The grandparents of a French toddler, whose partial remains were discovered nine months after his disappearance in 2023, have been taken into custody on suspicion of murder.
The death of Emile Soleil, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who vanished in a French Alpine village in July 2023, has remained a mystery, even after his skull and teeth were found by a passerby nine months after he went missing, approximately 1.7km from the village.
At that time, prosecutors stated that the cause of his death, which shocked the nation, might have been “a fall, manslaughter, or murder.” Subsequently, police located additional bone fragments and pieces of the boy’s clothing.
Emile was staying at his grandparents’ summer home in the small hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet when he disappeared.
On the day of his disappearance, Emile’s parents were not present.
Some media outlets had highlighted the grandfather’s past, who had been questioned in the 1990s regarding alleged violence and sexual assault at a private school. However, police viewed his potential involvement as merely one of many theories regarding Emile’s death.
This morning, grandfather Philippe Vedovini and his wife were arrested on suspicion of “voluntary homicide,” according to a statement from Aix-en-Provence chief prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon.
The couple’s lawyer, Isabelle Colombani, stated she had no comment, having “only just heard” about this new development.
Two other family members were also detained, with prosecutors not disclosing their identities.
Speculation about a possible breakthrough in the case resurfaced earlier this month when investigators returned to the village.
The arrests made today resulted from investigative efforts “over recent months,” the prosecutor informed reporters, adding that forensic police were examining “multiple locations in the area.”
A funeral mass for the toddler took place in February of this year, attended by several hundred mourners.
Shortly after the ceremony, the grandparents issued a statement asserting that “the period of silence must yield to the period of truth,” emphasizing, “We need to understand, we need to know.”
