Nine-Year-Old Boy Rescued After Being Sequestered in a Van for Over a Year in France

A nine-year-old boy was rescued from a van in Hagenbach, in the Haut-Rhin department of eastern France, on Monday, April 6, 2026, after a neighbor heard sounds of a child coming from the vehicle parked in the shared courtyard of an apartment block. Gendarmes who responded to the call found the boy lying naked in a fetal position under a blanket, on a mound of waste and near excrement, pale and visibly malnourished. The child was unable to walk due to the prolonged time spent in a sitting position. He was immediately taken to the Pediatric Reception Unit for Minors in Danger at Mulhouse hospital, where he remained hospitalized as of Friday evening, April 10. Nicolas Heitz, the Public Prosecutor of Mulhouse, announced that day the indictment of the boy's 43-year-old father and his 37-year-old partner in connection with the case.

Father monitored van with camera, delivered cold meals twice daily The father, an electrician, admitted to investigators that he had placed his son in the utility van in November 2024, when the boy was seven years old, and that the child had remained confined there for over a year. The father had installed a video surveillance camera pointed at the vehicle and visited it twice a day, delivering cold meals and water. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed him going to the van twice daily and appearing to throw something inside. The boy was forced to urinate in plastic bottles and relieve himself in garbage bags, and his last shower reportedly dated to the end of 2024. According to the father, he had allowed the boy out with him until May 2025 and had permitted him access to the apartment during the summer of 2025 while the rest of the family was on vacation. The couple lived in the apartment with two other daughters, aged 10 and 12, while the boy remained in the van parked in the courtyard below. Some neighbors told investigators they had heard noises from the van from time to time but had been told it was a cat, and several were unaware the boy existed at all.

„A child who was sleeping on a pile of refuse. He was in a vehicle that went through summer and winter without heating, without any amenities, indeed.” — Nicolas Heitz via franceinfo

Father claimed he acted to prevent psychiatric commitment The father told investigators he locked the boy in the van to protect him from his partner, who he said wanted to have the child committed to a psychiatric hospital. The boy himself told specialized investigators that he had major relational difficulties with his father's partner, who no longer wanted him in the apartment and had pushed for psychiatric institutionalization. The father stated he saw the van as a way to avoid that outcome. However, Nicolas Heitz noted that "no medical evidence" had supported any potential psychiatric problems in the child. According to the prosecutor, the boy had been enrolled in first grade in Mulhouse until the 2023-2024 school year, after which the family told the school he would be educated otherwise and his file was closed. Neighbors and witnesses described the child as having "disappeared overnight" at the end of 2024. The 12-year-old sister told investigators she had been living with her father for four or five years, her mother having psychological difficulties.

„There is a colossal amount of work to be done to determine the exact circumstances of these extremely difficult living conditions for this child, who entered this van at the age of 7 and who is 9 years old today.” — Nicolas Heitz via franceinfo

Psychological assessments ordered as boy remains hospitalized Nicolas Heitz announced on Friday that psychological expert assessments would be ordered to determine the full extent of the trauma suffered by the child. The prosecutor stated the boy remained hospitalized and was "well surrounded," but that as of Friday he still could not walk, remained curled up, and his weight and height did not correspond to those of a child his age. The father was indicted on charges of sequestration and arbitrary detention of a minor, as well as depriving the child of proper food and medical care, and was remanded in custody. His partner was indicted for non-assistance to a minor in danger and non-denunciation of mistreatment of a minor, and was granted conditional bail. All three children in the household were placed in temporary care pending a decision by a children's court judge. The gendarmes had initially been delayed in accessing the van, as the father told them it was his professional vehicle and claimed a locking malfunction prevented him from opening it, adding that his daughter had locked herself inside while searching for something. Officers gained access approximately thirty minutes later.

Hagenbach is a small commune of approximately 800 inhabitants located around 20 kilometers southwest of Mulhouse, in the Haut-Rhin department of the Alsace region of eastern France, near the border with Switzerland and Germany. Cases of child sequestration within family settings have periodically prompted debate in France over the adequacy of child welfare monitoring mechanisms, particularly when children are withdrawn from the school system. French law requires schools to report the withdrawal of a child from enrollment to relevant authorities, though the effectiveness of follow-up procedures has been questioned in previous cases.

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