Breakthrough in French toddler death mystery as grandparents arrested

A pall-bearer carries the coffin of Emile Soleil during the funeral ceremony in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, southern France, on February 8, 2025. (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)

A long investigation into the mysterious death in 2023 of a French toddler took a surprise turn Tuesday when police arrested the boy’s grandparents on suspicion of murder.

The death of Emile Soleil, a two-and-a-half year old boy who went missing in a French Alpine village in July 2023, had remained unexplained even after the discovery of his skull and teeth by a walker nine months after his disappearance 1.7 kilometres (1.1 miles) from the village.

Prosecutors at the time said the cause of his death, which shocked the nation, could have been “a fall, manslaughter or murder”. Police later found more bones and items of the boy’s clothing.

Emile Soleil was at the summer home of his grandparents in the tiny hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet when he vanished.

Two neighbours last saw him walking alone on a street in Le Vernet, 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) up in the French Alps.

Emile’s mother and father were absent on the day of his disappearance.

Some media had focused on the role of boy’s grandfather, who had been questioned in the 1990s over alleged violence and sexual assault at a private school, but police had considered his involvement as only one of many possible hypotheses explaining the boy’s death.

But on Tuesday morning the grandfather, Philippe Vedovini, and his wife were arrested on suspicion of “voluntary homicide”, Aix-en-Provence chief prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon said in a statement sent to AFP.

Contacted by AFP the couple’s lawyer, Isabelle Colombani, said she had no comment, having “only just heard” about the development.

Two other members of the family were also arrested, prosecutors said. Their identity was not revealed.

Speculation that a development in the case was imminent resurfaced earlier this month when investigators returned to the village.

Tuesday’s arrests were the result of fact-finding “over recent months”, the prosecutor told reporters, adding that forensic police were examining “several spots in the area”.

A funeral mass for the toddler was held in February of this year in the presence of several hundreds of mourners.

Within hours of the ceremony, the grandparents published a statement saying “the period of silence must yield to the period of truth”, adding: “We need to understand, we need to know”.