Émile Soleil went missing in the French Alps last year (Picture: AFP)
Bones belonging to a todder who disappeared without trace eight months ago have been found in the Alps.
Ramblers discovered the remains of Émile Soleil, two close to the isolated family home from where he went missing in July last year.
He had been staying at his grandparents’ house, and was last seen playing in their garden.
The discovery yesterday was today described as a key breakthrough in a criminal enquiry that has baffled detectives.
A statement released by public prosecutors in Aix-en-Provence today said ‘genetic analysis identifies’ the bones as belonging to Èmile.
It added that ‘criminalistic analysis’ was also underway, and that gendarmes were carrying out ‘additional research’ in the area where they were found.
The search site is two miles as the crow flies from the house in Haut-Vernet, a hamlet south of Grenoble, where Émile was last seen with his grandfather, Philippe Vedovini, 58.
French gendarmes take part in a search operation for Emile (Picture: Getty)
The French southern Alps village of Le Vernet, where Emile went missing while staying with his grandparents (Picture: AFP)
It comes after a massive search of the mountain area last year came up with nothing, despite including helicopters, thermal camera drones and sniffer dogs.
There had been no trace of Émile since, with investigators refusing to rule out any theory for the tragedy, including abduction and murder.
Émile was officially in the care of his grandfather on the day of his disappearance, as his parents took a break.
A witness saw Mr Vedovini, a physiotherapist-osteopath, cutting wood outside his house around the time Émile is thought to have wandered off.
There was no immediate comment about the discovery of the bones from Émile’s family, who were all at Easter Sunday mass when told.
Mr Vedovini is a devout Catholic who gave up a vocation to become a monk, in order to marry his wife, Anne Vedovini.
They brought up 10 children, including Émile’s mother, who is now known by her married name of Marie Soleil after she married Émile’s father, Colomban Soleil, 26.
Lead prosecutor Rémy Avon, who is heading the judicial enquiry into Émile’s disappearance said the possibilities that Émile had been murdered, kidnapped, or got involved in an accident were all being looked at.
He confirmed that Émile’s parents’ home, in the southern town of La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, was searched back in July, while the grandparents homes nearby, and in the Alps, were also raided.
Émile’s family had called on people to pray to Benoîte Rencurel – a French shepherd said to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary from 1664 to 1718.
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