Accident or murder? While the police try to shed light on the case, France is wondering about the death of little Emile Soleil, the two and a half year old boy who disappeared last July and was found on Saturday 30 March by a hiker who came across human bones about two kilometers away from the place where he disappeared, the small village of Haut-Vernet, just 25 inhabitants.
A woman, a local resident, showed up at the police station two days ago with the child's skull in her hand , writes Le Figaro, citing a source who underlines how the fact "very upset" the police, because "it would have been better do not touch anything to facilitate the investigation" .
Meanwhile, searches continue to find the rest of the body and give a change to the investigation. That place had already been visited several times during the research, therefore the hypothesis that those remains were brought there following death: by a man, by an animal or by atmospheric events, is not excluded.
The parents, who are very religious, have issued a statement in which they say that «Marie and Colomban now know on this Resurrection Sunday that Émile watches over them in the light and tenderness of God».
The child disappeared on July 8 from his grandparents' house. He was on holiday, his parents weren't there. In such a small village with just 25 inhabitants , there have been months of suspicion and poison. All residents were questioned several times by the police.
Among the hypotheses circulating is that Emile found himself in the tall grass while a combine harvester was passing by, which would have run him over .
SUSPICIONS ABOUT GRANDFATHER
But the police are also investigating the profile of the maternal grandfather , both because he was very close to Emile at the time of his disappearance and because of his profile and personality.
Philippe V, 58 years old, was busy loading the fence posts into his car with which he was supposed to build a horse fence when the child, a few meters away from him, vanished into thin air .
Described as a very authoritarian man, he gave his ten children a rigorous and traditionalist education, including Latin masses and Gregorian chants. The children did not go to school, they studied at home. Philippe wanted to become a priest, but he met his future wife who changed his mind.
In the early 1990s he was supervisor of a boarding school for boys in the traditionalist community of Riaumont , in Northern France. Years later, between 2014 and 2017, several former students reported physical and sexual violence at the college . And Philippe, who had the task of enforcing discipline there, admitted in interrogations that he had sometimes punished the boys "too harshly" .
The spotlight is also focused on the child's parents and their interactions. Father Colomban and mother Marie are members of a fundamentalist Catholic association which according to some is almost a sect . In recent months they have strenuously defended themselves from suspicions and veiled accusations.
Today they declare that they are "in mourning after this heartbreaking news", and hope that "the investigators will continue their work in the necessary secrecy of the investigation, in order to discover the causes of Émile's disappearance and death".
(Unioneonline/L)
