[Ammi]

The remains of a two-year-old boy, who went missing in the French Alps in July, have been found near where he disappeared, according to local media reports.

Bones, including a skull, were discovered by a walker near Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday.

Forensic tests showed they belonged to the boy, known only as Emile, French broadcaster BFMTV said, quoting prosecutors.

Some reports named him as Émile Soleil.

Prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon said: "On Saturday, the police were told of the discovery of bones near the hamlet of Le Vernet."

After testing them, police concluded on Sunday that "they were the bones of the child Emile," he added.

Mr Blachon, who was quoted by France24, did not give a cause of death, but said that forensic investigators were continuing to analyse the remains, while police carried out further searches.

The boy was last seen by two witnesses walking down a street near his grandparents' house on 8 July last year, according to authorities at the time.

He had arrived in the area the day before to stay with his maternal grandparents for the summer holidays.

Francois Balique, the local mayor, said at the time that the couple "realised he was no longer there when they went to put him in the car".

They live in a remote mountain village with only two dozen inhabitants just outside Le Vernet, between Grenoble and Nice.

The little boy was less than 3ft tall and was wearing a yellow T-shirt and white shorts when he was last seen.

A massive ground search involving dozens of police officers and soldiers, supported by sniffer dogs, a helicopter and drones, failed to find him, as did a reconstruction in which his family took part.

Police admitted they had no idea what had happened to him.

A prosecutor said after several days it was unlikely such a young child would have survived in the summer heat.

The case, which began as a missing person investigation, soon became a criminal inquiry into a possible abduction, although police did not rule out murder, an accident or a fall.

In late November, a day before Emile would have turned three, his parents published a call for answers in a Christian weekly publication, France 24 said.

"Tell us where he is," they wrote.

https://news.sky.com/story/remains-f...-july-13105419

[Cherie]

I don't really understand how two people could see a two year old 'walking down the street' on his own and not do something about it ...

[arista]

Did they think he was older?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-ago-Alps.html


[Ramblers discovered the bones of two-year-old
Émile Soleil close to the isolated family home
from where he went missing last year.
A source told MailOnline that only part of the body
was found, with some bones and the
skull being recovered].

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by arista

Did they think he was older?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-ago-Alps.html

He is still a very small boy on his own ... odd as well he wasn't found he wouldn't have been able to walk too far

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by Cherie

I don't really understand how two people could see a two year old 'walking down the street' on his own and not do something about it ...

Those were my thoughts too....

[Ammi]

…it’s a strange thing but I guess that it’s difficult to visualise or imagine living in a small hamlet of around 20 or so people…when it’s said of even a two year old wandering alone isn’t an unusual thing to see or to raise any inner alarm…as that type of sighting wouldn’t have been thought to have felt of any danger…(…I mean, it obviously was…)…but I’m trying to imagine living in that environment and how it would have felt to any neighbourhood people…because it almost feels like ‘another world….’….it’s all very tragic…

….just as an interest with the hamlet itself because it is so small and so remote and ‘uneventful’ if you like, in past eras…but it’s now having a label of ‘being cursed…’…obviously with Émile’s disappearance…but also a local cafe owner, Jeanette Grosos was savagely beaten to death there by a well-known customer in 2008….and then in 2015 another tragedy struck when doomed Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 crashed into the Alps killing everyone on board….we all recall that when the plane was brought down intentionally in a suicide and slaughter…?…and that was only two miles from the hamlet…so yeah, completely safe and nothing ever happened to be alarmed about…