Change of strategy. For two days, nearly 800 people took turns looking for little Emile, 2 and a half years old, around his grandparents’ house in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. But the child, who vanished late Saturday afternoon, remained untraceable. The research therefore continued on Tuesday “without the help of volunteers, volunteers”, but “with specialized personnel, with dogs, who are selective”, explained the public prosecutor of Digne-les-Bains. , Remy Avon.
Early this morning, the gendarmes “sanctuarized” and combed the perimeter. But the magistrate could only note bitterly, this Tuesday evening, that “we are at the same point as yesterday or the day before yesterday. We have no clue, no information, no element that can help us understand this disappearance. »
The primary goal is obviously to find Emile, but the objective of the day was also to discover traces and clues that would help guide the search. The sector was therefore cordoned off from people outside the municipality to let the soldiers work in this mountainous and steep area, dotted with small streams. In total, 80 gendarmes from the departmental brigades or the high mountain platoon (PGHM), as well as a dozen soldiers from the foreign legion, specialized in clearing, who were mobilized. In addition, several dog teams and a helicopter had been placed on pre-alert. The gendarmes progressed, in line, in the vicinity of Vernet, to try to find clues that would put them on a track.
“We don’t know what we are looking for”
“We don’t know what we are looking for,” admitted the public prosecutor. It may be “possibly traces of cigarette butts, traces of textiles, traces of blood, treading, various and varied traces, everything that could be exploited scientifically thereafter”, shelled the magistrate. Twelve hectares of land were raked on Tuesday by the military. But these operations “did not bring any useful element to the investigation”, regretted Rémy Avon. “Perhaps we have unknowingly picked up a clue. »
The investigation, opened since Sunday, is still being carried out for “search for the causes of worrying disappearance” and entrusted to the research section of the Marseille gendarmerie, supported by the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Digne-les-Bains.
The gendarmes interviewed 25 witnesses and residents, searched the 30 houses in the hamlet and 12 vehicles. On the other hand, no one was taken into custody, contrary to what was claimed by some media. Investigators are also trying to determine precisely “which phones were limited to the level of the hamlet at the time of the child’s disappearance, which calls were made, by whom, to whom”, detailed the prosecutor. This work on the telephone should allow investigators “to know who was in the area” at the time of Emile’s disappearance, details to 20 minutes General François Daoust, former director of the IRCGN and of the judicial pole of the gendarmerie. The data collected will then be “cross-referenced with the testimonies collected”, he says.
1,200 calls received
“The investigation continues, it continues,” said the public prosecutor. “The investigation system” put in place by the gendarmerie has increased in power “since from fifteen, the investigators have increased to more than twenty”. “The investigation team” has been transformed into a “national investigation unit”, which will allow the gendarmes “to benefit from regional and national means, in particular scientific and technical”, underlined Rémy Avon.
After the broadcast of a call for witnesses, the gendarmes received more than 1,200 calls “which must be checked”, added the magistrate. Before insisting: “Only useful information is necessary for us. This phase of collecting information will continue on Wednesday, before moving on to a second phase, to “exploit this information”. It’s urgent. If he had been lost – a less and less probable hypothesis – Emile’s vital prognosis would undoubtedly be “very committed”, conceded Rémy Avon.