Disturbing new details revealed by Émile Soleil investigators: A French toddler’s clothes were found 150 meters from his skull and his bones have provided NO new clues to how he died

Clothing and shoes belonging to a little French boy who died mysteriously in the Alps were found almost 150 meters from his slightly broken and lacerated skull, it emerged this evening.

Jean-Luc Blachon, the prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, revealed disturbing new details on Tuesday in the case of two-year-old Émile Soleil.

He was confirmed dead after his skull and bones were found on Saturday in a remote countryside near the isolated family home where he went missing in July last year.

Mr Blachon told a news conference that the gendarmes “also discovered Emile’s clothes 150 meters away.”

The “T-shirts, pants and shoes” were “not collected in the same place, but spread over a few meters,” said the prosecutor, who is leading a criminal investigation into Émile’s death.

Mr Blachon said wild animals may have scattered Émile’s remains and could also have been responsible for “small fractures” and “bite marks” on his skull.

A fall could have damaged Émile’s skull, but Blachon said other theories, including “murder or manslaughter,” had not been ruled out.

A tooth was also missing, but, Mr. Blachon said, “examination of the bones does not allow us to determine the cause of Émile’s death.”

A female hiker out for a walk over the Easter weekend found the remains in an extremely steep area, about a ’25 minute walk’ from the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, near Grenoble.

Émile was staying there in his family’s holiday home and was officially under the care of his grandfather, 58-year-old Philippe Vedovini, on the day of his disappearance, while his parents took a break.

Asked whether the area where Émile’s remains had previously been searched, Mr Blachon replied ‘yes, but without the use of drones or specialized dogs.’

He added: ‘At this stage we cannot say whether Emile’s body was already in the searched area. I can’t say that every square meter was searched.

‘The topography there is difficult with steep slopes, making observation and excavation difficult.

‘It was also very warm in July 2023, with temperatures of over 30°C in the shade. which could have influenced the effectiveness of the sniffer dogs and infrared cameras’.

Mr Blachon said an unnamed woman found the skull and bones “between noon and 2 p.m., while walking on a trail she remembered walking a month earlier.”

He added: ‘She was disturbed by this discovery and put (the skull and bones) in a plastic bag. She went home and called the police. She was able to pinpoint exactly where she found it (the skull).”

No comment has been made on the discovery of Émile’s remains by his family, who were all present at the Easter Sunday Mass when this was reported.

Mr. Vedovini is a devout Catholic who gave up his vocation to become a monk to marry his wife, Anne Vedovini.

Earlier this month it emerged that Mr Vedovini had been investigated as part of an active criminal investigation into historical child abuse.

Mr Vedovini – who denies any abuse – trained as a monk while working at a school linked to sexual abuse, including rape, in the early 1990s.

Mr Vedovini, who was known as Brother Philippe when he worked at the school, was involved in the active investigation as an ‘assisted witness’.

When interviewed by police in April 2018, he admitted to using “somewhat harsh” physical discipline but said he had never broken the law, according to a source close to the ongoing investigation.

Mr and Mrs Vedovini raised ten children, including Émile’s mother, who is now known by her married name Marie Soleil after marrying Émile’s father, Colomban Soleil, aged 26.

The family’s extreme right-wing political background was also investigated by the police.

Émile’s father was arrested in 2018 for “an attack on foreigners” and released after promising to keep the peace.

At the time, Mr. Soleil was an activist associated with Action Francaise, the far-right nationalist and royalist group, and with the neo-fascist Bastion Social.

Three years later, in 2021, both Mr. Soleil and his wife stood as local election candidates in the Marseille area, supporting the reconquest party of Éric Zemmour, the convicted racist and Islamophobe who tried to become president of France.

Chief prosecutor Rémy Avon, who is leading the inquest into Émile’s disappearance, said the possibilities that Émile was murdered, kidnapped or involved in an accident were all being considered.

He confirmed that Émile’s parents’ home in the southern town of La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, was searched in July, while grandparents’ homes nearby and in the Alps were also raided.

The saga is reminiscent of the fictional BBC series The Missing, in which a young boy disappears while on holiday with his family in France, only to die in a collision after chasing a fox.

Residents of Vernet now call the place a cursed ‘village of the damned’ because of its links to disasters.

In March 2015, Vernet was also ousted following a horrific plane crash that killed 150 people, including two babies.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 was deliberately shot down by co-pilot Andres Lubitz, who had previously been treated for suicidal tendencies.

The residents of Vernet were also shocked by the murder of a local café owner in the village 16 years ago.

Jeannette Grosos, who ran Café du Moulin, was brutally murdered by a customer in 2008.

A Vernat resident said: ‘Everyone says it – Vernet feels like a village of the damned.’