Frédéric Martel // Photo credits: Thibaut Durand / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP / Frédéric Martel 12:20 p.m., March 27, 2024
Almost 9 months after the disappearance of Émile, on July 8, 2023, in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), no leads have been ruled out. Technical analyzes are still underway but at this stage no information has enabled investigators to provide an answer to the mysterious disappearance of the child, aged 2 and a half years old at the time of the events. A scenario is organized in the village this Thursday, March 28. The two investigating judges in charge of the case, the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, Émile's family but also the two eyewitnesses should participate.
It will soon be 9 months since Émile mysteriously disappeared, plunging his parents into pain and immeasurable grief, painfully disrupting the lives of an entire family and the village of Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. 130 inhabitants live year-round in this town in the Trois Evêchés massif, 1,000 at the height of the summer season. This Thursday, a scenario will be organized in the hamlet where the 2 and a half year old child “vanished”. At this stage, we are not talking about reconstruction since no suspect is involved in the case.
Understand what happened
This legal act aims to understand what happened on July 8, 2023 in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet where Émile, 2 and a half years old at the time of his disappearance, was on vacation with his maternal grandparents. . The child's mother had dropped him off the day before and left him with his parents, before leaving to join the child's father near Marseille, where they live. In the immense family property the little boy was surrounded by his aunts and uncles, aged between 7 and 18 years old. Phillipe and Anne V., grandparents have ten children. Marie, Émile's mother, is the eldest of these large siblings. She is 25 years old.
According to initial reports, this Saturday in July, the first weekend of the summer vacation, the child had just finished his nap. The family is getting ready to go for a walk. Émile plays in the garden while his grandfather is busy loading materials into his vehicle for future work. It is very hot and the shutters of the houses are often closed to keep things cool. At an altitude of 1,200 meters in the middle of the mountains, facing the massif of the three bishoprics, there are a few dozen who reside in the summer in this hamlet with a postcard setting.
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Everyone knows each other. The 25 residents present that day were all questioned and their houses searched. Haut-Vernet is served by a single road which transforms at the exit into a stony path leading to another valley. Two eyewitnesses claim to have seen the child around 5:15 p.m. No suspicious cars or foreign individuals in this peaceful area have been seen. The specialized dogs, which will be engaged in the search a few hours later, stopped dead in front of the washhouse located a few dozen meters from Emile's grandparents' house.
But if the dogs marked the spot precisely, there is nothing to date the exact moment when we lost track of the toddler. Émile also used to go to a nearby wood where his young aunts and uncles made a cabin. After searching for him in vain for nearly 45 minutes, his grandparents raised the alarm around 6:10 p.m. by contacting the local gendarmerie.
Photo credit: Frédéric Michel
Identify possible inconsistencies in the stories
The scenario, organized under the control of the two investigating judges in charge of the case, the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence and investigators, must make it possible to compare the reality on the ground with the numerous elements collected by written, for more than 8 months. The two eyewitnesses, residents of the hamlet, part of Émile's family, notably the grandparents and their lawyer must participate. Investigators and magistrates hope to detect possible inconsistencies in the stories to help refine and direct their research.
Part of the village will be prohibited from access, the mayor of the town confirms to Europe1. Dozens of journalists are expected to cover the event. The 11 rooms at the town hall were reserved by the various editorial staff and several hotel establishments in the area were also contacted. The disappearance of the child moved the whole of France. This is one of the most high-profile affairs of the year 2023.
“Everyone suspects everyone”
In Vernet, the population aspires to find a little peace but the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Émile weighs on the life of the village: "When I have my grandchildren, says a resident, I am not at peace because this little boy has disappeared and I don't know how he disappeared. And to admit: “I have less confidence than before”.
His neighbor with a lilting accent notes bitterly: “Everything reminds us of the disappearance. If we turn on the TV we inevitably come across a report about Émile.” This mother and grandmother who has lived in the town for many years adds, disappointed: “When we go to Marseille or Digne-les-Bains for a medical appointment and even when we speak with people who do not live here we are being questioned. Do you live in Le Vernet? So tell me what do you think about it? Who is it? Was it kidnapped? I answer, we don’t know anything about it!”
In the town hall car park, a retiree who says he owns several chalets near the main road which runs alongside the town, supposes that in the village "everyone suspects everyone, because this story is truly mysterious". The man doubts the effectiveness of the organized situation: "It will not bring anything, it will not clarify the problem. For me it is an enigma." He concludes by sharing the feeling he had at the start of the affair: "I thought that the little one had gone down towards the river, that he had fallen before being swept away by the waters."
Photo credit: Frédéric Michel
All avenues are studied, “the divided village”
Émile who gets lost and cannot be found, Émile kidnapped by a sexual predator or a person seeking revenge, Émile accidentally run over by the driver of a vehicle who panicked and made the body disappear, all avenues including that of family drama are being studied. A young farmer was even singled out. Part of the village criticized this teenager for his sporty driving. According to his detractors, he had several collisions with his tractor.
An atmosphere that the lady with the lilting accent deplores: "Since then, the village has been divided. There are those who speak of the young farmer and his behavior and those who defend him by saying leave him now, we must stop!” “Before, she adds, we all hung out. We drank aperitifs together and there was a breakup. It’s almost like two clans.” With a heavy heart, she concluded: “Maybe we’ll never know.” A forty-year-old who recently settled in the village refuses to speak on the microphone but confirms furtively: “There are rumors, village gossip but no one knows”.
Photo credit: Frédéric Michel
Still no custody
First opened for a worrying disappearance, the investigation initially carried out by the Digne-les-Bains public prosecutor's office was reclassified, at the end of July, as a criminal case for "kidnapping, arrest, detention, sequestration" and entrusted to two judges from the center of instruction of Aix-en-Provence and to the public prosecutor of the “city of a thousand fountains”. At this stage no person has been taken into custody.
Nearly 30 gendarmes from the research section of the Marseille gendarmerie and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence gendarmerie group are entirely dedicated to the investigation. They are supported by numerous other services, in particular scientific experts from the gendarmerie criminal research institute (IRCGN). The investigators formed several working groups to analyze the telephony, determine who was present in the area at the time of the disappearance, collect and cross-reference several dozen testimonies, process nearly 1,000 reports, consult various files, in particular to verify the criminal records of all people who may be directly or indirectly involved in the case or who have been convicted of sexual offenses and crimes.
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In total, nearly 100 hectares were raked. Dog teams, helicopters and drones were deployed for long hours. Around ten vehicles inspected, a suspicious slab, barely poured, was destroyed. A pond emptied, bales of straw scanned, searches and hearings were carried out in the village and in several towns in France, without result for the moment.
Grandfather, parents, family
As in many criminal cases, the investigation also focuses on little Émile's family environment. Nothing surprising, explains a source close to the case: “The investigators must close all doors. It would be professional misconduct not to consider all the hypotheses and these investigations, which are necessary, in no way prejudge possible liability.” Recent revelations about the past of the maternal grandfather, described as strict, authoritarian, sometimes violent, have sparked media excitement.
Philippe V., heard in 2018 by Lille PJ police officers in a case concerning violence against children, dating back to the early 1990s when he was an educator in a traditionalist religious community in the North, was placed under the status of assisted witness. This special regime allows him to have access to the file and to date he has not been the subject of any prosecution for the facts denounced and which led to a loan from the community being indicted. Hurt and affected by the turn of events, Émile's grandfather, until now very discreet, spoke out, to regret the conflation made with the disappearance of his grandson. The information is not a revelation for the gendarmes who are investigating the Émile case. They have been informed of the ongoing proceedings for many months and do not seem to make a link between the two cases.
Photo credit: Frédéric Michel (July 10, 2023)
The family, very pious and traditionalist, lives in a clan manner but is not withdrawn into itself. The parents and children participated in the life of the village of Vernet and that of the small town on the outskirts of Marseille where they have lived for many years. On September 23, at the velodrome stadium, they were all able to attend the mass celebrated by Pope Francis. A friend responsible for a large group of OM supporters, of Muslim faith and whose wife owns a house in Haut-Vernet, intervened directly with the vicar general of the Marseille city so that the family, affected by the disappearance unexplained by Émile, be invited to this highlight.
A month earlier, at the end of August 2023, Émile's parents had broken the silence they had imposed on themselves since the disappearance of their young son, granting an interview to the Catholic magazine
Famille Chrétienne
to thank all the people who had mobilized in the search for their child and regret that information concerning their private life is used to smear them. To the journalist who came to collect their words, Marie and Colomban confirmed having, for a time, had commitments to the extreme right: "We have widely commented on our membership in a movement where we indeed made a brief stint, before leaving it because he did not correspond to our Catholic convictions. Without ever having done anything reprehensible, as some like to believe.”
In the interview, they explained that they regretted that their private life was being thrown away, calling to pray for Émile, adding full of hope. “We continue to trust the work of the gendarmes”, welcoming “the great professionalism” of the investigators and “their exceptional commitment”.
“Give us back Emile”
A few months later, on November 24, 2023, the day of Émile's third birthday, Marie sent
a moving and heartbreaking audio message to the Catholic weekly
Famille Chrétienne
. “Where is our little boy?” asks Émile's mother, speaking directly "to the one or those who know what happened to him", calmly explaining: "If it was an accident, perhaps you panicked. If you have committed the irreparable, perhaps you regret it. Perhaps you fear the consequences and do not know how to get out of it? We can understand all this, but we appeal to your heart! Understand our distress".
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Then, her voice breaking with grief, she implores: "Tell us where Emile is! Please, if he is alive, don't let us live without him! Give him back to us! Please! If he is dead, tell us where he is. Give him back to us. Don't leave us without a grave to mourn us." She continues: "You can do all this in a thousand ways. Even anonymously, without having to denounce yourself. But don't let us live the rest of our lives, as well as our families, with this terrible anguish which crushes our souls. heart. We beg you, tell us where he is, return Emile to us.”
The disappearance of Émile a new test for Vernet
While waiting for the element which will turn the matter around and perhaps allow its elucidation, life has resumed its course in Vernet and few people now agree to speak to journalists. The doors close, the footsteps turn away. The disappearance of little Émile is a new ordeal for the community already bruised by the Germanwings disaster. On March 24, 2015, 144 passengers and six crew members died in the crash caused by the "suicidal" co-pilot of an A320 flying from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany. Taking advantage of a break from the captain and after having locked the entrance to the cockpit once alone, Andréas Lubitz had thrown the plane onto one of the steep slopes of the massif of the three bishoprics.
Ironically, the population of Vernet, who had mobilized to welcome and support the bereaved families, had been invited by Lufthansa, owner of the low-cost airline Germanwings, to the France-Germany match on November 13. 2015. Residents experienced first-hand the deadly attacks that struck St Denis and the capital. They waited for long hours before being able to leave the Stade de France. Many returned traumatized, hoping, over the years, to turn the page on these cascading tragedies. But when they learned, at the beginning of this summer 2023, that a child from the village had disappeared, putting their town once again in the spotlight, they had the impression of "being cursed".