A twist which placed the Emile affair at the heart of media attention. Sunday March 31, 2024, Easter Day, the little boy’s name once again made the front pages of all the newspapers. The revelation shocked the whole of France: the two and a half year old child was found dead. The day before, Saturday March 30, a woman discovered a skull while she was walking on a mountain path near Haut-Vernet, where Emile had disappeared nine months earlier, on July 8, 2023. Now, we know more about the circumstances surrounding this macabre discovery. Indeed, this hiker agreed to share her story at BFMTV. In an article published Tuesday April 9, 2024, the one our colleagues have chosen to call Manon tells in the smallest details how she came across the bones of the little boy.
As soon as she saw the skull, she “knew” it was Emile
That day, this sixty-year-old retiree hesitated to go out for a walk because of the unfavorable weather. But as a great fan of hiking, she ends up motivating herself. It is noon when she leaves her house and begins her journey: “It’s been a long time since I took this path. I don’t know anymore, for a month, a month and a half.” It is “between” of this path, in a place where according to her it would have been impossible to miss it, that Manon comes across “the thing”. A term she prefers, because “the word skull [lui] returns the image”. We suspect: this discovery must not have been easy for the sportswoman to manage. “It’s white, very clean. There are only the upper teeth”, she describes to our colleagues. When she notices it, the retiree immediately understands what it is: “I knew it was him”she confides, with tears in her eyes. Moreover, his first reaction was also to “cry”before succeeding in “calm” and make a decision.
Because Manon doesn’t have a cell phone. It is therefore impossible to call the police. And she fears that the weather conditions will prevent finding the skull: “I could have left it but then, by the time I went back, it would no longer have been there. That’s why I picked it up, I know that on days with weather like this, if you wait, the mountain is no longer the same.” Indeed, the walker chose to take the bones – a gesture widely commented on, and criticized, in the media and on social networks – using plastic bags, so as not to alter them with her DNA. But he needs to find a landmark to be able to indicate their location to investigators later. “Then I saw a huge fir tree collapsed on its side. I said to myself ‘it’s this tree that will serve as a guide for me’”remembers Manon.
Heard for nine hours, searched, Manon is “exhausted by it all”
The hiker “short” to return home and notify the police as quickly as possible: “I say to myself ‘quick, quick, I have to bring the thing back and the police will find the culprit’. I told myself that the investigation was finally going to move forward, I thought of his parents. I say to myself, finally, mom and dad will be able to bury him. They will be able to know.” Moreover, throughout the journey, Manon “carry the thing at arm’s length”because “feel the shape touch [son] body [la] terrifies”. Around 2 p.m., she finally arrived home and left the skull on the terrace: “inconceivable” for her to bring him inside. She then telephones the gendarmes, who come to the scene without delay and take her away for questioning. His hearing starts at 3 p.m., and will last nine hours. During this time, Manon led investigators to the site of the discovery, access to which was immediately blocked. “I answer their questions and that’s it”explains the sixty-year-old, who is at this stage not considered a suspect in the investigation into Emile’s death.
She returns home around midnight, but the next day, the gendarmes return to conduct a searchto which she “didn’t expect”. They will keep his electronic devices for a week before returning them to him. Today, Manon has not yet “digested” this tragic discovery, and has not gone hiking since. “I am mentally and physically exhausted from all this”, she finally declares, before having a last thought for Marie and Colomban Soleil, the little boy’s parents. Very religious like them, Manon wishes them: “May they find peace… May God give them peace.”