Three months that Haut-Vernet holds its breath. Three months that this small hamlet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence lives to the rhythm of investigations. And disillusionment. On July 8, Emile, 2 and a half years old, disappeared late in the afternoon while spending the holidays with his grandparents. Two passers-by claim to have seen him walking down a village street around 5 p.m. Nothing since. Despite significant resources, the establishment of a national research unit, the opening of a judicial investigation, no leads have really emerged, no suspects have been placed in police custody.
“This does not mean that the investigation is not progressing,” insists Jacques Dallest, honorary magistrate and author of Cold case: a magistrate investigates. Investigations are carried out almost every day to check this or that element and thus close doors. » At the end of July, the investigation shifted to a criminal framework: now the investigation, entrusted to two investigating judges from Aix-en-Provence, is open for “kidnapping of a 15-year-old minor and sequestration” and no longer “ worrying disappearance. A purely technical development, insisted the prosecution: this procedural framework offers more flexibility to investigators.
“Without vegetation, the land appears in another light”
“It is not because we assume that the child was the victim of a crime that we do not continue investigations into the accident aspect,” insists Jacques Dallest. Certainly, intense research has already been carried out in the sector. The first elements of the investigation suggested the possibility of a loss after Emile escaped the vigilance of his grandparents. This mid-mountain area is steep, with many nooks and crannies. If this research proved in vain, the investigators keep in mind the Lucas Tronche affair: the body of the teenager was discovered six years after his disappearance, in a ravine, one kilometer from his home even though the area had been scrutinized.
“Dogs, hunts, drones, it’s not infallible…” assures François Daoust, former director of the Criminal Research Institute of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN). In his eyes, there is no doubt: new field research will most likely take place at the end of autumn or at the beginning of winter. “Without vegetation, the land appears in a different light and it is quite common for bodies to be found during this period. » Holes or corners that had previously gone unnoticed are discovered.
An analysis of colossal telephony
At the same time, doubts are regularly resolved in the field. In mid-September, for example, a concrete slab was broken by the gendarmes after the radar highlighted a suspicious spot. It was actually a piece of placo. “Unfortunately, we are out of the emergency phase. We are rather looking for a body, notes Jacques Dallest. It is an essential element in the investigation, it can carry the DNA of the author, giving clues about the conditions of death. The more time passes, the more these elements tend to disappear. »
From now on, most of the investigations continue far from the field, in the laboratory. This involves analyzing all the elements collected, whether during searches or during searches. Above all, colossal work on telephony is underway. 1,600 lines were limited in the sector on the day of the incident. “For each of them, we will check who owns the line, when it was limited, what its route was,” analyzes François Daoust. The people are then summoned, it is necessary to analyze whether their schedule is consistent, their background. » The operation can take months. The closest video surveillance images – particularly those from ticket machines – are also scrutinized to try to identify suspicious vehicle passages.
Software to highlight inconsistencies
In this case, no track has taken precedence over another. If he didn’t wander off, was he knocked down and his body hidden, was he kidnapped by a sexual predator? As in all criminal investigations, relatives were the subject of investigations. “They are among the last people to have seen him, it is normal to explore this hypothesis,” insists the former director of the IRCGN. Unfortunately, without even talking about a crime, we sometimes see a domestic accident disguised as a disappearance. » Their house and their vehicles were the subject of careful searches. The telephony and movements of each member of the family were also studied. “Generally in three months, if there is no custody, it is because we have not found anything decisive. But everything can obviously change,” specifies François Daoust.
All of the data collected is then reported in the Anacrim software. Used during complex criminal investigations, it not only allows all the elements to be compiled but also to cross-reference and compare them to bring out “patterns”. The objective is to bring out contradictions, to highlight elements of the file which have not been verified. “It’s not a magic tool but it’s really very useful in such complex cases with thousands of pieces of data,” assures Jacques Dallest, with the hope that this case will not, one day, join the cold pile. box.