This is the first image of the mother and grandfather who allegedly kidnapped schoolboy Alex Batty, living together as a family in the south of France.
Melanie Batty and her dad David looked relaxed outside a bar on a village square in the Pyrenees in June this year, along with Alex and a group of friends.
The off-grid trio wanted by British authorities after Alex disappeared six years ago had taken a trip to a weekly market in Esperaza, which is popular with members of alternative communities they socialized with.
Dressed in a white summer dress with her hair up and wearing sunglasses and sandals, Ms Batty looks like any tourist in the south of France.
Her son Alex sits next to her in a black T-shirt, combat trousers and sneakers. He looks like any teenager, slightly bored but listening while the adults talk.
On the other side, with a white goatee, a denim shirt and sunglasses on his head, is Ms. Batty's father, David, 64 years old.
Fugitive mother Melanie Batty sits next to her father David Batty (in denim shirt) and her son Alex Batty (in black T-shirt) at the Esperaza market in June 2023
The two are said to have kidnapped schoolboy Alex and have been living together ever since
Alex, from Oldham, was 11 when he failed to return with the couple from a holiday to Spain
Behind the British family, a street performer plays her guitar and sings for the many tourists who flock to the popular Sunday market.
But behind the relaxed holiday facade, Mrs Batty, 43, hid the secret of her own son's kidnapping and their six years on the run.
She took the name Rose, led an itinerant life, named her son Zac and dragged him through Spain and Morocco before settling in the south of France two years ago.
Supported by her father, Ms Batty was looking for a 'spiritual life' and talked about how she wanted to create an alternative community with like-minded people.
However, she also revealed something about her reasons for fleeing Britain and taking her son on the run.
French police are said to have concluded that his grandfather had recently died and his mother had moved to Finland after ALEX was rescued by a delivery man on a road south of Toulouse last week.
But recent observations suggest reports of David's death and Melanie's disappearance may be incorrect – as an alternative theory emerges that both mother and grandfather crossed the border into Spain 'to escape the attention' surrounding the reemergence from Alex.
A friend explained: 'Rose, as we knew Melanie, has fled. She's been gone a long time. She went to Spain.
“I think (her father) Peter came with her. She wanted to get away from all the attention for a while.
'Rose, her father and Zac are a nice family, but always a bit cautious.
'I don't know the full extent of their story, but there was a reason they fled Britain.
“Rose said she got her son out of a bad situation and protected him for as long as she could.
'She told strange things about her past. She said the life they lived before in England was hell.'
Behind the British family, a street performer plays her guitar and sings to the tourists
Alex (left) with his mother Melanie (center) and grandfather David (right) six years ago
The association Conscience Verte (Groen Bewust) organizes festivals in the country in the summer
A tent in the woods of the Garden of Eden 'spiritual community' near Chalabre, Aude
He added: “Zac is a lovely young man. He is always willing to help and learn.
'It was the perfect time for him to leave his mother and spread his wings.
'She protected him well. But it's good that he's back.'
Alex disappeared in 2017 when he failed to return to Britain after a pre-arranged trip to Spain with mother Melanie and grandfather David.
Greater Manchester Police issued a missing persons alert for the youngster, who was aged 11 at the time.
Alex, now 17, was reunited with his grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian, in Oldham on Saturday evening.
Since the autumn of 2021, he has been living with his grandfather, who worked as a handyman, in a remote farm in the hamlet of La Bastide.
He was cared for by the French family who owned the farm and was considered part of the family.
French police said last week that Alex told them he had decided to flee the commune after the death of his grandfather six months ago and after his mother said she planned to move with him to Finland.
After six years of living a nomadic lifestyle, traveling from Morocco to Spain and then to France – never going to school and searching for food – Alex decided that “this had to stop,” said Assistant Officer of Justice Antoine Leroy from Toulouse.
Over the next four days, Alex trekked through the mountains of the French Pyrenees, searching for what little food he could find in the fields and gardens, until he was found by student Fabien Accidini at 3am on December 13.
On Saturday he was reunited with his grandmother after six years in an emotional reunion.
Alex wanted to return to Britain to get identity documents so he could study computer science at school.
Greater Manchester Police are currently considering whether to launch a criminal investigation into his disappearance.
It comes as photos revealed life in the Garden of Eden 'spiritual community' in southern France where Alex's fugitive mother is said to have lived – just a few miles from where the 'kidnapped' British teenager was found after six years .
Ms Batty is said to have joined the community in late summer after it was formed in February this year at an abandoned campsite just a short drive from Chalabre, Aude.
The property was purchased by about 50 members of the 'Conscience Verte' (Green Conscious) association, who cleared the farmland to hold festivals throughout the summer and moved into tents and dilapidated huts on the 43-hectare site.
About five miles away, a cafe owner in Chalabre claims he served Mrs Batty, who he knew as 'Rose', along with Alex and his grandfather last Saturday.
It comes amid claims that 17-year-old Alex told French police officers that his mother had gone to Finland because she “wanted to see the Northern Lights”, something residents have denied.
Spread over 43 hectares of farmland, 'L'Eden', where Mrs Batty is said to have stayed under the name Rose, has flower meadows, woodlands and a river running through it.
Tents, tepees and huts dot the rolling hills and horses, dogs and cats roam around whenever they please.
A British expat, who has lived in Chalabre for more than 20 years, said: 'I know Rose and her family. She is not in Finland as claimed in the press.
“Rose lived in the Garden of Eden community. There are many festivals throughout the summer and she went there often.
'She came to live there at the end of the summer, early October I would think. She lived there until about a month ago. She left when the weather turned bad. She rented a room in a friend's house.
“Rose actually only got here a few days ago. She finally left the area on Saturday morning. She didn't feel safe with all the media attention.
“I don't know where she went.”
Two members of the 'Conscience Verte' association refused to discuss the whereabouts of 'Rose' – Melanie Batty – when approached in the Garden of Eden community.
One man said: 'I don't know any English woman called Rose. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.'