Major twist in case of Emile Soleil, 2, who was found dead in the French Alps

Danny Rigg

Published March 25, 2025 9:48am Updated March 25, 2025 12:51pm

Émile Soleil, aged two, was found dead nine months after he went missing (Picture: @GendarmerieNationale_Twitter/AFP via Getty Images)

The grandparents of a two-year-old boy found dead in the French Alps have been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Émile Soleil was staying at Philippe and Anne Vedovini’s isolated holiday home in the hamlet of Haut-Vernet, south of Grenboble, when he went missing in July 2023.

He was found dead with a fractured skull, which bore a bite mark, roughly a mile away nine months later in March last year.

Early this morning, police raided the grandparents’ home near Marseille where they arrested them on suspicion of murder and concealing the body.

Two of their nine children were arrested nearby.

In a statement, prosecutors said: ‘This morning, Philippe Vedovini and his wife, grandparents of Émile Soleil, along with two of their adult children, were taken into custody.

‘These police custody placements are part of a phase of verification and comparison of the evidence and information gathered during the investigations carried out in recent months.

An order from the mayor of the commune of Vernet prohibits access to Haut Vernet to any unauthorized person, a gendarmerie system which blocks access to Haut-Vernet, Vernet, France on March 28, 2024. A scenario is organized in Haut-Vernet, the village where the little boy Emile, 2, was seen for the last time on July 8, 2023, in order to visualize the scene with actors and witnesses who were present, to know where they were during the period which is suspicious and possibly validate the hypotheses or open others. Photo by Thibaut Durand/ABACAPRESS.COM — Police blocked access to Haut-Vernet after Émile’s body was found on March 28 last year (Picture: Durand Thibaut/ABACA/PA)

(FILES) This photograph shows a general view of the Alpine hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet on March 31, 2024, after French investigators have found near the tiny village the "bones" of a toddler who went missing last summer. Four people, including Emile's grandfather Philippe Vedovini and grandmother, have been held for questionning by police on grounds of "homicide" and "concealment of a corpse" early on March 25, 2025, the prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence announced in a communique.Emile, a two-and-a-half year old boy went missing while at the summer home of his grandparents in the French Alpine tiny hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet on July 8, 2023. (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images) — Émile’s parents, where were not present at the time of his disappearance, are not believed to be among those arrested (Picture: Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images)

The statement adds: ‘Investigators are also conducting forensic operations in various locations across the country.’

Mr Vedovini, a physiotherapist-osteopath, was seen by a witness cutting wood outside the Haut-Vernet house around the time Émile is thought to have disappeared.

The two-year-old went missing while under the supervision of his grandmother, who admitted there were ‘fifteen minutes of inattention’.

It had been considered possible Émile had wandered off and got lost in the wilderness.

The discovery of his clothes scattered over several metres near his body led to speculation among locals that he had been attacked by wolves.

Others suggested he had died from hunger, thirst or exhaustion, French newspaper Le Parisien reported.

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