Disappearance of Antoine de Brugerolle - police looking for a white Peugeot car.

Le Figaro 10/11/08

Antoine's mother and her partner, who state they don't drive, were allegedly seen driving alone in a car.

Consulting vehicle licensing records, checking with garages, searching through motorway tolls: two months after little Antoine's disappearance in Issoire, the police step up their investigations with the hope of finding a white Peugeot car in which a witness states having seen the child's mother and her partner driving on the outskirts of the small town, alone, a few days before the alert was issued.

Considered to be "reliable" by the investigators of the unit "Disappearance 63", this witness statement, if confirmed by physical evidence, could move the case forward because since she reported her son's disappearance on September 11th at 9.47pm, Alexandrine Brugerolle de Fraissinette, who has neither a car nor driving licence, maintains that she does not know how to drive - same with her partner, Sébastien Ribière. "Since the start, their defence rests notably on this statement, a source close to the case reveals. If the child's body has not been found in Issoire in spite of a great many searches, we must accept that someone has transported it out of the town, probably in a motor vehicle - of which they state they are incapable."

Bin bags

In the days that followed the child's disappearance, the police wondered why Alexandrine Brugerolle obtained a pack of 100 litre bin bags on September 10th, which were not found in her home. In custody, she indicated having made that purchase in error before going back and exchanging them at Monoprix for 30 litre bags. However, checks with the supermarket did not confirm that version, the check-outs not having retained any trace of the exchange.

Exploring all leads, including that of an abduction, the investigators are also interested in a debt of "several thousand euros" that Alexandrine's partner allegedly ran up in connection with drug trafficking near Clermont. "At the moment, that hypothesis is not backed up by any real facts", a source close to the investigation explains, however. In the end, several police officers continue to work on the theory according to which the child could have been taken from his mother by a third party wishing to offer him a "better" life.

In this context, checks were made with the people around Alexandrine, for the moment, without result. Antoine's mother, aged 23, recently found a place to live in Clermont-Ferrand. "Before that, for a time she took refuge with her father who left soon after her birth, recently moved back to Puy-de-Dôme," her lawyer Anne-Laure Lebert explains, and goes on: "My client, who is unjustly suspected from the start, is trying to stay hopeful of seeing her son alive again - but she is afraid that the delay at the beginning of the investigation may not be made up."

'Antoine de Brugerolle de Freysinette was like a son to Stéphane Bourcelin.

Restaurant, "Le Bon Croûton."

Stéphane Bourcelin is the boss of the restaurant where Antoine's mother Alexandrine worked for two years. He got to know Antoine really well, spending a great deal of time with him when he came to the restaurant with his mother.

Le Post 16/10/08

Stéphane's interview with Le Post on the subject of his relationship with Antoine.

"I am terribly upset, I'm not doing well," Stéphane Bourcelin, boss of "Le Bon Croûton," restaurant in Isoirre (Puy-de-Dôme repeated this Thursday to the Post.

The person who, from the start of the "case" has said that he considers the child to be "like a son," is the former employer of Alexandrine, Antoine's mother. She worked with him for nearly two years, before going on sick leave on August 13th last.

Stéphane Bourcelin learned of Antoine's disappearance on September 11th, the evening his disappearance was officially announced: "Alex called me and told me "Antoine has gone."

His apartment was searched on September 16th, his "computer and all of Antoine's things," were seized.

This Thursday morning it was his mother's house that was searched.

Although not suspected, he preferred to appoint a lawyer: Me Gilles-Jean Portejoie, who tells the Post: "My client is fed up with being in the spotlight.

To the Post, Stéphane Bourcelin, who doesn't have a life since the disappearance, expresses himself.

How are you?

"Very very bad. I haven't been sleeping for over a month now. I'm not eating. I have lost 10kg. I am very stressed. I am covered in eczema plaques. This morning, I went to the doctor again. He has put me on anti-depressants."

Are you still working?

"I don't go there very much, and I have no wish to. So, the restaurant isn't doing well. And with all that, there are fewer clients. It is difficult."

What relationship do you have with Antoine?

"He is like a son to me. For two years, he was in my restaurant every day. I knew him very well. I am very attached to him. I miss him a lot."

"What did he do in your bar?

"He watched TV, he hung out around the place, he played with other children. As his mother did not want a child-minder, he was always with us. Sometimes, he watched DVDs with me, at the back of the restaurant, so that he was not underfoot during serving."

What do you think of this disappearance?

"I find it hard to believe that Antoine would leave on his own. I keep hearing that he is very resourceful, but I don't actually agree."

Why?

"He was four and a half when he arrived and he didn't speak. He was very shy. Afterwards, he made progress. But well, he always forgot something: his jacket, his shoes, his stuff...like all 6 year-old kids."

What relationship do you have with Antoine's mother?

"We had a brief relationship when we first met, but it has been over for ages. I put her up the first summer that we worked together. She didn't have an apartment. Later, she got her apartment and we carried on working together. With her ups and downs, she is a very hard-working girl with a very bad temper."

What is the atmosphere like in Issoire?

"They're all talking constantly about Antoine. Nobody knows what happened. We hear all sorts of things. As I knew the child, I feel like I'm being watched all the time. I don't have a life any more. My mother's house was searched this morning. That was a shock to her. It shouldn't be forgotten that I am not there for nothing."

Antoine's grandmother, Cécile Grugerolle de Fraysinette, has been constitutes a civil party. Me Gilbert Collard is representing her.

In Le Post see also:

- Disparition d'Antoine: "La priorité, c'est chercher mon gosse"
- Disparition d'Antoine: où en est l'enquête?
- "On cherche Antoine sous terre, dans les caves, chez les gens"

Le Post 16/10/08

Information concerning the above:

coach@lepost.fr

Antoine, the forgotten child.

Georges Moréas 19/10/08

The former boss of the RG wrote a little black book about Sarkozy, who himself, sent his investigators to investigate the investigators who were investigating Besancenot (Presidential candidate in 2007 election.)
The Bourse plays yo-yo , the traders tie themselves in knots, they whistle the Marseillaise...Ah yes! There is no news of little Antoine.

Double standards.

a) On a May evening in 2007, the national director of the PJ receives a call on his mobile phone: "A child has disappeared..." From the next day, important people from the world of politics and the judiciary are on the spot, followed by a pack of journalists from all over the world. The case becomes Number One for the press, in Europe, in the United States...Before the cameras, the mother makes a plea, "to those who have done this." Specialists from Scotland Yard come to help the local investigators. In total, 150 police officers are mobilised. Two days later, the PJ director officially announces to the media: "It is an abduction". A support fund is set up on the internet and rich business men rush to the aid of the family.

That was in Portugal. Madeleine McCann, little Maddie, who disappeared on Thursday May 3rd 2007, at around 10pm, while her parents were dining with friends.

b) At practically the same time, that Thursday, September 11th 2008, Alexandrine Brugerolle de Fraissinette called the gendarmerie. "My son has disappeared", she told them. But hey! Alexandrine is 23 years old, she doesn't have much education, she is a lone parent and she works as a waitress at a restaurant in Issoire, a town of 13,000 inhabitants in Puy-de-Dôme. I am afraid the PJ's national director's phone stayed quiet that evening. At the end of the following day, in the absence of any elected official, any government representative, 80 officers of the gendarmerie (La Montagne) set out to help their colleagues in their search.

The facts: Alexandrine and Sébastien, her lover, decided to go out to a restaurant for dinner. It is not known whether it was Antoine who requested it (He is only 6 and a half, but he already displays a certain character.) or if it was a punishment, but the child stayed at home, with the two dogs. The apartment where he lives with his mother is in the Issoire town centre, at 1 Rue Des Fours. The restaurant, The Saigon, where Alexandrine and Sébastien have dinner, is at 45 Rue du Palais, three minutes walk away.

When his mother comes back, at around 9.30pm, Antoine isn't there. No mess, no evidence of intrusion.

The investigators think runaway. Then it is said that the child allegedly left the house carrying a little backpack and a packet of biscuits. And the Clermont-Ferrand proscutor of the Republic, Jean-Yves Coquillat, doesn't put the abduction-alert plan into operation.

There is something unvarying in disappearances of children or adults: it is that at the beginning, there is always a refusal to envisage the worst. This is true for the family and it is true for the investigators. Thus, searches start slowly and it is only in the early hours of the morning that things start to become serious. The police coordinate their efforts. They criss-cross the town. Others comb the outskirts of Issoire...They call in the dogs who, "mark," an area of ponds. They bring in a team of divers. They even bring in a helicopter equipped with a thermal camera, but given the weather, it will only be operational on the Sunday afternoon. During this time, some men go down into the Issoire sewers. Meanwhile, another team is engaged in a classic criminal investigation: looking for evidence in the home, interviewing witnesses, searches...

The investigation: Finally, three days after the child's disappearance, the prosecutor decides on the opening of a criminal investigation for the abduction and illegal confinement of a minor under the age of 15. He states: "The more time goes by, the more the idea of a runaway loses credibility and I am not very optimistic." Soon, the press takes up the suspicions weighing on Antoine's mother, and adds: "the red-haired woman...the seductress....the lone mother...., she created a prison..." The descriptions are of the same ilk for Sébastien: druggie...., violent...., he beats Antoine up..." So much gossip amplified by the prosecutor's innuendo.




On Wednesday September 24th, Alexandrine, her partner and six of their acquaintances are taken into custody. The apartment is again taken over by forensic technicians. They sound the walls, the parquet tiles are lifted, places are gone over with a fluorescent light. All that is found is two small drops of blood, tiny, near the switch, in Antoine's bedroom.

Finally, everyone is released, except Sébastien, who is imprisoned for something else. One of the leading investigators confesses: "We need to go back to the beginning..."

The reconstruction (subject to change): One month before the tragedy, Alexandrine was working as a waitress at the Au Bon Croûton restaurant, owned by Stéphane Bourcelin. They had an affair when she was hired in 2006. It was she who broke it off and contrary to gossip, there are no other known liaisons, until her meeting Sébastien in July 2008, at the time when Antoine is on holiday with his great-grandmother.

In the restaurant business, the 35 hour week is unknown. She works hard. Long days, sometimes without a day off in the week. Towards mid-August, she breaks down and her doctor tells her to take time off work. Stéphane does not appreciate this, especially as he can no longer see Antoine, because he seems to have taken a liking to this little kid. He often played with him, or they watched videos together. He even offered him a Playstation. And suddenly, he is deprived of Antoine and of his....waitress, because Alexandrine and Sébastien have other projects. They want to get married, start a real family. Sébastien even envisages "adopting" Antoine.

Things seem to be sorting themselves out for Alexandrine and her son. Perhaps the end of hardship..Until that famous evening. Today, we can reconstruct the events with far less risk of error than at the beginning. First of all the rumours, according to which no one allegedly saw the child for around a fortnight, are without foundation. In fact, two days after Antoine's disappearance, the gendarmes recorded the statement of a witness who stated having seen him, at his home, coming out of the bathroom.

On September 11th, a neighbour heard the child playing in the apartment, at around 7.15pm. His bedroom light was on. Later in the evening, her attention was drawn to a car stopping at the foot of the building. Then there were footsteps on the stairs. A little later, the car took off at a cracking speed.

Antoine did not leave with a small bag and a packet of biscuits as has been said, but with a large bag belonging to Sébastien. A black (or navy blue) bag nearly as tall as himself, in which clothes must have been packed, clothes where were not found in his wardrobe. His soft toy, a little cat, which was always dragged around with him, also disappeared.

So, what happened on the evening of Thursday September 11th? Did Antoine's mother chop her child into small pieces, which she then crammed into bin bags, as hinted at by a newspaper, which I will not even name?

Or taking advantage of the child's being alone, someone came to find him? And with what intentions?

The president of the Esperanza Association (blog about Antoine's disappearance) Madame Lydie Fontenil, wants to hold onto this possibility. "There is really nothing new," she told me on the telephone, "but little clues allow us to maintain hope." We should listen to what she says, because she is a woman of experience. For years she has devoted herself to searching for missing children. And she knows that sometimes it ends well. When Antoine disappeared, with his mother's agreement, she set up a blog devoted to him. She responds to numerous telephone calls, she puts pressure on "her" volunteers (she is looking for new ones) she shakes up her information network, she supports Alexandrine etc. "I have lost six kilos," she smilingly confessed to me.

A few days ago, in the little station, in the area of Paris where I take the RER, there was a missing person poster. It was about a fifteen year-old teenager who lives in Nantes. I don't know about you, but in the Paris area, I have never seen a poster about Antoine.

That is why I wanted to write these lines. I know this is only a blog...

It is said that women are more sensitive than men, above all as soon as we are talking about children...The two ministers directly responsible for this investigation are women. Are they at least aware? In any case, no one has heard from them.

When a couple of tourists were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Djibouti, the President of the Republic took things in hand. This same president, when he was Minister for the Interior, had moved heaven and earth to find little Estelle Mouzin.*

A little six and a half year old boy has been missing for 38 days - and the silence of those people, those who hold power, is deafening.

*See previous posts on this blog.

Enfants Kidnappés 30/09/08 - disappearance of Antoine de Brugerolle in Issoire (France) Summary Part 3

Enfants Kidnappés

The search resumes.

The search for little Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme), resumed on Monday in Perrier with the exploration of caves by cavers from the gendarmerie.

The area in Perrier, around 4km west of Issoire with around 300 troglodyte caves and caverns, had already been explored by gendarmes and dogs shortly after the child's disappearance was reported.

The whole area was examined more thoroughly throughout the day by cavers from the Peleton Haut Montagne Gendarmerie of Grenoble. (PGHM)

On September 27th, Jean-Yves Coquillat, the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, had declared the search "suspended" but would be taken up again at the "slightest development," in the investigation.

We are not aware of what had motivated this new search.

Enfants Kidnappés 30/09/08 - disappearance of Antoine de Brugerolle in Issoire (France) Summary Part 2

Enfants Kidnappés

28 septembre 2008

Searches suspended.

The search for little Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) has been "suspended" for now and will be taken up again on the "slightest development," in the investigation, we learned on Saturday from the Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, Jean-Yves Coquillat.

"We are at a stage of the investigation where the search has been suspended and will be taken up again on the slightest development," M. Coquillat told AFP.

The latter stated on Friday that the investigation into Antoine's disappearance, "had only begun," and that he, "was not excluding any theory," including the child's "family circle."

During the day, on the basis of witness statements, the gendarmes had combed, in vain, the Suc wood and surveyed a neighbouring body of water, in Vernet-la-Varenne (Puy-de-Dôme) the village Sébastien, Antoine's mother's partner, comes from. Witnesses had stated having seen individuals throwing a bag into that pond.

Meanwhile, Antoine's mother, Alexandrine, aged 23, remanded in custody in Clermont-Ferrand on Wednesday and then released on Thursday without charge, spent the day with her lawyer in order to constitute herself as a civil party in this case.

She said she was, "exasperated," and "sickened," that she should be suspected of "having harmed her kid," in an interview on Saturday in the daily newspaper La Montagne. "That's the truth. I love my son. I miss him," she told the newspaper.

Her partner Sébastien, a dropout aged 29 and also remanded in custody on Wednesday, was held but in the context of a separate case of trafficking in narcotics.

Six others who were remanded, friends of the couple, aged 20 -30, were also released on Thursday without charge.

Enfants Kidnappés 30/09/08 - disappearance of Antoine de Brugerolle in Issoire (France)

Enfants Kidnappés

Summary of the case. Part 1

24 septembre 2008

Antoine's mother and her partner remanded in custody.

The investigation into the disappearance of Antoine, aged six and a half, reported missing on September 11th in Issoire (Puy-de-Dôme) accelerated on Wednesday when eight people were placed on remand, including the child's mother and her partner. Alexandrine, aged 23, and her partner Sébastien, aged 29, were placed on remand on Wednesday afternoon together with six others, "close to the couple," Jean-Yves Coquillat, Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor, told AFP.
According to a source close to the investigation, they are in custody with the Issoire and Clermant-Ferrand gendarmerie.
"The investigating magistrates and the investigators consider that they have sufficient evidence to proceed at this stage, to put questions to them," explained the prosecutor, refusing to say what the new evidence was.

In the afternoon. the investigators, assisted by forensic specialists and technicians, carried out a , "much more thorough," search for almost two hours in the mother's apartment in old Issoire.
"The gendarmes ripped up the floor to take new samples, the results of which will be known during the term of remand," explained M. Coquillat.
A few days ago, two small drops of the little boy's blood were revealed in Antoine's bedroom. But the prosecutor had then considered that this did not constitute, "a decisive element, since these spots (may) have been left following a nose bleed or accidental cut."

During their remand, the investigators will question the couple and those close to them about a number of grey areas remaining in this case, notably on the exact date of the child's disappearance.
"We need some answers," stressed the magistrate, who will give a press briefing on Thursday at 5pm.
The once favoured idea that the little boy ran away had rapidly lost all consistency, and on September 14th the prosecutor opened an investigation for, "abduction and sequestration of a minor."

Antoine's mother had told the investigators several times that she had gone out to a restaurant for dinner with her partner on September 11th at around 8pm, and that they discovered the child's disappearance on their return, at around 9.15pm. But the child, who went back to school on September 2nd, has not been in class since, because of gastro-enteritis, according to his mother, who never responded to calls from the school's director who was worried by this absence.

According to witnesses, the child was seen for the last time on September 6th.
The gendarmes continued meanwhile to gather witness statements on the personality of the mother and her partner, both of whom have already served prison sentences for trafficking of narcotics.
"These people are somewhat strange," stressed the prosecutor. "This became apparent over the course of the interviews and that is why we are continuing to gather witness statements, because we need as much evidence as possible from the witnesses and people who know them," he said.

Enfants Kidnappés: disappearance of Antoine de Brugerolle from his mother's house in Issoire.

The theory of abduction has taken precedence over running away, with the announcement on Sunday of the opening of an investigation for, "abduction and sequestration of a minor," after the disappearance of Antoine, aged six and a half, from his mother's home in Issoire (Puy-de-Dome)

"The more time passes, the more the idea of running away is losing consistency and I am not very optimistic," stated Jean-Yves Coquillat, prosecutor of the Republic for Clermont-Ferrand, during a press conference at the Clermont-Ferrand courthouse.

"There are some things that I can tell you and others which I cannot tell you because this is a very difficult investigation, (and) I cannot take the risk of compromising it," the magistrate added in a serious voice.

Aged 23, Antoine's mother told the investigators that she went out for dinner at a restaurant with her new partner, on Thursday evening at around 8pm. On their return, at around 9.15pm, they discovered the child's disappearance.

No trace of tampering had been found in the apartment situated on the first floor of an old building in the centre of Issoire, giving credence to, in the first instance, the idea that the little boy, described as, "very resourceful," and "assertive," had run away.

Especially as, according to his mother, Antoine had allegedly taken a few biscuits in his sports bag.

Waitress in an Issoire bar-restaurant, the young woman was interviewed twice by the investigators and stuck to her statements, according to the prosecutor.

According to her, Antoine, who had returned to school on September 2nd, didn't go back from the following day, because he was suffering from gastro-enteritis.

But since that date, there is not, "one credible witness statement from anyone reportedly having seen the child," M. Coquillat stressed.

The child, "was not seen by doctors. There isn't a medical certificate," was further noted by the magistrate, for whom , "nothing corroborates," the mother's version, she herself being on sick leave for an unspecified reason.

In addition, the young woman never, "responded to calls from the school's head teacher who was worried by the child's absence," the prosecutor added, regretting that the latter had not informed the gendarmerie.

Like her new partner, aged 29, Antoine's mother is, "known to police services." In 2003, she was sentenced by the Clermont-Ferrand magistrates court to 18 months in prison, of which 12 months was suspended, for trafficking in narcotics, according to the prosecutor.

On Sunday morning, thirty police officers were still combing the area around the child's home with the "hope of finding him alive."

"We started checking places we had already been, especially the sheds," lieutenant-colonel Pascal Palayer, communications officer for the Auvergne regional Gendarmerie, explained to AFP.

Little Antoine's description.

Antoine is 1.10m tall, weighs 19kg, has chestnut hair and pierced ears. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing blue fatigue-type trousers, a white T-shirt, a light blue sweater, a brown jacket and red, black and silver Nike shoes.

http://www.kidnapping.be/antoine/index.html

Editor's note: the date given by Antoine's mother for his disappearance is Thursday September 11th.