Death of Émile: a resident of Vernet confides her “frustration” after the prosecutor speaks

Frédéric Michel, special correspondent to Le Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) / Photo credit: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP 8:27 p.m., April 2, 2024

The mystery surrounding the death of little Émile remains unsolved. And this despite the speech of the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence this Tuesday. Jean-Luc Blachon thus announced that the causes of death of the little boy, whose bones were discovered last Saturday near the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, were still undetermined. 

The prosecutor, however, indicated that clothes, worn by Émile on the day of his disappearance, had been found near his skull and his teeth which remain, to date, the only bones discovered.

Light is therefore far from being shed on this affair which distresses the inhabitants of the commune of Vernet where only 130 souls reside year-round. Among them, very few wanted to open their doors to journalists, but some still agreed to share their feelings on Europe 1's microphone. 

“We are constantly tossed from one position to another”

Notably Mathilde who evokes a certain “frustration”, the “first word that comes to mind”, she says. "We remain at the same point. Certain elements of the prosecutor's speech point towards the accidental thesis, other elements on the contrary lean towards the criminal thesis. So, we are constantly tossed from one position to another and, in any case concerning myself, I do not have the impression of having been further forward on a preferred track. 

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It is therefore doubt that prevails this Tuesday evening in this village in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The authorities also recalled that the testimony of the walker who discovered this skull last Saturday is reliable and that her testimony should not be called into question.