Missing French boy, 2, feared hit by combine harvester walking in long grass
A toddler who vanished in a village in the French Alps may have been hit by a combine harvester, it is feared.
Émile Soleil, 2, went missing from his grandparents’ house in Le Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, on July 8.
A huge search involving hundreds of gendarmes, police and volunteers was launched but then called off on July 14.
No sign of Émile has been found but the investigation into his disappearance has continued, and the latest theory is farm machinery may have mowed him down.
Police are reportedly looking into this tragic scenario after previously ruling out a bird of prey or wolf attack.
A local farmer told local media how this is not a far-fetched idea.
He said: ‘Sometimes we find deer. The little one may have ended up in the tall grass and been hit by a farm machine. That would be terrible.’
Yesterday, Le Vernet’s mayor François Balique renewed a restriction on access to the village for another two weeks.
This means anyone who does not live there will not be allowed in until the end of July in order to protect Émile’s family from ‘malicious tourism’.
Police looked through a total of 30 houses and spent days sifting through fields and bushes while also using helicopters, thermal camera drones and sniffer dogs.
Local prosecutor Rémy Avon said officers were looking at ‘the considerable mass of information and elements collected’ during the search.
He said they were considering all the possibilities, including Émile being murdered, kidnapped or involved in an accident.
‘All these theories are active, nothing has been ruled out,’ he added.
The day before the search was called off, blood was found on the front of a car and sent for scientific analysis.
But nothing is known to have come of this yet, with an investigating source saying at the time: ‘We don’t even know if it is human blood.’
Initially, police believed Émile may have walked away from his grandparents’ house while the family was getting ready to go out.
The toddler was a good walker for his age and ‘always chasing butterflies’ so ‘could have got a long way away, before hiding somewhere for a nap’, an emergency services source previously said.
Two people reportedly saw the little boy leaving the house but then lost ‘trace of him’, Mr Avon said.
The gendarmerie has appealed for witnesses to come forward with any information they might have.
Émile was wearing white shorts and a yellow top when he vanished.
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