The solo rambler who found the skull of missing French boy Émile Soleil has spoken of her shock and anguish at becoming a prime suspect in the mysterious case.
In her first interview since the remains of the two-year-old were discovered in the Alps, the woman said she ‘did not expect’ police to search her home.
They initially spoke to her for nine hours after her fateful walk, and then confiscated all her electronic devices.
Referred to by the BFM TV news channel as Manon, a woman in her 60s, she recalled on Wednesday setting off on a mountain path close to the isolated hamlet of Haut-Vernet, near Grenoble, on March 30th.
She knew that Émile had gone missing from the isolated hamlet, where he had been staying with his grandparents, eight months before, in July,
‘It was a time to stay under the duvet, because there was a lot of wind,’ she recalled, but instead she set off on a hike without a phone or a watch.
Émile Soleil’s (pictured) skull was found by a walker on March 30 ‘on a path between the Church and Chapel’ of the rural Alpine village of Haut Vernet in southeastern France. The woman who found it has spoken of her shock at becoming a prime suspect
An entrance of the French southern Alps village of Le Vernet, near the Haut-Vernet where two-year-old Emile went missing while staying with his grandparents
She could not recall how long she has been walking when she came across the macabre remains that she now calls ‘the thing’.
Expressing ‘amazement’ that police search parties using sniffer dogs had not seen it earlier, she said: ‘I found it in the middle of the path.
‘It was white, and very clean, There were only the top teeth…I cried, and then I calmed down.’
Unable to call anyone, Manon decided to put the skull inside one of two plastic bags she normally used to cover her feet when it was wet.
‘I could have left [the skull] but then, by the time I went back, it would no longer have been there,’ she said.
‘That’s why I picked it up, I know that on days with weather like this, if you wait, the mountain is no longer the same.’
Manon said that she took care not to touch the skull with her bare hands, but she ‘did not know’ if her DNA had transferred on to the remains.
Knowing that she would have to return to the spot, she said: ‘I said to myself, I need a landmark.
‘Then I saw a huge fir tree collapsed on its side. I said to myself, “this is the fir tree that will serve as a landmark”.’
Convinced that someone might have been involved in Émile’s death, Manon said: ‘I was running, I wanted to hurry.
‘I said to myself “quickly, quickly, I have to bring the thing back and the police will find the culprit, the investigation will finally move forward.’
Recalling her terrifying walk home, Manon said: ‘The whole trip, I carried the thing at arm’s length, because feeling the shape touching my body, terrified me’.
She arrived home at 2pm, and left the skull on the terrace, before calling police, saying, ‘Bringing him into the house was inconceivable.’
This photograph shows a general view of the Alpine hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet on March 31, 2024
French Gendarmes discuss on the road to the French southern Alps tiny village of Le Haut-Vernet, in Le Vernet on March 31, 2024, after French investigators have found the ‘bones’ of a toddler who went missing last summer
Detectives arrived at 3pm, and questioned Manon for nine hours without formally arresting her.
‘They were doing their job, I answered their questions, and that’s it,’ she said, adding: ‘The next day I didn’t expect it – search!’
Manon said police took her electronic devices, before returning them a week later, and saying she was free to carry on with her normal life.
Manon cried as she recalled her spoke about her ordeal to BFM, without any of her words being recorded by a camera.
Saying that she was very religious, Manon said her main thoughts were with Émile’s parents: ‘May they find peace… May God give them peace,’ said Manon.
Jean-Luc Blachon, the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor who is leading the criminal enquiry into Émile’s death, said the place where Manon found the skull had been searched extensively by gendarmes before her discovery.
He said wild animals ‘may have dispersed’ Émile’s remains and could also have been responsible for ‘small fractures and bite marks’ on his skull, as well as the missing teeth.
Mr Blachon said Manon was ruled out as a suspect following her interview and the home search, suggesting she only ‘wanted to do the right thing’.
But he admitted police were no closer to solving the mystery, saying manslaughter and murder were still considered possibilities.
Émile was officially in the care of his grandfather, Philippe Vedovini, 58, on the day of his disappearance, as his parents took a break.