The grandparents of the grandparents of Little Emile and two other suspects were extended this Wednesday, March 26. The grandfather, who kept the child at the time of his disappearance, was asked about elements of his past connecting him to a case of violence.
The investigation into the disappearance and death of little Emile Soleil accelerates. Four people were arrested and placed in police custody Tuesday March 25: the child’s maternal grandparents, Philippe and Anne Vedavini, and two of their adult children, that is to say an uncle and an aunt of Emile. Their arrest were made for the chiefs of “voluntary homicide” and “concealment of corpse”, but it is not known for which of these two chiefs are heard the four suspects.
The prosecution said that “these custody investments are part of a phase of checks and confrontations of the elements and information collected during the investigations carried out in recent months”. Still, they are not taken lightly: police custody was extended for an additional 24 hours this Wednesday, March 26 and the suspects were heard several times. According to information from BFM, no convincing element was advanced in the face of the arrested during the first day of police custody. “Normally, [les enquêteurs] Never wait for the last hearing to shoot down their cards. [Mais] This can still be to attack today “, analyzes a source knowing the subject at BFMTV. Note that police custody will end at dawn on Thursday morning at the latest and that at the end of grandparents and their children could be released or brought up before a judge.
According to the accusations justifying the arrests, the investigators could seek whether the members of the Emile family arrested are involved in the death of the child and/or in an attempt to conceal the body. The murder hypothesis seems privileged to that of the accident which would have led to a placement in police custody for “manslaughter”. A scenario is therefore on the table and it must now be checked or on the contrary invalidate it: that of a death caused by one of the members of the family, then an agreement to hide the causes of the death and the disappearance of the child. This is just a work track at the moment.
In parallel with arrests, a search was made at the home of the Grandparents d’Emile located in La Bouilladisse, a town in Bouches-du-Rhône. It is also in this town that the little boy was buried. The Vedovini couple vehicle was seized as well as a horses’ transport trailer. Analyzes to find possible DNA traces should be carried out. Other criminalic operations took place in various places in the territory, said the prosecution. Furthermore, as BFMTV indicates, complementary hearings of other witnesses, including one of the great grandfathers of the child, were also carried out, “in the continuity of the investigation”
The profile of the Emile grandfather interests the investigators
The arrest of Emile’s grandparents and their two children “were scheduled”, according to a source close to the file with several media. They are part of the continuity of the investigation which is still interested in the family entourage and close to the child, especially in the last people to have seen him alive. They are not linked to the traces of blood discovered on a planter of the Haut-Vernet church seized by the investigators on March 13.
The grandparents of the little boy had already been approached by the investigators after the disappearance of Emile, which occurred on July 8, 2023 in the village of Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. And for good reason: the little boy was in the family home of Philippe and Anne Vedovini and under the supervision of the couple at the time of his disappearance. After The Parisianthe placement in police custody of the grandfather of Emile and other relatives had been envisaged in the second quarter of 2024 before being short-circuited by the discovery of the child’s bones by a hiker. If the placement in police custody of Philippe Vedovini is not a new idea, it was motivated by new elements: telephone listening revealing dissensions between the grandfather and the parents of Emile according to The Parisian. The profile of Philippe Vedovini, a reputedly severe father of a family of ten children to whom he gave a rigorous Christian education, had caught the attention of the investigators. During his police custody, he was asked about his role within the family and his involvement in the case of sexual violence at the Catholic Institute of Riaumont in Pas-de-Calais in the 1990s.
The serious track of a human intervention
The authorities are more and more some that the boy could not disappear alone at the Haut-Vernet while he was staying with his grandparents. “Whether there is an author, that is almost no doubt. Did he voluntarily affect the child or involuntarily? It is impossible to say for the moment. But that there can be human intervention, that is now very likely,” confided a source close to the file to BFM DICI At the beginning of March.
The track of the intervention of a third person in the death of Emile gained thickness in view of several elements: the analysis of the psychomotricity and the endurance of a two -year -old child in such a sinuous space and with such a positive drop discredits the track of the lifetime. In addition, there is this DNA found on the little boy’s bones and clothes. And more recently, the discovery of traces of blood on a planter of the Haut-Vernet church has further prompted this track. Result of the analyzes was not communicated, but in the latest news, the investigators were to determine whether the blood found is of human origin and, in which case, trying to extract a DNA to compare it to the genetic footprint found on the bones of the little Emile. A correspondence between the two DNAs would strengthen the hypothesis of the involvement of a third party in the death of a little boy.
The fact remains that the hypothesis of an accident or a deadly illness of the little boy is not left aside by the investigators and always constitute a possible scenario. The accidental track has not yet been completely excluded, such as that of manslaughter and that of opportunity crime are always envisaged.
11:11 – An extension of “predictable” police custody for the lawyer for the grandfather of Emile
The lawyer for the grandfather of Emile, Me Isabelle Colombani, was not surprised by the extension of her client’s police custody. “It was completely predictable, in this kind of file, given the qualification, the extension is almost right,” she said before the press this Wednesday morning. “We will take over this legal marathon and we will see a little bit the questions that will be asked and the answers that will be brought,” she added specifying the “total cooperation” of Philippe Vedovini to the investigation.
Emile’s grandmother also saw her police custody extended this Wednesday. His lawyer, Me Julien Pinelli, also expressed himself recalling “the test” that his client lives: “It is obvious that for a grandmother who has lost his grandson in such dramatic circumstances, being heard in the context of police custody on the circumstances of this case is necessarily a test. Nevertheless, he will never have escaped anyone that this family has known others and that the one that is currently being derived.”
10:54 – Emile’s grandfather interviewed on an element of his past
If during the first hearings, the investigators did not present convincing elements to police custody, they mentioned special subjects with the latter, in particular with the grandfather of Emile. Philippe Vedovini presented as a severe patriarch was asked about his role within his family of ten children and his relationships with each of his children. Questions probably related to dissensions with the parents of the little boy revealed by telephone listening. The grandfather of Emile was then asked about his involvement in the case of sexual violence of the Catholic Institute of Riaumont in Pas-de-Calais in the 1990s. The man was an educator in the establishment and had been accused by certain students of violence and sexual assault on minors at the time of the case, he had been heard under the status of assisted witness. He had then recognized physical reprimands, but no sexual violence: “The kicks, yes, I put in the back. The slaps, I put a few. The punches, I put it a few times, but for example at the shoulders.”
08:56 – A decisive day this Wednesday for the suspects?
The Emile affair can experience a turning point this Wednesday. Investigators could put elements demonstrating to the table to the suspects why they were arrested on homicide and concealment of corpse. “Normally, the investigators never wait for the last hearing to shoot down their cards. The first, we are nice. The second is muscular and the third, we show which sauce the custody will be eaten. It can still be to attack today,” analyzes a legal specialist with BFMTV. According to the media, yesterday, “no convincing element” was presented to the suspects.
08:43 – The extended police custody this Wednesday
The four police custody was extended this morning for an additional 24 hours. His two grandparents, his aunt and his uncle, who were arrested yesterday in the Bouches-du-Rhône for “voluntary homicide” and “concealment of corpse”, are therefore still heard all day. According to information from Franceinfo, suspects respond to investigators, demonstrating an attitude of good cooperation, without the desire to remain silent.
03/25/25 – 23:41 – 24 -hour police custody for the grandfather of Émile
According to the latest information communicated by BFMTV, police custody of the Emile maternal grandfather was extended by 24 hours this Tuesday evening. However, no details were given concerning the other three family members.
03/25/25 – 23:23 – The third hearing of the maternal grandfather of Émile still in progress
According to information from BFMTV, the maternal grandfather of Petit Émile is particularly interested in investigators. Since 6 am this morning, he was auditioned three times, we have learned tonight. The third hearing was still underway at 11 p.m. on Tuesday.