A nine-year-old boy has been rescued in eastern France after being found locked inside his father’s utility van for more than a year, severely malnourished and unable to walk. The child, who was seven when he was allegedly first confined, has been hospitalized, and his father has been detained.
Police were alerted on Monday by a neighbor in the village of Hagenbach, near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, who reported hearing sounds of a child coming from a van. Responding officers forced the vehicle open and discovered the boy in a fetal position, naked, and covered by a blanket amidst trash and excrement. Investigators were told the child had not showered since 2024 and could no longer walk due to prolonged confinement in a seated position.
According to Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz, the boy’s father told investigators that he placed his son in the van in November 2024 to protect him from his partner, who he claimed wanted to send the boy to a psychiatric hospital. However, the prosecutor stated that there was no medical record indicating the boy had any psychiatric problems prior to his disappearance, and that he had achieved good grades in school.
The rescued child reportedly told investigators that he experienced significant difficulties with his father’s partner and believed his father had no choice but to lock him away. The father has been handed preliminary charges, including kidnapping, and remains in custody. The father’s partner has denied any knowledge of the boy’s confinement and faces preliminary charges for failing to assist a minor in danger, though she has been released under judicial supervision.
The boy’s 12-year-old sister and the 10-year-old daughter of his father’s partner have been placed in the care of social services. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the extent to which others may have been aware of the boy’s situation, as friends and family members had reportedly been led to believe the child was in a psychiatric institution, and his teachers were told he had transferred to a different school.
This case has raised concerns regarding child welfare monitoring mechanisms in France, particularly when children are withdrawn from the school system. French law mandates that schools report such withdrawals to authorities, but the effectiveness of subsequent follow-up procedures has been a subject of debate in past cases. The father, an electrician, admitted to investigators that he had been monitoring his son with a video surveillance camera pointed at the van and would deliver cold meals and water twice daily. Surveillance footage reportedly showed him attending to the van. The child was taken to a hospital in Mulhouse for medical and psychological assessments to determine the full extent of his trauma.
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