The vehicle’s headlights silhouetted the exhausted teenager ambling along in the rain in the deepest rustic France, with a skateboard tucked under his arm.
Delivery driver Fabien Accidini recounted that he thought to himself, that’s strange, it’s 3 am, it’s raining, and he’s all by himself on the road between two villages.
From there, the story gets stranger still. 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 on Friday that the teenager discovered by Accidini this week was the boy who disappeared at age 11 when his mother and grandfather took him on what was meant to be a brief family holiday in Spain.
Instead, it turned out to be a six-year odyssey through Morocco, Spain and southwest France, living a nomadic, off-the-grid life.
Batty told French investigators that they moved from house to house, carrying their own solar panels, growing their own food and living with other families in what the teenager described as a spiritual community, French authorities said.
However, Batty unexpectedly popped up again this Wednesday, on the remote road where Accidini found him after he and his mother parted ways.
A French prosecutor said on Friday that the teenager decided to go his own way after his mother told him that she wanted them to move yet again, to Finland.
The prosecutor, Antoine Leroy, said at a news conference in the southwestern French city of Toulouse that when his mother indicated that she intended to leave for Finland with him, the young man understood that this journey had to stop.
He said Batty walked for four nights, resting during the days, and fed himself with different things that he found in fields or gardens before Accidini picked him up and delivered him to the safekeeping of French police.
The mother, Melanie Batty, has probably left for Finland, Leroy said. And the grandfather, David Batty, is thought to have passed away about six months ago, he said. Both are sought by British police in connection with his disappearance.
Accidini said he spotted the teen alone in the rain with a flashlight, a backpack and his skateboard. The deliveryman stopped and asked if he was okay, what he was doing there, if he needed assistance and if he wanted him to drop him in a village.
It’s delightful that he’s been found, and it’s so lovely to read about a feel-good story for a change. I hope that this young man is reunited with his family and has no long-term trauma from his ordeal.
And why did his oddball mother see fit to subject her son to this nonsense?
This is wonderful news and really uplifting and it just goes to show one should never give up hope.
Thank heavens to the stranger who was a good person and took the teenager to the police station. Could have easily ended up much worse.
Perhaps one day this story might be made into a film, you just never know, so good luck with the future.
We have no idea what this teenager’s life was like for all those years, but I do hope that he finds happiness from now on because this story is amazing and it also gives hope to other families of missing children.
It takes a lot of guts and this teenager must have been confused as to what to do next or who he could trust. He went to huge and dangerous measures to leave, that takes guts.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 