An investigation was opened after the worrying disappearance of a French couple almost two weeks ago on the island of Madeira.
Véronique and Laurent Blond, aged 58 and 56, are from Beaumont-de-Lomagne (Tarn-et-Garonne), where they have run a bakery for seven years according to the local daily La Dépêche du Midi.
The couple has not given any sign of life since their departure on March 16 for a “little hike” in Sao Vicente, on the Portuguese island “where they were on vacation” with their daughter Johanna, the prosecutor said in a press release a few days ago.
A lack of communication from local authorities
One of their daughters, Pauline, recalled the days preceding the disappearance on BFMTV. She explains that she had her mother on the phone asking for photos of her baby. “She asked my husband for photos of her granddaughter every day. Those were the last contacts we had.”
They had already left for a hike the day before the disappearance in the same area, and wanted to return.
They only had two bottles of water and one cell phone. This last “bounded for the last time in the north of the island, around a perimeter of around fifteen kilometers. An area far too large for precise research to be undertaken”detail our colleagues.
Pauline mentions a lack of communication from local authorities and feels “deprived, a little lost”. But also “sad” because “the chances are very slim of finding them alive”. She adds that the whole family is “devastated”.
An open judicial investigation
The prosecutor contacted the Castelsarrasin research brigade and the Beaumont-de-Lomagne gendarmerie “of this judicial investigation opened for worrying disappearance”.
The first investigations, including a search of the parents’ home and telephone inquiries, did not produce any new elements.
Johanna, who was on vacation with her parents in Madeira, must be heard this Friday.
