Emile disappeared on July 8, 2023 around 5:15 PM. He was last seen in a small street of Le Haut-Vernet. That morning, the toddler had been dropped off by his mother at his grandparents’ home at their country retreat on the edge of the Massif des Trois-Évêchés, in the French Alps. They often spent their summer holidays there.
Will there ever be answers? France has been in an iron grip for two years due to the tragic death of toddler Émile
Despite extensive searches and searches in the forests around the mountain village, the investigation yielded little. Until a hiker made a gruesome discovery on March 30, 2024: the skull of a child, in the middle of a forest path, less than two kilometers from the village where Emile Soleil disappeared. The bones were later placed there, research showed.
In March this year, the French court believed it had made a breakthrough in the investigation: Emile’s two maternal grandparents and two of their adult children, an uncle and an aunt, were arrested at the time for manslaughter and concealing a body. The foursome were released not much later.
Philippe Vedovini (in long coat), Emile’s grandfather, at the funeral of his grandson. © Miguel Medina
New interrogation
The same four people have now been re-interviewed for the first time, although it is not clear why. It is not clear whether new evidence has been found, only that the four were heard as an injured party this time.
Grandparents Philippe and Anne Vedovini and their two children Maximin and Marthe were each questioned for an hour by an investigating judge. “It was a very important step for my client, who was able to speak in complete openness,” said Julien Pinelli, grandmother Anne Vedovini’s lawyer.
Strictly religious grandfather of French toddler Emile Soleil ‘was known for his loose hands’
The two investigating judges have not yet ruled out the possibility of a family motive for the suspected murder, according to French media, although the burden of proof reportedly remains very thin. It merely indicates that the investigation into the boy’s death is still ongoing.
According to their lawyers, this interrogation indicates that it is no longer a criminal investigation, but a “supplementary investigation that can help the truth come to light.”