Émile Soleil, the French child who disappeared
Grandparents of Emile Soleil, a French child who went missing in 2023, have been arrested on suspicion of his murder
The grandparents of Emile Soleil, a French toddler who disappeared from the French Alps in 2023, have been detained on suspicion of murdering the child, according to reports.
Philippe and Anne Vedovini were arrested in a dawn raid on Tuesday on suspicion of “voluntary manslaughter” and “concealing a corpse” stemming from the mysterious disappearance of their two-and-a-half-year-old grandson Emile, whose remains were found last year.
2-year-old Émile Soleil went missing from his grandparents’ home in July 2023. His remains were found just a mile from their home in March 2024.
The report said two other family members were also detained, but authorities did not identify them – although it is speculated that they are the deceased boy’s aunt or uncle.
“These placements in police custody are part of a phase of verification and comparison of evidence and information collected during the investigation carried out in recent months,” a prosecutor in Aix-en-Provence said in a statement to the outlet.
Police raided the couple’s homes in Provence and seized a car and a horse trailer. Police also raided their home in Haut-Vernet, where their grandson disappeared and was later found dead about a mile away.
Emile was last seen on July 8, 2023, when neighbors spotted the little boy walking alone down a street in the small French Alps hamlet of Haut-Vernet, where he was spending the summer holidays with his grandparents.
On the day in question, Emile’s parents were gone, but there were nine aunts and uncles in the house, who were renovating the property.
The boy had been missing for less than an hour when Vedovinis reported him missing to the local gendarmerie and a search began in the small town.
According to Paris Match, more than 800 volunteers and military personnel searched the area in the first 48 hours — authorities also used ten blood-sniffing dogs. The fruitless search continued for several days before eventually being called off.
Several months later, Émile’s remains were found on March 30, 2024 by a hiker in an area of Haut-Vernet about a mile from his grandparents’ home — an area that had been searched before, according to reports.
The partial skeletal remains were provided to the local gendarmerie. The French National Gendarmerie’s forensic science department determined through genetic testing that the remains — including a fragment of a skull — belonged to little Emile, reports Le Point.
Three days later, investigators found clothes and shoes where the bones were found.
Earlier this month, forensic investigators continued searching the area where Emile’s remains were found,
Investigators were unable to determine the boy’s cause of death based on the partial remains. Prosecutors at the time said his death could have been the result of “a fall, homicide or murder,” 
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