THE grandparents of missing Émile Soleil have been arrested on suspicion of murder in a shocking twist.
The two-year-old vanished two years ago while at his grandparent’s holiday home in France.
Philippe and Anne Vedovini, both 59, were arrested on Tuesday along with two of their adult children in connection with Émile’s death.
The four are all facing charges of “intentional homicide” and “concealing a corpse”, according to a statement from Aix-en-Provence prosecutors.
Émile’s parents, Marie and Colomban Soleil, are not believed to be the two adult children arrested.
Émile was officially in the care of his granddad the day he disappeared Marie and Colomban took a break.
Philippe later admitted “fifteen minutes of inattention”.
A witness saw Philippe, a physiotherapist-osteopath, cutting wood outside his house around the time Emile is thought to have wandered off.
The tot’s remains, including a fractured skull, were only discovered nine months later, following daily searches.
François Balique told Le Figaro at the time that the remains were found “on a path between the Church and Chapel” in the village – just over a 100 yards from his home.
But Mayor Balique said the hamlet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence had been “thoroughly searched by gendarmes”, suggesting that the bones could have been moved back to Vernet.
A source close to the investigation told The Mail that such a move would add a very disturbing element to the investigation.
It would be unlikely that animals would return human remains, the source claimed.
Instead they said the discovery suggests that “a person brought Émile’s remains back, and potentially very recently”.
Disturbing details about Émile’s granddad’s past emerged last year.
Multiple French news outlets including Le Parisien and Le Canard enchaîné reported the shocking details of a sex abuse scandal at the Roman Catholic school where he worked.
Philippe was training to be a monk when he worked at Riaumont, a Catholic community that includes a boarding school for troubled youngsters in Northern France.
The school in the Pas-de-Calais received multiple complaints from former pupils between 2014 and 2017.
They said they had suffered sexual abuse, including rape, in the early 1990s, as well as regular physical beatings.
Philippe was implicated in the enquiry as an “assisted witness”.
In an interview with the police in April 2018, Philippe admitted to administering “somewhat harsh” physical discipline, but insisted he had never broken the law, according to a source close to the enquiry.
11 former colleagues ended up being indicted on various charges.
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