Missing French toddler: 2 boys vanished from same region 34 years before Émile's disappearance

Where has little Émile gone? Since late afternoon on Saturday, July 8, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy is nowhere to be found. A large-scale search operation has been deployed in the village of Le Vernet, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region of France.

As the investigation continues a week later, the inhabitants of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region recall similar mysterious disappearances in the surrounding area. Yannis, aged 3, in 1989, and Mathieu, aged 10, in 1983.

The unexplained disappearance of Yannis in Ganagobie in 1989

On May 2, 1989, in the village of Ganagobie, located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region, 3-year-old Yannis was having fun building a tree house with his brothers and sisters, near the family home. It was around 10 a.m. when the little boy mysteriously disappeared. Calls for witnesses were launched, and hundreds of detectives, firemen and volunteers were mobilized. A photo of Yannis circulated throughout the small village of 90 inhabitants. But the investigation stalled.

There were no witnesses, no clues, no suspects. Sixteen months later, Yannis' parents found the clothes their son had been wearing on the day of his disappearance, 300 meters from their home. The investigation was finally closed in 2001. Thirty-four years later, Yannis is still missing.

Read more:Missing French toddler: Everything we know about Emile's family

Mathieu's disappearance from Peyroules in 1983

But a few years before Yannis' disappearance, 10-year-old Mathieu also vanished into thin air in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region. On June 25, 1983, in Peyroules, the little boy cycled from his parents' farm to a shepherd's, three kilometers away. Then there was no sign of him. His bicycle was found on the side of the road. The only sign so far is that of a figure in overalls, possibly the boy's kidnapper.

In February 2023, the Investigating Chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal announced that it was giving up its jurisdiction in the case of Mathieu Haulbert's disappearance, in favour of the Nanterre Pole, dedicated to cold cases and serial crimes.

Read more:Obsessed with true crime? Here is what it says about your personality

This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag FR.

Sources used:

La Provence: Disparition d'Emile : du Vernet à Ganagobie et Peyroules, le mystère de 3 enfants disparus dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

La Dépêche: Disparition d'Emile : il y a 34 ans, le petit Yannis a disparu à 60 km du Vernet et n'a jamais été retrouvé