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LONDON — A British boy who went missing in Europe six years ago has been found — walking along a roadside in southwest France — in a mystery that has electrified the British media and overjoyed his grandmother, who wasn’t sure whether he was still alive.
Alex Batty, who disappeared at age 11 during a family vacation and is now 17, was “safe and well,” British police told reporters Friday.
He was found near the French city of Toulouse by a delivery driver Wednesday morning. He was taken to French police and identified by his grandmother via a video call.
Batty is from Oldham, a small town near Manchester in northern England. He disappeared after traveling to Spain in 2017 on a family holiday with his grandfather David Batty and his mother, Melanie Batty, who did not have parental custody of him.
“We are relieved and overjoyed to receive the news from the French authorities that they believe Alex Batty has been found safe and well,” Chris Sykes, an assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, told a news conference Friday.
He said that Batty’s grandmother Susan Caruana — who is his legal guardian — had confirmed the youth’s identity via the video call and that she and other family members were “massively relieved …. as they come to terms with this good news.”
Sykes said Batty would remain in French custody for safekeeping before his return to the United Kingdom in “the next few days.”
His mother and grandfather remain wanted by police in connection with his disappearance, but their whereabouts are unknown. Sykes said that Batty’s mother would be part of an investigation into his disappearance for the past six years. He noted that he was aware of media “speculation” about her but said, “We need to speak to Alex,” adding, “Our main priority now is to see Alex return home to his family in the U.K.”
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Batty was picked up by delivery driver Fabien Accidini, who spotted him walking in the rain along a road near the Pyrenees about 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
“I saw a young guy on the side of the road with a skateboard under his arm, a backpack, flashlight,” Accidini told Britain’s Sky News in an interview, before stopping to pick him up.
“During the drive we talked about his situation and he told me that he was kidnapped by his mother and grandfather when he was in Morocco … after, he go to Spain, where he lived for three years with his mother, then after, he was in France for two years,” Accidini said. He added that Batty had told him that he had been living in “a spiritual community,” but had left, walking for four days before Accidini encountered him.
Accidini said that when he picked up Batty, the youth had money, food and water and was “really fine physically” but that he said he “just wanted to live a normal life, to see his grandmother again and to have a normal future — that’s the word that he used.” Accidini said Batty also spoke of wanting to become an engineer.
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Batty’s grandmother Susan Caruana told British media that she was in shock but delighted by news of his reappearance.
“It’s quite unbelievable when you don’t know if somebody’s dead or alive,” she told the Times newspaper after her first call with him in six years this week. “I was speaking to a boy when he was with us, and now I’m speaking to a man,” she said.
In 2018 she told the BBC she thought disagreements about how Batty should be raised were linked to his disappearance, accusing his mother of abducting him in pursuit of her “alternative lifestyle.”
Toulouse public prosecutor Samuel Vuelta Simon confirmed to the French media outlet Libération that the adolescent had been identified as the missing Batty and that he would return to England “soon.”
Amar Nadhir and Victoria Bisset contributed to this report.