US EditionBoy in France kept in locked utility van for nearly 2 years before being rescued this week
The father faces kidnapping charges as prosecutors say the boy was malnourished and unable to walk after months of confinement.
- Police discovered a 9-year-old boy living in a utility van in Hagenbach, France, after a neighbor reported "sounds of a child" coming from the vehicle on Monday.
- According to Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz, the father claimed he placed the child in the truck in November 2024 to "protect him" from his partner, who wanted to send the boy to a psychiatric hospital.
- Inside the van, police found the child "lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement," and noted he was malnourished and unable to walk.
- Authorities detained the father on preliminary kidnapping charges, while the partner was charged with failure to help a minor in danger and released under judicial supervision.
- Officials continue investigating whether others were aware of the boy's location, as teachers were told he had transferred schools; authorities placed his sister and the partner's daughter in social services care.
247 Articles
247 Articles
MULHOUSE.- A 43-year-old man was arrested after having kept his nine-year-old son in a van for 16 months. The incident occurred in Hagenbach, a town of barely 800 inhabitants in the south-east of France. The minor was found Monday by the local police thanks to a neighbor who alerted the authorities for “a child’s noises” coming from the vehicle. The police arrested the man, whose identity did not transcend, who acknowledged having kept his son k…
The boy will have been kept in custody in the car by the father, who claimed to protect him from the woman, who “proceeded to bring the child into a psychiatric hospital”. His last bath was in 2024.
Shock as Nine-Year-Old Found Locked in Father's Van Is Unable to Walk After Being Forced to Sit Since 2024
French police rescued a malnourished nine-year-old boy from a locked utility van parked in a residential courtyard in the village of Hagenbach, eastern France, on 6 April after a neighbour heard what sounded like a child inside. The boy, who had been confined to the van since November 2024, could no longer walk, the Associated Press reported, citing Mulhouse prosecutor Nicolas Heitz. When officers forced the van open, they found the child naked …
A 43-year-old man has been charged in France for keeping his nine-year-old son locked in a van for more than a year, according to Le Monde newspaper. The minor was found last Monday by Hagenbach police, a small municipality of 800 inhabitants in the Alsace region, in the east of the country, after a neighbor heard “children’s noises” coming from the vehicle, which was parked in a courtyard of a housing block. The father has been imprisoned after…
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