bones of Emil’s child,” he added.

The prosecutor did not give a cause of death but said forensic experts were continuing to examine the bones. Police carried out additional searches in the area where the bones were found.

Gendarmes on the road to the village of Vernet, not far from the place where the bones of the missing baby were found. Photo: NICHOLAS TUCAT/AFP

A source close to the case said the remains were spotted by a pedestrian.

Emil disappeared the day after visiting his maternal grandparents for the holidays in their second house.

When the little boy, barely 35 inches tall, went missing, he was wearing a yellow T-shirt, white shorts and sneakers.

A massive search involving dozens of police and soldiers, sniffer dogs, a helicopter and drones failed to find him.

A few days later, the prosecutor said it was unlikely that such a small child would survive the summer heat.

After the initial search, a criminal case was opened into possible kidnapping, although the possibility of an accident or fall also remained open.

Police returned to the village on Thursday, cordoning off the area and calling 17 people, including family members, neighbors and witnesses, to replay the final moments before his disappearance to try to solve secret.

Drones flew overhead during the drizzle to film the reconstruction, but there was no news of any discoveries since the exercise.

Emil's mother and father, devout Catholics, were absent on the day of his disappearance. Officially, the boy was in the care of his grandfather Philippe Vedovini. Vedovini was questioned in a 1990s case involving alleged abuse and sexual aggression at a private Catholic school.

In late November, the day before Emil would have turned three, his parents published a call for answers on Christian magazine. weekly. “Tell me where he is,” they wrote.