Alex Batty, the teenager missing for six years and found by a delivery driver from Toulouse on the night of December 12 to 13, 2023, was formally identified in Perpignan last summer. Information transmitted to the Aude gendarmes, without it apparently having come to fruition.
On July 29, 2023, Ecole 42 in Perpignan alerted the police in Pyrénées-Orientales after the passage of a young man during the open day.
Aged 17, British, he first introduced himself as Zac Edwards, before explaining that his name was in fact Alex Batty. Strange actions which had pushed the management of the School to inquire, only to quickly discover that it was the name of a boy from Manchester, missing since 2017 after a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather .
The police were immediately alerted: “We called several times, we had the impression of not being taken seriously”, explains the management of the School. However, the Catalan law enforcement agencies have done their job, indicates the public prosecutor, Jean-David Cavaillé: “The police officers reported to the duty prosecutor’s office, and the facts were reported to the Quillan gendarmerie.
As a reminder, a month ago, the Quillanais gendarmes received the teenager after a report from the head of the establishment where he attempted to register. But the link had not been made with the boy’s disappearance six years earlier.