British Alex Batty was abducted when he was 11 years old.
Six years later, he was found by the side of the road in southern France.
The teenager fled to avoid moving to Finland.
Susan Caruana received the message on Facebook on Wednesday.
It was written at 2 am and the meaning was dramatic.
“Hi Grandma, I’m Alex. I am in Toulouse in France. I really hope you get this message. I love you and want to come home”.
Alex Batty, now 17, had borrowed a phone from the motorist who picked him up in the rain along the road.
Finland was the final straw
Susan Caruana’s six-year battle to get back the grandchild she had custody of was thus over. And ended happily.
Over the weekend they will be reunited in the UK, French authorities say.
A possible further flight to Finland was the last straw for the 17-year-old and made him leave his mother, who took him away during a holiday in Spain.
Alex was 11 and living with his grandmother when she let her daughter Melanie Batty and ex-husband David Batty, mother and grandfather of the boy, take him to Malaga.
They never returned.
Susan Caruana has said she suspects they abducted Alex to “give him an alternative lifestyle”.
Picked up in the rain
– They don’t want him to go to school. They don’t believe in regular schools, she said in connection with an appeal for help to find the boy in 2018.
– I love him so much. I’m starting to think I’ll never see him again. I just hope this helps find him. I die a little inside every day, she said then.
When Alex was taken away, the grandmother had had custody of him for three years.
And now they are soon together in Oldham, outside Manchester, again.
Student Fabien Accidini was out driving in the rain in the middle of the night when he saw a teenager with a backpack, a skateboard under one arm and a flashlight in his hand walking along the road.
He offered him a ride.
Didn’t believe the story
– For the first few minutes, he seemed a little shy. We tried to converse in French, but I realized that he did not have a good command of the language. Then we started talking in English, says Accidini to the newspaper La Depeche according to The Guardian.
After initially giving a fake name, the teenager finally revealed his name was Alex Batty – and then pulled the whole story for the stunned student.
– He said that he was not hostile towards his mother, but that he really wanted to be reunited with his grandmother. He really missed his loved ones.
The 17-year-old said that he had been wandering for four days since he left his mother and her cult-like group.
He slept during the day and walked at night.
They had lived with about ten other people who carried solar panels wherever they went. He didn’t go to any school.
Accidini states that he did not believe the story at first, but agreed to call the police.
– The police showed up after I called to explain the situation. It was only then that I realized it was all true.
“Nice to hear his voice”
Antoine Leroy, district attorney in Toulouse, states that Alex Batty was forced to move around quite a lot during the years on the run with his mother, writes the BBC.
But when she started talking about Finland, the teenager decided to “get her life back in Britain”.
– When his mother said she would take him to Finland, he understood that this needs to end, says Leroy according to the BBC.
Susan Caruana spoke through Manchester police on Friday afternoon.
“I spoke to him last night and it was so nice to hear his voice and see his face again. I can’t wait until we meet again,” she says.
The mother still gone
“The most important thing is that he is in safe hands after what would have been an overwhelming experience for anyone, especially a child.”
French authorities are now working to piece together Alex Batty’s life since he disappeared.
It is stated that the 17-year-old appears as an intelligent and easy-going person, despite the fact that he has not attended school since he was 11 years old.
There are no suspicions that he has been subjected to any physical abuse.
His grandfather who participated in the abduction is believed to have died about six months ago. The authorities have not been able to find the mother yet.