Police say they found the boy “lying in a fetal position, naked" in his father’s utility van on Monday, April 6
Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- A 9-year-old boy was found naked and malnourished after allegedly being locked in his father’s utility van for over a year
- Investigators say the boy told them he was locked in the vehicle to “protect him” from his stepmother
- While the child has since been hospitalized, his father is facing multiple charges
A young boy has been rescued after allegedly being locked in his father’s utility van for over a year.
On Monday, April 6, French police received reports that a neighbor could hear “sounds of a child” coming from a parked van in the village of Hagenbach, located near the borders of Switzerland and Germany, according to the Associated Press, the BBC and CBS News.
After forcing the van open, police found a “child lying in a fetal position, naked, covered by a blanket on top of a mound of trash and near excrement,” Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said in a statement obtained by the outlets.
The boy’s father allegedly told investigators that he put the child in the truck in November 2024 to "protect him” from his stepmother, who wanted to send the then-7-year-old boy to a psychiatric hospital.
The boy, whose identity has not been made public, had no medical records indicating psychiatric problems and had good grades before he disappeared, the prosecutor said.
Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP via Getty
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Investigators claim the now 9-year-old boy told them he had “big difficulties” with his father’s partner and echoed the idea that his father “had no choice” but to lock him inside the van, according to CBS News.
The boy also said that his father brought him food twice a day and left him bottles of water to drink, per the French newspaper Le Parisien. In addition to being forced to urinate in plastic bottles and defecate in trash bags, the malnourished child had not showered since the end of 2024.
The boy's father has been charged with "abduction, confinement, or arbitrary detention of minors under 15 years of age" and "deprivation of care or food endangering the health of a minor under 15 years of age by an ascendant," per Le Parisien.
When questioned, the boy's stepmother denied being aware that the boy was being kept in the van. She has since been charged with “non-assistance to a minor in danger” and "non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor” and released on conditional bail.
Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP via Getty
The couple's two other children, ages 12 and 10, have been put in the care of social services, according to the AP.
While the prosecutor’s office is continuing to investigate whether anyone else was aware of the boy’s circumstances, friends and family have claimed that they thought he had been placed in a psychiatric institution.
Village residents have also expressed shock after they found out what had happened, claiming to the AP that they were unaware of the boy’s whereabouts.
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