Kidnapped teenager suddenly reappears after six years: “Alex went out for four nights in a row to flee from spiritual community” | Abroad

An impending move to Finland: that was the trigger Batty needed to finally run away from mother Melanie. “He only moved at night. During the day he slept,” said Antoine Leroy. “He ate what he found in fields and gardens.”

The three family members have lived in Morocco, Spain and France in recent years. “As of 2020, they have been roaming near Perpignan and in the departments of Aude and Ariège. The grandfather died six months ago in circumstances that we do not yet know.”

Within the spiritual community there was “work on the ego”. Meditation, reincarnation and the belief that the real world did not exist were also central.

LOOK. Missing British boy found in France after six years

How did this unlikely story come about? As legal guardian, grandmother Susan Caruana had given permission for Melanie and David to travel to Spain with Alex for a week in 2017. On October 8 the party had to return normally, but they sent their cat. Alex was spotted that day in the port of Marbella. Fears arose on the home front that they had traveled to Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco where Melanie and David had previously lived in a commune for a while. The two firmly believed in an alternative lifestyle, where there was no room for school, for example.

The spiritual search eventually took them to Ariège, a French region where hippies, cult members and conspiracy theorists feel at home. According to the newspaper ‘La Dépêche’, the three were part of a community that lives in tents and caravans among the wilderness.

This week, however, Alex had had enough. He went out on his own, with the intention of returning to his grandmother in England. He hoped to make his dream come true through an embassy in some big city.

The teenager had been trekking through the mountains on a skateboard for four days when he was spotted by Fabien Accidini. The chiropractor in training offered him a ride out of pity. It was 2am and pouring rain.

A hypothermic and exhausted Alex gratefully accepted the offer. “At first he seemed a little shy,” Accidini said. “We tried to talk in French, but I noticed that he had not mastered the language. So we continued in English. When I asked what his name was, he first said Zach. Not much later I learned his real name.”

Accidini was also told his entire life story in three hours. “Apparently he lived with ten people in a luxurious house in Spain for a long time. They would have moved to France around 2020.”

Alex was also allowed to use Accidini’s mobile phone to contact his grandmother via Facebook. “Hello grandma, I’m Alex. I’m in Toulouse. I really hope you receive this message. I love you and I want to come home,” the message read.

Alex called his mother “a bit crazy,” but he insists she never locked him up and that he “could leave whenever he wanted.” “He’s not mad at his mother, but he really wants to find his grandmother. He missed his loved ones,” said Fabien.

The British police have now launched a manhunt to find mother Melanie. It is suspected that she wants to put her idea into practice and is therefore on her way to Finland. Alex himself refuses to say where he was hidden all this time.

“Melanie was a rebellious teenager,” Caruana testified in an interview published in 2018. “She could party and drink heavily. David and I had a hard time with her. She earned a law degree but was unable to hold down a job. In 2006 she gave birth to Alex.”

“I saw that little owner every day, which made us very close. I lent wads of money to Melanie so she could take care of him, but she threw it through windows and doors.”

Susan and David were now divorced. “After my ex-husband underwent therapy, he suddenly started behaving very strangely. He became very spiritual, no longer wanted to work and stopped paying bills. Melanie was drawn into that chaotic lifestyle. She no longer believed in school, I was very worried about them.” According to his aunt, the boy was brainwashed by his grandfather’s religion.

Alex is currently still in a shelter in Toulouse. However, the French public prosecutor’s office is doing everything in its power to have the boy returned to the United Kingdom as quickly as possible. That won’t be possible until Saturday at the earliest. Then he will undoubtedly have an emotional reunion with his grandmother.

“This is an unlikely story… After all these years, I just can’t believe it. It seems like a dream. The last time I spoke to him, he was still a boy. Now he sounds like a real man,” Caruana exults.