Police in Hagenbach freed a malnourished 9-year-old boy this week from his father's utility van, where he had been confined since late 2024 amid tensions with his father's partner. Unable to walk and living amid filth, the child was hospitalized after a neighbor reported cries. The 43-year-old father faces kidnapping charges while his partner was released under supervision.
Gendarmes in the village of Hagenbach, a Haut-Rhin commune of around 800 residents near the Swiss and German borders, forced open a van parked in a private courtyard at an old farmhouse on Monday after a resident reported hearing child's cries from inside—some neighbors had previously dismissed similar noises as coming from a cat.
Inside, they found the naked boy curled in a fetal position under a blanket amid piles of trash and excrement. Pale and severely malnourished from prolonged confinement in a seated position, the 9-year-old could no longer walk and had not showered since late 2024, Mulhouse prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said in a statement released Saturday.
Hospitalized in Mulhouse, the boy—who had good grades in CP school in Mulhouse until the 2023-2024 year—is now safe and recounted his ordeal starting at age 7 in November 2024. He said his father's 37-year-old partner, who lived with them and did not want him in the apartment, pushed for psychiatric institutionalization (despite no prior issues); the father, a 43-year-old electrician, admitted confining him in the van to 'protect' him from her, installing a camera and giving him a phone for limited outings until May 2025. The boy was fed twice daily with water but relieved himself in bottles and trash bags.
The family had lived together since early 2024 with the boy's 12-year-old sister and the partner's 10-year-old daughter. The father remains in custody on preliminary charges of kidnapping, sequestration, and deprivation of care to a minor. His partner, who denies knowledge of the confinement, was released under judicial supervision facing charges of non-assistance and failure to report danger to a minor. All three children were placed with social services.
Authorities are investigating whether family, friends, or others knew—as some believed the boy was in psychiatric care and teachers were told he had changed schools. Neighbors expressed shock at the revelation.
