Missing toddler in France since Saturday

[Neverinamonthofsundays]

Hope this little lad is found safe and well.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-toddler-emile-missing-latest-news-b2373637.html

The search for a missing two-year-old is “at the same point” as it was yesterday, the local prosecutor has said in an update as helicopters spent Tuesday broadcasting a recording of his mother’s voice.
Two-year-old Emile was last seen playing in the garden of a property in Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute department of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, with his grandparents notifying the police of his disappearance at around 5.15pm local time on Saturday.
Airborne search teams were instructed to play the recording “as loud as possible” in the hopes of finding the toddler.
However, the investigation still has “no information”, with the prosecutor urging the public to “give the gendarmes time” as investigators probe the 1,200 calls received on the dedicated case line.
“We have no clue, no information, no element that can help us understand this disappearance. We are at the same point than yesterday at the same time”, Rémy Avon, public prosecutor for Digne-les-Bains, told a press conference on Tuesday evening.
“The 30 buildings that make up the Haut-Vernet building were completely visited. 25 people were heard, 12 vehicles visited, 12 hectares raked”, Mr Avon added.

Gosh my heart stops if I can’t see my kids for a second even in the house with the front door locked. Sometimes I worry that I’m too anxious about keeping them in sight 24/7 but it’s situations like this that make me think it’s worth it. I hope that poor boy is found 😢 I haven’t read much about this story but I did see on the Daily Mail page a couple of days ago about the search, which said that a car was found with blood on the number which made it seem as though someone had been hit by a car? I didn’t open the article so might be wrong, just saw on the main page. (I know. Daily Mail is crap. I don’t usually read it but I’m abroad in a country where lots of foreign news sites are banned.) Does anyone know what happened with that?

*bumper, not number

It was animal blood, @babysharkdoodoodedoodedoo

25 hours, 30 residents?
Every third adult in that village is a sibling of the mum. Plus the parents, only 5 houses have two residents, so is that 5 spouses? That could mean 25 out of the 30 are related. Presumably children aren't counted.

It's an odd place. More like an estate than a village.

Not that's necessarily at all relevant, but still hard to imagine. It can't be particularly isolated if they managed to get hundreds of searchers there.

I had a friend once who would let her two year old wander all over the place , including on a busy campsite . She lost him on a beach once and we had everyone looking for him - (he was digging in a big hole !) I ended up breaking ties with her as I just couldn’t cope. It was so weird. He was adopted by her too so even more odd .

If there's any doubt Google earth/maps will be your friend - Haut-Vernet (Alpes Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.) is pretty small and it is fairly isolated...

As for the number of searchers being an indicator of isolation - they were mostly military (i.e. Gendarmes - we have plenty of those), some of them mountain search and rescue specialists, who were drafted in from larger places in the area such as Gap...

^^ As a general point I think anybody trying to draw parallels with the UK needs to stop thinking about landscape like the Home Counties/the Fens/Cotswolds... they need think of the location in terms of somewhere equivalent to some of the more isolated villages in the Scottish highlands or Snowdonia, yet with seriously bigger mountains than exist in the UK within walking distance.

That's why so far at least the theory that this could easily be a horrible accident is still a credible one, at least from what info is actually in the public domain.

I didn’t think the siblings all lived in the same village - just “locally”. Haut-Vernet is a hamlet up the hill from Le Vernet main village, which is much bigger and has a school etc, and there are plenty of other hamlets around the area.

Poor little boy.

I don't know. I also fail to see how it may be relevant. People are speculating about Emile being taken as revenge ( apparently father was questioned for a group of men carrying out racist assaults, but not charged or convicted, i don't know if this true or more rumour).
This why I was disappointed at Segolene Royal alluding to it in tweets, you would think a public figure and minister would refrain from publicly commenting on an active investigation and providing fodder for the rumour mill.

Yes. The point I was making was that even with the Nicola Bulley case they were puzzled at what had happened to her, and it would be all the harder in France which is double the size. I wasn't saying that the terrain was the same in both cases.

This story has upset me so much. I look out for updates several times a day. I just can't stand to think of that lovely little boy away from his mummy for so long, dead or in danger. I'm praying for some kind of miracle.

It is so sad to think that he is somewhere alone or that he was taken. I mean you would have to be a serious oppotunist to have been there and kidnapped him but look at that poor kid Cleo in Australia last year? I think it is odd the parents have not made a plea to the public nor been named though.

@Neverinamonthofsundays

I think it is odd the parents have not made a plea to the public nor been named though.

It's France, different way of doing things..

For example for several days the mayor used his powers to ban all public access to the hamlet to prevent rubberneckers and the press....

I’ve actually been to this area and it’s extremely remote, there are woods and mountains all around and there are lots of little unmarked streams and rivers running through the countryside by the hamlet, if little Emile has wandered off, I think it would only be a matter of minutes before he would find himself in the fairly deep undergrowth. There’s also lots of wildlife including wild boar and wolves who have come over the border from Italy and settled into the Southern Alps. I am still hoping against hope that he will be found but I also think that the French police have information that is (understandably) being withheld from the public during the investigation as there are a lot of unanswered questions about the family and their involvement in the hours leading up to Emile’s disappearance …….

@MouseKeys

There’s also lots of wildlife including wild boar and wolves who have come over the border from Italy and settled into the Southern Alps

I was reluctant to mention the wildlife but yep, one theory that has done the rounds here in the media is there may be at least some animal involvement.

Parents making appeals are generally used by police under specific circumstances:
They want to keep the public interest up. Hope to get new witnesses coming forwards ( not needed in this case, it's getting plenty of coverage and the pool of potential witnesses is small and have been interviewed)
They have a suspect(s) under surveillance and hope that an appeal will force them into a reaction. ( phone call between suspects, or disposing of evidence they might have, ...).
They suspect a member of the family and want to keep a closer eye on them ( like the Mick Philpott case for example), again unlikely in this case as parents were 200km away.

They aren't going to drag parents that are going through hell in front of cameras if there isn't a benefit to the enquiry. Also in this case, the parents are already being speculated about and them making a public appeal would probably make things worse for them.

No idea where this is going to end up but I'd caution trying to draw too many parallels between what you'd expect to go on in the UK and what happens here...Napoleonic Law and a whole lot more.

For example Police and Gendarmes are very much not the same thing, and if a major crime is suspected the lead official isn't a Gendarme or Police Officer, it's an Examining Magistrate/Investigating Judge...

That's why a gentleman called Remy Avon's name is coming up a lot in public statements and you are not getting much if anything from a "police" officers..

Missing French boy latest: Fears Émile hit by combine harvester | World News | Metro News

Dear god if that is true it is horrific.

Ah.

That’s such an odd article. It’s saying he could’ve been hit by a combine but doesn’t mention any evidence of this.

Very odd. The article seems to be entirely speculation, and based on the speculation of others. No news, no evidence, nothing.

A farm machinery accident has been one of the many theories since pretty much day one, so the Metro has not come up with anything new.

FWIW it was reported very early on in the investigation that a local boy racer with previous history of charging around the area on both tractors and quadbikes was subject to some serious questioning.

The theory of an accident involving the harvesting was one of the first things checked out:
Fields checked (I assume that tractors, quads and combine harvesters would have been included in the vehicle checks also)
Bales examined with metal detectors, but for that to work he would have had to wearing something metal (with a button or zip) and he was in shorts and tshirt, maybe his shoes would have metal in them?
The Mayor did say in an interview that nobody was out with a combine harvester at the time but somebody living in the village was quoted saying that "We fear that we may find him in the autumn, when farmers use the hay to feed their animals, sometimes we find small deer."

But you'd imagine if they had any lingering doubts at this stage, they would just order the recently made bales to be opened up.

I've seen foxes, deer/parts of, and badgers in bales, so certainly possible, but they are not seriously suggesting not checking the bales until they are required in the winter?

So sad

There would likely be 100s of large bales which would be ruined by opening so yes I guess they would likely wait since it is only one possibility.