The grandparents of a toddler whose bones were discovered in the French Alps after an eight-month search have been arrested on suspicion of his murder.
A public prosecutor has said that “two adult children” of the couple have also been arrested on the same charge of “voluntary homicide”.
All four were also detained on charges of “handling of a corpse”.
Emile Soleil was two years old when he was last seen walking down the street near his grandparents’ home in Le Vernet in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, southern France, on 8 July 2023.
The French toddler was staying with his maternal grandparents for the summer holidays and his mother and father were not in the village when he disappeared.
The case, which began as a missing person investigation, soon became a criminal inquiry into a possible abduction, although police did not rule out murder, an accident or a fall.
His whereabouts were unknown until his bones, including a skull, were discovered by a walker about a mile from the village on Saturday 30 March 2024.
Emile’s cause of death remains unexplained, according to French media.
Speaking nearly a year after the remains were found, public prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon said the boy’s grandfather Philippe Vedovini and his wife were arrested “along with two of their adult children”.
He added that all four were “taken into custody by investigators from the Marseille Gendarmerie’s research section on charges of voluntary homicide and handling of a corpse”.
Marie and Colomban Soleil at their son’s funeral in February this year. Pic: AP
Mr Blachon did not identify the grandparents’ children who have been detained.
A source has told French broadcaster BFM TV that they are an uncle and aunt of Emile.
The four people are also reported to have been arrested at more than one location.
It comes as Mr Blachon said investigators are carrying out “forensic operations in various parts of the country”.
“A new communication will be issued at the end of the acts in progress,” Mr Blachon added.
The grandparents’ lawyer, Isabelle Colombani, confirmed they were in police custody.
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Emile’s coffin is carried at his funeral. Pic: AP
A home belonging to the grandparents in Bouches-du-Rhone – separate to the property where Emile was staying when he went missing – was reportedly searched on Tuesday as part of the investigation.
A journalist for French news site Le Figaro said at least one car and a trailer used to move horses was taken away by police.
The developments come after a traditional Catholic funeral mass was held for Emile in Bouches-du-Rhone in February this year attended by several hundred mourners.
Within hours of the ceremony, the grandparents reportedly published a statement saying: “The period of silence must yield to the period of truth,” adding: “We need to understand. We need to know.”
In late November 2023, a day before Emile would have turned three, his parents Marie and Colomban Soleil published a call for answers in a Christian weekly publication, France 24 said.
“Tell us where he is,” they wrote.
