Remains of missing 2-year-old Emile Soleil found in French Alps
Émile Soleil, a 2-year-old boy who went missing nearly nine months ago from his grandparents’ home in a remote hamlet in the French Alps, have been found.Soleil’s disappearance in July last year shocked France and captured international attention. The toddler seemingly vanished into thin air as his family was getting ready to leave the house for an outing, the mayor of Le Vernet said at the time.A massive air and land search took place involving hundreds of police, soldiers, rescue workers and volunteers scouring hectares of the mountainous terrain around Le Vernet.
No signs of the toddler were found and, eventually, the search effort was called off.On Saturday, the partial remains of Soleil were found by a hiker near the hamlet where he had gone missing, French prosecutors announced. The bones were found just one kilometre away from Le Vernet, according to French newspaper La Provence, in an area that had been extensively searched by police.Part of the boy’s skull was found, the paper reports.French investigators carried out genetic testing on the remains and confirmed that the bones belonged to Soleil.
Authorities are unsure of the toddler’s cause of death and forensic investigators will continue to analyze the remains.“This heartbreaking news was feared,” said the toddler’s parents in a statement through their lawyer. “The time has come for mourning, contemplation and prayer.”French authorities have blocked the entrance to Le Vernet and have cordoned off the area where Soleil’s remains were found.Sniffer dogs specializing in the search for human remains were deployed to find any more traces or clues of what happened to the 2-year-old, said Colonel Pierre-Yves Bardy of the local gendarmerie.When Soleil first
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