France: Mystery with the Death of the 2 Year-old Emile after discovering his bones – His grandfather’s past

Mystery veil covers the two-year-old boy’s death conditions Emil whose remains were discovered on Saturday (30.03.2024) in the Alp-de- In the south-east of Provence, all possible investigations are carried out by the French prosecutors of Ex-an. Provence in southern France as the 2.5-year-old Emil’s disappearance case has taken a new turn, almost nine months after his mysterious disappearance, while his grandfather’s past is once again in the microscope. The French authorities are trying to determine how little Emile died after from a female hiker in a forested mountain area near Le Vernet in the area in the Alp-de- Ot-Provans. Emil was last seen by two witnesses walking the street near his grandparents’ house in the area, on July 8, last year. His bones, including the skull, were discovered near where he disappeared. Hundreds of police officers have been moved to the point as investigators try to see if this location is where Emil died or if the bones were moved there afterwards, reports French television station BFMTV. François Daoust, former director of the French national gendarmerie’s forensic service, said to the French media: “Missing point zero, where there is most of the bones, the point where the child fell or was transported”. Meanwhile, anthropologists analyze the soil in the area where the bones were found, as they hope to determine how long the remains were there. Colonel Marie-Laure Pezant, representative of the National Constabulary, told the French media: “We call it forensic archaeology. The idea is to check if there is evidence that allows us to know if the bones existed for a long time.” This is as Emil’s skull is analyzed by coroners trying to find his cause of death. However, the analysis will not allow researchers to determine its date of death, according to reports in France. The National Constabulary reportedly developed on Monday three unmanned aircraft equipped with multispectral sensors over the crime scene. Unmanned aircraft will “chart the entire scene very thinly, taking photos and then reconstruct it to 3D and 2D” said Lieutenant Aurélien S., head of the National Constabulary forensic department. This means that researchers will always have access to a representation of the scene when the remains were first found – allowing them to detect any change in the ground since then. Police have also developed a group of dogs specializing in finding human remains, as some of Emil’s body parts have not been found, according to local media. The investigation is expected long as it is “complicated, ” insisted yesterday on statements to the French Agency by Ex’s prosecutor at Provence, Jean Lick Blancon. The disappearance, the morbid discovery and conflicting testimonies When he disappeared on July 8, Emil had just arrived for the summer at his grandparents’ cottage. Two neighbors confirm that they saw him, on the main road of the village, with their testimonies however being conflicting. The boy was seen around 17:15 local time. His parents were not present that day. Drop following an accident, negligent homicide, murder? “We are not sure that we will discover the cause or circumstances of death,” said Gendarmerie spokesman Marie-Laur Pezan, on the France Info radio network. With the discovery of bones on Saturday, the scenario of the fall from an accident seems to regain credibility, although this parameter seemed to fade after the fruitless investigations conducted in recent months on the outskirts of the village, located at an altitude of 1,200 meters, on the slopes of Trua-Evese Mountain. The discovery was made two days after researchers first carried out a kind of reconstruction of the events since the beginning of the investigation. During this process, 17 people were invited to take part, including all who were present on the day of Emil’s disappearance, in order to accurately determine their actions and movements. The past of Emil’s grandfather As always in cases of children’s disappearance, let alone when they have tragic endings, looks turn towards the family environment. It is recalled that the boy’s grandfather, a motor therapist in the profession, was cutting wood outside his home about the time the child was reportedly missing. In the 1990s, Philippe Vedovini, 58 today, was a leader in a Christian community for children with family issues in a mountainous village in northern France and had been accused of physical abuse. In 2018, a city court Lille invited him to testify over complaints made against him to admit that “sometimes he had slapped the children”. In 1993 he was suspected of rape of minors, when he was captain of the deeply religious Catholic Scouts’ Association “Riaumont”, where physical violence against children was in the context of daily education. When police were informed that little Emil disappeared last July, he began searching for all his relatives, including his grandfather. Grandpa’s name in the database revealed his dark past. However, Emil’s grandmother’s lawyer pointed out, according to the , that her husband had been placed in a supported witness status in 2018 as part of the investigation into suspected violence in Riaumont, but had not been charged. It seemed that then there was no connection between this case and the disappearance of little Emil. However it gave researchers an idea of the history of the boy’s disappearance from the remote hamlet Haut-Vernet on July 8. Information from Skynews, AFP