According to Le Parisien, a judicial investigation has been opened for "arbitrary kidnapping, arrest, detention and sequestration" following the disappearance of Emile.
The child was last seen at 5.15pm on Saturday 8 July in an alley in Haut-Verne. Emile had arrived to spend the summer holidays with his maternal grandparents in the hamlet, with a population of just 25 people. His disappearance remains a mystery, ten days on.
More than six weeks after his disappearance, the case is now being treated as a kidnapping.
Dozens of police and soldiers backed by dogs and a helicopter had searched 30 buildings, 12 vehicles and 12 hectares of terrain around Haut-Vernet, as well as interviewing 25 people in the first weeks.
The witness hotline, which was closed on 18 July, received 1,400 telephone reports, the prosecutor continued. From 18 July onwards, any pertinent information relating to the investigation was to be sent via email to disappearanceemile04@gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr.
Haut-Vernet lies two kilometres away from Vernet, the village of 125 inhabitants to which it is administratively attached, some 30 kilometres north of Digne-les-Bains.
