Emile, 2, has been missing without trace since July 8, when he suddenly disappeared from his grandparents’ garden in the small mountain village of Vernet, in the south of France.
Hundreds of volunteers and envoys from the Norwegian Armed Forces combed the small mountain village, but seven weeks later, the police are still without a trace.
Now parents are breaking their silence.
Various explanations have been offered
Imagine the worst
This came in an interview with the magazine Family Chretien That French couple Columban and Marie speak for the first time.
– We imagine the worst, the father says in the interview published on Tuesday.
Given the young child’s age and the number of days he has been missing, the chances of him surviving are low – especially if he has disappeared on his own. However, the parents still hold out hope.
Sometimes we are overwhelmed with anxiety and sadness. “One moment we despair, and the next we have new hope,” says the mother, adding that the family – very religious – asks for a miracle.
Mayor François Palec has previously stated that the greatest chance of finding him alive is if he has been kidnapped.
– Our only hope now is that he was kidnapped while he is alive. It’s the last thing we could hope for, and it’s absolutely terrible. It is possible that someone who wanted to harm the children passed through the area, saw the little boy and took him with them. What is absolutely certain, he added, is that he will not be able to survive alone in the wild Le Figaro In mid-July.
Columban and Mary thank everyone who contributed to the search process, and confirm that they have full confidence in the police investigating the case.
Disappeared from the same area: unexplained
– Nothing to hide
The police stated that they keep all possibilities open, but at the same time they did not reach any results indicating that anything criminal had occurred for the two-year-old child.
One police theory is that the disappearance may have been due to a politically motivated revenge riot.
French media wrote that Colombin was a member of the far-right group Social Bastion when he was studying. And in 2021, both parents will be on a political list linked to right-wing populist Eric Zemmour. According to BFM.
At the interview, the parents use the opportunity to respond to the speculation.
– We have nothing to hide. They say we have not done anything unacceptable According to RTL They claim that information about their political views was published to blackmail them.
Police previously confirmed that they were investigating an arson attack at the family home in 2019 – two years before Emile was born. The fire occurred in Pollard, about ten kilometers from where Emile disappeared.
Investigate scammers
Various interpretations
And wrote the Dutch Sunday newspaper De Telegraaf Witnesses gave different explanations about the boy’s last vision.
One witness says Emile walked towards a laundromat in the center of Vernet, while another witness believes he saw the boy walking in the opposite direction – towards a cabin higher in the terrain.
In the course of the search, the dogs marked a distance of approximately 60 meters from the ancestral home, near the sink in question.
At the same time, the news site BFMTV wrote that Emil was very interested in the cabin he built with several other children.
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