The vehicle’s headlights silhouetted the exhausted teenager walking alone in the rain in deepest rural France, with a skateboard tucked under his arm.
“I said to myself, ‘That’s strange. It’s 3am, raining, he’s all by himself on the road between two villages,” delivery driver Fabien Accidini said.
The youngster, it turned out, was Alex Batty, a 17-year-old from Britain who had been missing since 2017.British and French authorities confirmed Friday that the teenager was the boy who vanished at age 11, when his mother and grandfather took him on what was meant to be a short holiday in Spain. Instead, it turned out to be a six-year-odyssey through Morocco, Spain and France, living a nomadic, off-the-grid life. Batty told investigators they moved from house to house, carrying their own solar panels, growing their own food and living with other families in a “spiritual community.”
A French prosecutor said Batty decided to go his own way after his mother told him she wanted them to move again – to Finland. He said Batty walked for four nights, resting in the days, and ate “different things he found in fields or gardens”.
The mother, Melanie, has probably left for Finland, the prosecutor said, adding the grandfather, David, is thought to have died six months ago . Both are sought by police for his disappearance.
Batty used Accidini’s phone to send a text to his grandmother in UK: “Hello grandma it is me Alex i am in France Toulouse i really hope you receive this message i love you i want to come home.” He is likely to return in “the next few days”.
“I said to myself, ‘That’s strange. It’s 3am, raining, he’s all by himself on the road between two villages,” delivery driver Fabien Accidini said.
The youngster, it turned out, was Alex Batty, a 17-year-old from Britain who had been missing since 2017.British and French authorities confirmed Friday that the teenager was the boy who vanished at age 11, when his mother and grandfather took him on what was meant to be a short holiday in Spain. Instead, it turned out to be a six-year-odyssey through Morocco, Spain and France, living a nomadic, off-the-grid life. Batty told investigators they moved from house to house, carrying their own solar panels, growing their own food and living with other families in a “spiritual community.”
A French prosecutor said Batty decided to go his own way after his mother told him she wanted them to move again – to Finland. He said Batty walked for four nights, resting in the days, and ate “different things he found in fields or gardens”.
The mother, Melanie, has probably left for Finland, the prosecutor said, adding the grandfather, David, is thought to have died six months ago . Both are sought by police for his disappearance.
Batty used Accidini’s phone to send a text to his grandmother in UK: “Hello grandma it is me Alex i am in France Toulouse i really hope you receive this message i love you i want to come home.” He is likely to return in “the next few days”.
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