The day after the discovery of bones belonging to little Émile, who disappeared last July, around a hundred gendarmes were engaged this Monday in Haut-Vernet (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) to resume the search, said Marie- Laure Pezant, spokesperson for the National Gendarmerie, guest of franceinfo.
Experts from the gendarmerie's criminal institute go to the site "to be able to analyze the area of discovery", details the latter. Mobile police officers are also engaged to ensure the security of the premises and prohibit access to the hamlet. They are deployed alongside gendarmes from the department, investigators from the research section and experts.
“Vintage chance that we missed it”
The weather, which has been unfavorable in recent hours, "necessarily complicates searches", said the spokesperson for the gendarmerie, particularly when it is necessary to use drones, she said: "We will favor a weather window more favorable, but that will not prevent you from going into the field. »
On Saturday, the national gendarmerie was informed of the discovery of bones corresponding to those of Émile nearly a kilometer from the hamlet of Vernet, in an area which had already been searched. “There is a tiny chance that we missed it when we did the search,” admitted Marie-Laure Pezant. “We had committed a huge amount of resources”, but this hypothesis remains possible “in view of the configuration of the place, the uneven terrain and the abundant vegetation in July. »
VIDEO. Disappearance of little Émile: bones belonging to him found in Haut-Vernet
“There is also the hypothesis that the bones were brought to the area,” she said. Among the experts dispatched this Monday, there are anthropologists, specialists in soil analysis, to find out if the bones were on site or if they were brought back “by a person, an animal who would have transported them, or by the weather conditions which would have modified the ground and which would have moved them here,” she says.
An on-site crime scene coordinator
The analyzes should allow us to find out more: “When you have a body that is placed on the ground, you have elements of the ground which allow you to know if the body has stayed for a certain time,” she explained to the radio microphone. At the same time, the analysis of bones can also provide some answers, but “these analyzes can be long,” she warns.
Also read “Émile would never have gone alone where we found him”: at Vernet, consternation and doubts
To organize these different levels of research and “proceed by method”, a crime scene coordinator will also be dispatched to the site, she adds.
Asked about a correlation between the scenario organized last week and the discovery, two days later, of the bones, the latter specifies that “for the moment no link has been made” between the two events. “We continue to exploit all the avenues,” she continues.
This twist actually occurred two days after a “scenario”, a sort of reconstruction of the facts carried out for the first time since the launch of the investigation. During this, 17 people were summoned, including all those present on the day of Émile's disappearance, to try to determine their actions in the last moments before his disappearance.