The parents of a two-year-old boy who has been missing in France for almost four days have been attacked by a former Family and Children’s Minister who claimed Émile’s father had “a very worrying profile”.
Ségolène Royal, herself a mother-of-four, spoke out as fears grew that the little boy has been killed or kidnapped.
Émile went missing from his grandparents’ house in the Alpine hamlet of Le Haut Veren on Saturday, while his parents apparently remained 200 miles away at their own home in Marseille.
The entire family has remained anonymous throughout, but Ms Royal – who has held numerous ministerial roles and was runner-up in France’s 2007 presidential election – said they might be responsible for the crisis.
Claiming that Émile’s mother was not even spoken to by detectives for three days, Ms Royal tweeted: “The mother questioned only on Tuesday? And the father, with a very worrying profile?
“So, we did not look at the theory of a problem or family revenge? A kidnapping? Why is the kidnapping alert still not triggered? How sad.”
Prosecutors and judicial police working on the enquiry did not immediately respond to questions about the father’s ‘very worrying profile’.
But they confirmed they were exploiting phone technology to track the movements of residents in the hamlet.
So-called ‘triangulation’ was sanctioned from Wednesday following fears that someone may have abducted Émile from Le Haut Vernet, which is made up of only 20 houses with 25 permanent residents, south of Grenoble.
Devices belonging to extended family members are among those being analysed “as is normal procedure in these types of enquiries,” said an investigating source.
“Emile was reported missing on Saturday, so that is the main period that is being looked at.
“Phones connect to nearby towers, and triangulation can provide a location of a user at a given time.”
The source said court orders might be necessary to seize data from some telephone operators, even though all were likely to cooperate.
Émile normally lived with his parents near Marseilles, but was on a summer break with his maternal grandparents.
Emile’s mother has nine brothers and sisters in the area, all of whom are younger than her.
“We are trying to establish how many of them were close to the house, or in the house, at the time of the disappearance,” said the investigating source, adding: “Some are still teenagers.”
“Phone positions are being examined, and of course other phone records, including calls made, are also being analysed,” said the source.
One theory put forward by judicial police is that Émile could have been killed accidentally by a ‘car or tractor’, with the driver hiding the body to avoid prosecution.
Another foul play theory is that someone abducted the child, and took him far away from Le Haut Vernet.
One investigator confirmed that ‘the records of all known child sex offenders in the area are being examined’.
The hamlet was barricaded by police on Tuesday, so preventing anyone new coming in, as phones were confiscated, and houses examined.
There have also been extensive searches of nearby forests and waterways, but they have not provided any signs as to what happened.
Helicopters have broadcast the voice of Émile’s desperate mother across the mountainous region in an attempt to find her missing son ‘who was always chasing butterflies.’
Local prosecutor Rémy Avon, who is leading the enquiry, meanwhile said on Tuesday: “At the moment we have no clue, no information, no element that can help us understand this disappearance.”
Mr Avon added: “Medically, we’ve learned that beyond a period of 48 hours, given the young age of the child, given his constitution, and the possibility that he will be deprived of water and food with the current heat, there is a very real fear that he has died.”
After four days of searches in sweltering heat involving 800 gendarmes, firefighters, volunteers, helicopters, thermic camera drones, and sniffer dogs, police have admitted they also fear the worst.
A gendarmerie spokesman said: “Either the body was concealed after an accident, or it was removed.”
And Police commander Marc Chappuis said: “He is two-and-a-half years old; he was able to walk quite a distance.
“But all the searches we have carried out over the past two days should have allowed us to find him.”
Francois Balique, the Mayor of Vernet, has since spoken to Émile’s grandfather, and said he was ‘plagued by guilt’.
Mr Balique said: “Events led to the boy escaping his grandparents’ vigilance, so the guilt comes quickly.
“I’ve tried to comfort him in this terrible situation. A small child who escapes surveillance is commonplace. That we can’t find it is not normal. What could have happened? I can’t explain it.”
The saga evokes the BBC series, The Missing, in which a young boy vanishes whilst on holiday with his family in France, only to be killed in a hit-and-run accident after chasing a fox.
The police have released a photo and description of Emile, who is almost 3ft tall, with brown eyes, and blond hair.
He was wearing a yellow top, white shorts with a green pattern, and hiking shoes at the time of his disappearance.
Residents in the place where French boy Émile went missing were today referring to it as a cursed ‘village of the damned’ because of its links with disaster.
In March 2015, Vernet was also cordoned off following a horrific air crash in which 150 people died, including two babies.
Germanwings Airbus A320 was deliberately brought down by co-pilot Andres Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies.
