Overview
- A neighbor’s call about child noises led gendarmes to a van outside the father’s home in Hagenbach, where they found the boy.
- Prosecutors say he had been shut in the vehicle since autumn 2024 and was discovered curled in a fetal position on a pile of trash with only a blanket.
- The child remains in hospital under medical care while gendarmes and the prosecutor pursue a criminal inquiry.
- The 43-year-old father has been placed under formal investigation and is being held in pretrial detention.
- The stepmother is under investigation for alleged complicity and is free under judicial control with a ban on contact with the boy, the father’s 10-year-old daughter, and the partner’s 12-year-old daughter.