The great search operation for Émile, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy who disappeared last Saturday in a village in the French Alps, has yielded no results. The prosecutor of Digne-les-Bains (Alpes de Haute Provence), Rémy Avon, said on Tuesday that all the hypotheses remain open, although there is no suspicion that it is a criminal act.
Police and soldiers have once again searched, very meticulously, an area of 12 hectares, the closest to the house where Émile spent a few days on vacation with his grandparents and from which he left alone, according to two witnesses who saw him going down the street. street and that they did not give importance to it because it is a very peaceful town, Le Haute-Vernet, with only 15 houses, where children run around outside.
According to Avon, the entirety of the homes and outbuildings have been searched. The 25 residents who were there at the time of Émile's disappearance have been questioned by the police. 12 vehicles have also been registered. No clue has emerged that can serve to clarify what happened.
Avon has indicated that there are already twenty investigators and that a national cell has been set up, which makes it possible to have more means, especially technological ones, to analyze the slightest trace that may lead to locating the child.
It is evident that, more than three days after Émile vanished, the hopes of finding him alive, in the event that he had suffered an accident, are slim. The hypothesis of a kidnapping seems hardly credible, as well as some family reason. However, the investigation takes all possibilities into account. Hence, mobile phone call traffic is also analyzed.
After Avon's last press conference, the feeling has grown that the case, except for a surprise, can take days to resolve because the technical means that will be used are laborious and take time.
