Detectives return to French village to solve missing toddler mystery

Le Vernet, France: Investigators cordoned off a tiny village in the French Alps Thursday to solve the mystery of a missing toddler whose disappearance...

Le Vernet, France: Investigators cordoned off a tiny village in the French Alps Thursday to solve the mystery of a missing toddler whose disappearance last summer gripped the nation.

Emile, two-and-a-half, was staying with his grandparents for the first day of the summer holidays when he disappeared on July 8 last year.

Two neighbours last saw him in the late afternoon walking alone on a street in Haut-Vernet, a small settlement of 25 inhabitants at an altitude of around 1,200 metres (4,000 feet).

The little boy, barely 90 cm (35 inches) tall, was wearing a yellow T-shirt, white shorts and tiny hiking shoes, according to a call for witnesses at the time.

A massive on-the-ground search involving dozens of police and soldiers, sniffer dogs, a helicopter and drones failed to find him in July.