In an area of France where a toddler vanished four days ago, blood has been found on the front of a car, according to police.
In the little village near Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Émile, age 2, was last seen playing outside his grandparents’ house on Saturday afternoon.
He has still not been located after 48 hours of thorough searching of the area.
Since his disappearance, there have been a number of theories about what really happened, including that the little boy was accidentally killed by a car or a tractor, and the driver hiding his body.
Police have now sent traces of blood found on a car for scientific analysis to see if they are human and might be linked to the missing child.
‘At the moment we don’t even know if it is human blood,’ said an investigating source.
‘It might be a very old trace too, so everybody is being very cautious about the find.’
It was also confirmed that Émile’s parents’ house in the town of La Bouilladisse, near Marseille, was searched by police on Monday.
Officers were looking into the family’s background,’ one judicial source working on the case said.
He said that the parents had lived in the house for a year, along with Émile and his baby sister, who was born earlier this year.
‘They are a very traditional family – high Catholics who prefer the Latin mass to the modern one,’ said the source.
‘The parents are passionate about sacred church music.’
This comes as police revealed there were at least 10 other family members staying in the Vernet house at the time of Émile’s disappearance.
A police source said: ‘A family reunion was taking place, with several uncles and aunts of the child, of all ages, including some minors.
‘Émile was seen on Saturday morning, along with other children.’