The alert was given by a neighbor, intrigued by “child noises” emanating from a vehicle parked in a yard. Last Monday, the police discovered the unspeakable. A 9-year-old boy, prostrate in the fetal position, naked on a pile of garbage and excrement.
An ordeal marked by dehumanization
Malnourished, with a pale complexion, he was no longer able to walk. His father, a 43-year-old electrician, admitted to having locked him up in November 2024. According to him, it was to “protect” him from his partner who wanted to have him interned. The child, whose last shower was more than a year ago, was urgently hospitalized.
For months, this little boy was wiped off the map. Schooled until 2024, he disappeared from the social radar under the pretext of home education. In the darkness of the van, he had to urinate in bottles. But also undergo surveillance from a camera installed by his own father.
The other children placed since the discovery of the young boy
At the time of the events, the couple lived with the two other children: the man’s daughter, aged 12, and the stepmother’s daughter, aged 10. Both have since been placed. The victim’s sister told investigators that they had moved in with their father because of their biological mother’s psychological problems.
“A judicial investigation has been opened to better understand what led to such a tragedy.said Nicolas Heitz, Mulhouse prosecutor, this evening on ICI Alsace TV.
It will also make it possible to determine all the responsibilities of those indicted but perhaps also of other people.”
The father was placed in detention and requested time to prepare the debate concerning his possible remand in custody, scheduled for Monday April 13. The mother-in-law, indicted for failure to assist a minor in danger and failure to report a crime, was placed under judicial supervision.
However, she disputes all of the accusations. She admits to having heard noises coming from the vehicle and claims to have asked if anyone was there, without obtaining an answer. According to his statements, his companion assured him that the child had been interned.
Dissociation: the mind’s survival mechanism
For our clinical psychologist Amélie Boukhobza, this type of act is beyond comprehension. “It’s torture, barbarism! Sequestration of this type is necessarily extreme: we deprive someone of freedom, movement, sometimes even light and time. We mistreat them, we destroy them… It’s not just the body that we lock up, it’s the entire psyche.”
But faced with the unbearable, how can a 9-year-old not completely sink? Isolation and abuse force the brain to put up invisible barriers. The child detaches himself from his own suffering so as to no longer feel it fully.
“The mind inevitably goes into survival mode: the only thing that matters is to hold on. We try to rationalize as much as we can, but very quickly, the only possible refuge is dissociation, detaching ourselves from reality to bear the unbearable. Many then describe this period as a “gap”, a suspended time where nothing exists anymore” adds the psychologist.
The invisible after-effects of a newfound freedom
If the physical care provided at the Mulhouse hospital will allow the child to regain strength and walk again, the wounds of the soul are of a completely different depth. The end of captivity does not mean the end of the trauma.
“When freedom returns, the body is active again, but the mind remains confined. The psychological consequences are serious, very serious even: post-traumatic stress, anxiety, nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance… And then, there are more invisible traces: the loss of the feeling of security, of trust in the world, sometimes in others. further details our expert.
A long road to resilience and security
The care of the victim must take place over the very long term. Getting out of the van is just the first step in a process that will take years of specialist support.
“It requires deep, patient work. Psychotherapy, and particularly trauma-focused therapies, such as EMDR, can help restore meaning where everything has been chaos. But it will not just be a matter of telling the victim what happened. We have to help the brain understand that it’s over, that the danger is no longer there, and that we are finally safe.”
In summary, this drama of domestic abuse leaves a community in shock and a victim to completely rebuild. If the time of justice has begun for the father and his partner, that of healing will be much more winding. “We don’t move on like that: we learn to live with it, differently. What matters is that the trauma stops directing life” concludes the expert.