France France - Léo Balley, 6, Lac Fourchu, Taillefer Massif, 19 July 1996

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1452DMFRA - Léo Balley

Physical Description​

Date of Birth: October 4, 1989
Age: 6 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 4'3"
Weight: 130 cm.
Hair Color: Light brown, mid-long
Eye Color: Unknown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Round face.

Identifiers​

Dentals: Two incisors missing on upper jaw
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: Was last seen wearing brown pants, cream color t-shirt with a design on the front (orange color boat helm), a black windbreaker with white lettering in circle on the back and black sneakers.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance​

Balley was last seen near Lac Fourchu in the Taillefer Massif, France between 17.00-19.00 on July 19, 1996.

He was in the company of his father and three friends of his father. He disappeared while his father was installing a tent. Despite extensive search in the mountain, in the lake and nearby waterfalls no trace of Leo Balley has been found.

Investigating Agency(s)​

Agency Name: Gendarmerie Nationale
Agency Contact Person: 04.76.20.37.00 - (33).4.76.20.37.00
Agency Phone Number: N/A
Agency E-Mail: sr38@gendarmerie.defense.gouv.fr
Agency Case Number: N/A

 

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A little more infos about the circumstances of his disappearance on this article : ENFANTS DISPARUS / ISERE. Léo Balley, disparu à 6 ans 1/2 en 1996 dans le massif du Taillefer

"The little boy was camping with his father and three friends. Around 5:30 p.m., the group decided to go get water from a waterfall a little over a kilometer from the camp. Léo had accompanied them then, tired, turned around, leaving the adults to continue their walk towards the stream: it was on the way back that the child vanished."

It's also told on this one that police did an extensive research of the area and for weeks the lakes of Le Plateau were surveyed and explored. They still weren't able to locate him.

 

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Also Léo is known as one of the "Missing from Isère",a name given to a case under which nine to twelve cases of disappearance, murder or assault of children which occurred in Isère, between 1980 and 1996 have been grouped.
Three of these cases were solved.
One was Richard Bouzian's murder. He disappeared and his body was found soon after. A neighbor admitted to have transported his body but claimed his brother did kill the kid. He was declared guilty anyway and put in jail for life.
The other ones were Sarah Siad, she was strangled and her body was found soon after in 1991, and Saïda Berch who was also strangled in 1996 and her body was also found soon after. In these two cases it was the same killer, who was found thanks to dna technology. He was only fifteen years old when he killed Sarah...

All of the other "Missing from Isère" are still missing now, and no one has been charged for their disappearance/murder.
Even though this is an old case, I still have hope to find an answer someday to what happened to Léo, and all these other kids.

 

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Le corps d’une des victimes des « disparus de l’Isère » exhumé par la justice

One of the other "Missing from Isère" was Fabrice Ledoux, who went missing on his way to school on January 13th 1989, and whose body was found a few days later. The police decided to reopen his case in 2023 and exhumed his body to do some DNA expertises. They hope it could also help to find answers in some other of these disappearances. Even though they don't think it's a single serial killer, there's no doubt some of these cases were related to each other.