Emile’s bones were discovered on Saturday March 30, almost nine months after the disappearance of this little boy in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet. The discovery was made by a walker one or two kilometers from her grandparents’ house, in an area which had been “ arch-excavated » according to the mayor of the town. Enough to suggest that Emile’s body was left after the search.
However, this would not be the first time that the body of a victim has been found late near its last location. In March 2015, Lucas Tronche, 15, disappeared in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in Gard, where he lived with his parents. Many avenues had been explored by investigators: running away, kidnapping and even victim of Nordahl Lelandais, the murderer of little Maëlys.
An area “passed through with a fine comb”
The teenager’s body was finally discovered six years later, in June 2021, in the countryside, among vineyards, between a farmhouse and a rock wall, less than a kilometer from his home. “ This area had really been combed through. On the other hand, this specific part, given the density of the vegetation, perhaps we had not been able to enter there. remembered the mayor of the town, Jean-Yves Chapelet, who had coordinated the search.
According to the prosecutor, the area had already been “ raked » in the past but the rock walls « could only be searched by firefighters on a pendulum », an ultralight aircraft. The investigation concluded that Lucas Tronche had probably suffered a fatal fall. The teenager, passionate about geology, often came to look for stones that he collected in this place. In Emile’s case, the investigation will have to determine whether the little boy’s body was moved or whether it was lying, from the start, next to his family…
