Three days after the discovery of the bones of Emile Soleil, a 2 and a half year old boy who disappeared in July 2023 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 received the file on July 18, 2023.
The excavations launched on Sunday after the macabre discovery, however, made it possible to find “certain clothes worn” the little boy 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 ten meters”explained the prosecutor, “about 150 meters” from where the skull was removed. “This place where the corpse was discovered can be reached on foot from the bottom of the village in approximately twenty-five minutes on foot”said the prosecutor.
While no other bones or belongings were found, Mr. 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 excavations 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 “impaired the effectiveness of tracking dogs”he said.
“No hypothesis can be privileged”
The first analyzes of the bones found make it possible to affirm, again according to the prosecutor, that the child’s skull presented “small post-mortem fractures and cracks”and wore “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 excavations are not finished”said the prosecutor. “Between the fall, manslaughter and murder, no hypothesis can be favored more than 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.