Two bodies, which could be those of a mother and her eight-year-old son missing since New Year's Eve, were discovered Friday in Drôme, the Valence prosecutor's office said.
Gendarmes found the two bodies at the end of the morning in the town of Chabeuil, and they appear to be “the child and his mother sought, subject to future findings”, specified the prosecutor Laurent de Caigny in a press release.
The exact circumstances of their death remain unknown at this time, he added.
Romans-sur-Isère police officers opened an investigation on Thursday following the worrying disappearance of a 45-year-old woman and her eight-year-old son.
She had left her home in Romans-sur-Isère (a few kilometers from Chabeuil) in an unexplained manner with her son in her car, according to the account of relatives cited by Laurent de Caigny.
The first telephone, bank and video surveillance searches having yielded nothing, a search notice was published on Thursday.
Photos of the child, a young boy 1.25 m tall and his blonde-haired mother, had been broadcast in the local media, as well as the description of the mother's car, a yellow Peugeot.
The two bodies were discovered near the vehicle sought, said Laurent de Caigny.
The investigation was reclassified as deprivation of care for a minor by ascendant leading to death, a charge likely to evolve after the autopsies, underlines the prosecutor.
