The confirmation of Emile’s death shocked France this Saturday March 30. After several months of research and a reconstruction which yielded nothing, Emile’s bones were found in a steep part of Haut-Vernet. The investigation therefore took a new turn, pushing the mayor of Vernet to make an important decision.
Since the macabre discovery of Emile’s bones, the village of Haut-Vernet has been placed under surveillance and tensions are at their highest. Dozens of gendarmes now patrol the area of this now infamous commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on a daily basis. It is in fact there that the little 2 and a half year old boy escaped the vigilance of his grandparents, on July 8, 2023, and it is also there that a hiker found the little boy’s skull in a steep area, this Saturday March 30.
Until Emile’s death in July 2023, Haut-Vernet was a peaceful commune. Crossed by a single road and made up of around twenty houses not far from a small church, it is a village where “everyone knows each other and knows everything about everyone” explained Gilles Thezan, resident of Haut-Vernet in Criminal investigations, broadcast this Wednesday April 3 on W9. This program, which aimed to shed light on the affair, also allowed us to better understand what this village, now at the heart of macabre news, looked like.
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A secure area to facilitate the investigation
Following the discovery of Emile’s skull by a hiker on March 30, the Vernet town hall implemented a municipal decree in order to protect the research area and allow investigators to work in peace, far from curious onlookers or journalists. Entering into force the day after the discovery of the bones, this municipal decree made it possible to quickly secure the area, with the hope that the investigation would speed up.
Despite this measure, the information available to the police has not yet allowed any major progress. As the forensic doctor explained in the W9 program: “Bones are hard bodies that can only tell us if there has been trauma. But as we do not have soft bodies, we cannot know if Emile was injured in the abdomen for example. It’s impossible to determine from the bones alone..”
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The extended municipal order
Even if the investigation continues, it has not yet given anything concrete on the exact circumstances of Emile’s death. If the accidental hypothesis is favored, Charlotte Durand, the journalist who made this documentary on the Emile affair for W9, does not exclude a criminal hypothesis: “This is the route favored by locals. They searched everything so much that they can’t accept that they missed little Emile“, explains the investigative journalist.
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The forensic doctor clarified for his part that “The clothes being analyzed can also tell us about the death of the little boy if they have traces of blood for example.” But for the moment the investigation has yielded nothing and it continues. François Balique, mayor of Vernet, therefore took the decision to extend by 8 days the municipal decree prohibiting access to Haut-Vernet, so that it was to end on April 7. This order now prohibits access to the village until April 15 and may be extended for the purposes of the investigation.
News journalist
A true jack-of-all-trades, passionate about travel, culture, society, people and beauty, Saliha writes for various media such as Escapade magazine, the GEOguide collection by Gallimard, Le Figaro…