Found Deceased France - Émile Soleil, 2, outside grandparent’s house, Le Vernet, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, 8 July 2023 #2

[miss marble]

Found these two maps which hopefully give an idea of where Emile was last seen and then where remains were reportedly found on a path between the church and the chapel.

 

[Rikissa]

From the article above, some interesting new information about the last witness statement :-

On December 17, 2025, Le Parisien revisited the case of little Emile's death and the testimony of witness number 1. This man, in his sixties, appears to be the last known person to have seen little Emile in the minutes preceding his disappearance . According to statements he made to the gendarmes of the Marseille research section (Bouches-du-Rhône), he remembers watching the child walking downhill, taking a steep alley that passes in front of his home.

This witness also claims to have seen, within a very short period of a few minutes, Philippe Vedovini , the grandfather, Maximin, the uncle , and Marthe, the aunt of the boy, walking down the same street . Shortly afterwards, according to his account, he saw them turn back, going up the alley. These chronological details are invaluable to investigators. This testimony led them to re-interview Emile's family members.

There were two witnesses who said they had seen Émile the day he went missing, an older man, and a teenager. One of them said they had seen Émile go downwards, the other that he had gone upwards from his grandparents' house. The information about the two witnesses were published in a French newspaper on 10 July 2023.
I doubt that the interviews done with the witnesses have been published by the police, or if any of these police interviews are available to media. My guess is that what the journalists at Le Parisien has done is going through all the information there is in French papers, and whatever interviews and statements witness #1 have given. It's difficult to know when this witness made these statements, and claims, was it the same day Émile went missing, or some time after that. If it was done sometime after that day, was he certain that it had happened the day Émile went missing, or could it have been some earlier day? The family lived in the village during the summers, and I would guess that this was not the first time Émile was visiting his grandparents.

Is this saying the witness saw the Grandfather and Aunt go down the same alley as he had seen Emile a few minutes prior? Or does it mean they turned back and went home without him?

Saw Emile go that way, then the three relatives, then he saw them turn back, then go down the steep alley he'd seem Emile go down. At least that's how I read it.

JMO

Based on those new details, it appears that Emile went on a walkabout, three adults went in search of him.

And now he's dead.

Did someone administer "discipline" which resulted in death, intended or otherwise?

JMO

The details are not new, it was in the newspapers already the first day that Émile disappeared that he had left the grandparents' house (he was seen by two witnesses), and that the family had searched for him before they called the police.
Émile was seen by witnesses around 5:15 p.m., the adults search for him for about 45 minutes, before they called the police at 6:12 p.m. See: Death of Émile Soleil - Wikipedia

No word if the witness saw anyone return. I wonder if he could give LE any kind of a timeline, to determine whether the adults returned that way, how much time elapsed, etc.

From the article in MarieFrance, see the link in my post #234:
""This witness also claims to have seen, within a very short period of a few minutes, Philippe Vedovini , the grandfather, Maximin, the uncle , and Marthe, the aunt of the boy, walking down the same street . Shortly afterward, according to his account, he saw them turn back, going up the alley. These chronological details are invaluable to investigators. This testimony led them to re-interview Emile's family members.""

It says "shortly afterwards .... he saw them turn back, going up the alley". I would interpret "shortly afterwards" as at the most 10-15 minutes.

 

[miss marble]

I agree with some posters on the 'punishment ' theory, especially when we remember that one of the search party (the grandfather) was reportedly a strict disciplinarian.
Let's not forget the report about an investigation into his behaviour based on allegations by pupils of his boarding school when he was a teacher/supervisor :-

Emile's bones found 9 months after his disappearance, suspicions about his maternal grandfather - L'Unione Sarda English

Accident or murder? All leads are open, poisons and suspicions in the small village of 25 inhabitants

www.unionesarda.it

"Philippe V, 58 years old, was busy loading the fence posts into his car with which he was supposed to build a horse fence when the child, a few meters away from him, vanished into thin air .

Described as a very authoritarian man, he gave his ten children a rigorous and traditionalist education, including Latin masses and Gregorian chants. The children did not go to school, they studied at home. Philippe wanted to become a priest, but he met his future wife who changed his mind.

In the early 1990s he was supervisor of a boarding school for boys in the traditionalist community of Riaumont , in Northern France. Years later, between 2014 and 2017, several former students reported physical and sexual violence at the college . And Philippe, who had the task of enforcing discipline there, admitted in interrogations that he had sometimes punished the boys "too harshly" . "

 

[FromGermany1]

I just found the same article to bring over.

...seized a large planter...

My thoughts are the same as yours. Did they seize that large object and recently have seized another? Seems like it.

I remain so sad for Emile.

A little boy who wandered away should have been scooped up with joy, that he had been found safe.

JMO

Could little Emile have run away after "punishment", severely injured, but not bleeding (??) and not crying (???), and searched for his Mama for help, who had maybe used the same street driving away towards La Bouilladisse?

 

[FromGermany1]

I have found a reference to this, though I don’t think this is where I read about it originally

'Little Emile': Grandparents detained over 2023 disappearance of French toddler

The mysterious case of a missing toddler from a rural village in the French Alps in July 2023 riveted France’s attention on Emile Soleil – or Little Emile, as he came to be known. The case took a surprising…

www.france24.com

“The circle had begun to tighten around the hamlet earlier this month, with investigators seizing a large planter at the entrance to its chapel that was found to have traces of blood on it, according to a statement to AFP by a source close to the case”

however, I’m sure the item mentioned was seized at the time & tested, so it’s unlikely the same thing being referred to!

To which DNA did they compare, where did it stem from? I would like to know.

 

[Megnut]

Could little Emile have run away after "punishment", severely injured, but not bleeding (??) and not crying (???), and searched for his Mama for help, who had maybe used the same street driving away towards La Bouilladisse?

The witness(es) would have noted the child was in distress. But maybe the little boy looked very much like he knew where he was going which could explain why the witness(es) didn't overly react. Do we recall it was route familiar to the lad? The walk to church or perhaps following after his mommy.

JMO

 

[Megnut]

It's beginning to look like the child received the ultimate punishment for ultimately an adult's dereliction.

Same old story.

Endlessly tragic.

JMO

 

[JLZ]

It's beginning to look like the child received the ultimate punishment for ultimately an adult's dereliction.

Same old story.

Endlessly tragic.

JMO

On the other hand, is the witness reliable who said he saw Emile shortly followed by the grandfather and aunt? I imagine the witness has been investigated, but so has the family for that matter.

 

[Lonicera]

ENTRETIEN. Mort du petit Emile : "Il faut un regard neuf…" l’ex-procureur Jacques Dallest plaide pour transférer l’affaire au pôle Cold cases L’ex procureur général Jacques Dallest, créateur du pôle "cold-cases" de Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), considère que l’affaire sur la mort du petit Emile devrait passer entre les mains de l’organisme, rendu célèbre pour avoir obtenu les aveux de Michel Fourniret sur le cas Estelle Mouzin.
La Dépêche du Midi: How does your experience of unsolved crimes influence your reading of the Émile case?

Jacques Dallest: For years, I have been insisting on the need for a genuine 'cold case' culture among judges and investigators. Most criminal cases, including domestic and home-based homicides, are resolved relatively quickly. But there is still a percentage of cases that resist. The Émile case is one of them. In these cases, it is necessary to adopt a panoramic view, to consider all the hypotheses, even those that seem a priori improbable.

So you think that the Émile file should be forwarded to this specialized pole?

All the criteria are met. The passage of time, the complexity of the case, its sensitivity, the absence of decisive scientific evidence... This is not to question the work of local investigators or magistrates. It is to allow a fresh, skeptical, methodical look with judges who only deal with this type of case.

Do you find that the survey suffers from an accumulation of hypotheses rather than concrete elements?

No track may be closed until it is materially impossible. In the Émile case, the intervention of a third party seems acquired, but a third party can be someone from outside, a neighbor, a person passing through, or a family member.
When there are many people in a house, imagining that a crime has been committed without anyone talking, without there being a crack, it’s difficult. This can help relativize this hypothesis, without definitively ruling it out. The danger is what we call cognitive bias: as soon as you discard a track too quickly, you stop working on it, and the error can become irreversible.

Grandparents today are conducting their own "counter-investigation". Is this something you have already observed in previous cases?

Relatives, sincerely foreign to the facts, want the truth to come out and bring clues to the investigators. But it can also be a defense strategy, as Jonathann Daval did, to clear his name. It is therefore necessary to analyze these approaches with caution, without automatically seeing in them a proof of innocence or guilt.

What do you think could unlock the investigation?

Material elements. A victim’s DNA found at a third party, on an object, would be extremely overwhelming. Conversely, finding the DNA of a loved one on an object belonging to them is not surprising. Spontaneous confessions are rare, especially if the author is alone and has not confided in anyone.

There is always hope, but one must also be clear-headed. Some cases are never solved. This does not mean that one must give up. As long as there are still hypotheses, seals, technical possibilities, we must continue. And that is precisely why I am advocating for a referral from the 'cold cases' group: so that, at least, everything has been done.