Breakthrough in French toddler death mystery as grandparents arrested

Investigators haul off a horse trailer from the property of the grandparents of Emile Soleil, a French toddler who was found dead after going missing in 2023, after its seizure as part of the investigation into the boy's death, in La Bouilladisse, southeastern France, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP)

A lengthy investigation into the mysterious death in 2023 of a French toddler took a surprise turn on Tuesday when police arrested the boy's grandparents on suspicion of murder.

The death of Emile Soleil, a boy of two-and-a-half who went missing in a French Alpine village in July 2023, had remained unexplained even after some of his remains were discovered nine months later.