Three days after the discovery of the bones of the 2 and a half year old boy who disappeared in July in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor, Jean-Luc Blachon, explained Tuesday, April 2, during a press conference, that their analysis had not made it possible to determine the causes of the child's death. This is the first time that Mr. Blachon has spoken since he was seized of the matter on July 18.
The searches launched on Sunday after the macabre discovery, however, made it possible to find "certain clothes that the boy was wearing" on the day of his disappearance, namely a t-shirt, shoes and pants. These effects were not found in the same place but “scattered over around ten meters”, explained the prosecutor, “around 150 meters” from the place where the skull was taken. “This place where the body was discovered can be reached on foot from the bottom of the village in approximately 25 minutes on foot,” said the prosecutor.
While no other bones or belongings were found, Blachon said it was not possible to know whether Emile Soleil's remains had been moved. “At this time, we cannot say whether Emile's body was already in the search area” at the time of the searches which immediately followed his disappearance this summer, according to Mr. Blachon. The latter recalled that, if the area had been surveyed by citizen searches, search teams and dogs, the terrain is steep and covered with thick vegetation in summer. Weather conditions and temperatures could have “altered the effectiveness of the tracking dogs,” he said.
“No hypothesis can be favored”
The first analyzes of the bones found make it possible to affirm, again according to the prosecutor, that the child's skull presented "small fractures and post-mortem cracks", and bore "bites caused by one or more animals". On the other hand, “no ante-mortem trauma was observed” and “the appearance of the bones and deposits allows us to affirm that they were not buried,” he further clarified. These analyzes alone do not make it possible to determine the cause of Emile's death, the investigation continues and "the searches are not finished", affirmed the prosecutor. “Between the fall, manslaughter and murder, no hypothesis can be favored over another. »
Events have accelerated in recent days, with the discovery of the child's skull by a hiker on Saturday, just two days after the "situation" - a sort of reconstruction of the facts - organized in Haut-Vernet, a tiny hamlet of twenty-five inhabitants. The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor clarified that no objective link could be established between the two events.
Around a hundred gendarmes, including dozens of investigators, including anthropologists and dog teams aided by dogs specialized in detecting human remains, will continue research to explain the child's death. On July 8, 2023, the day of his disappearance, the little boy had just arrived for the summer at the second home of his maternal grandparents.
