A fragment of bone from Emile, the French toddler who disappeared in early July 2023 in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region, was discovered near the spot where his skull and then his clothes were found some ten days ago, the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor confirmed to AFP.
"A small piece of bone belonging to Emile was indeed found in the same area as the clothes, below the skull," said Jean-Luc Blachon, the public prosecutor in Aix-en-Provence, confirming a report in Le Parisien.
This discovery does not, however, provide any clues as to the cause of the child’s death, the magistrate added. He affirmed that the fragment had been identified by the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) as belonging to the child.
Almost nine months since his disappearance on 8 July, when he had just arrived at his maternal grandparents’ summer home in Haut-Vernet, the child’s skull, teeth and the clothes he was wearing on the day of his disappearance were found at the end of March/beginning of April, around 1.7 km from this village of 25 inhabitants, a 25-minute walk for an adult.
None of these discoveries has yet enabled the investigators to ascertain the circumstances of the boy’s death. "Between a fall, manslaughter and murder, we still can not favour one hypothesis over another", said Blachon on 2 April.
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In March a hiker found one of the child’s teeth and a piece of skull. Two days later, 150 metres further on the path where Emile’s bones had been discovered, detectives found "scattered over several dozen metres", the child’s T-shirt, shoes and underpants.
However, Blachon pointed out that the path where the first bones were found was close to a stream running down the mountain, with a gradient of around 30%. As a result, it is unclear how long the remains had been there.
Searches in the area have included tracking dogs and helicopters equipped with thermal imaging cameras, as well as search parties.
