Cold Case Reopened: New Appeal for Witnesses in 1999 Murder of 9-Year-Old French Boy

Will French justice finally solve the Batouche case? The Alès (Gard) prosecutor’s office has launched an appeal for witnesses in the investigation of the murder of Hocine Batouche, 9, in 1999. "We have given new impetus to this case, hoping to find the perpetrator," comments prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini to BFMTV.com.

On July 10, 1999, around 3 PM, the young boy left the family apartment to go to "Super U" located about 900 meters away to "buy a jar of apricot jam to help his mother bake," according to the search notice. He left with 15 francs in his pocket. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops. While his mother was waiting for his return, the 9-year-old boy, who had arrived from Algeria a few months earlier and didn’t speak French very well, never came home. This worried his mother, who reported his disappearance. At the time, an investigation was opened.

After extensive searches, the boy’s body was found a month later, on August 10, 1999, a few hundred meters from his home, at the foot of the Alès slag heap, a pile of mining residues, "in an area very difficult to access due to very dense and hostile vegetation." He was found dead, with a fractured skull. An autopsy was performed. According to its conclusions, Hocine died after receiving several blows to the head with a blunt object. It is not known if he was sexually abused. "The perpetrator(s) of the kidnapping and murder of young Hocine could not be identified," the appeal for witnesses also states.

"I’m not saying we’ve identified someone, but we have elements that we wish to corroborate with the appeal for witnesses. It’s the least we owe to the family" of the little boy, explains Abdelkrim Grini. While his father and mother died in 2001 and 2021 respectively, his older brothers are alive and still live in Alès. They hope that they will know the truth one day. "The family has been waiting for 26 years without saying anything, they trust in justice. I am a father myself, I cannot remain insensitive to this story," concludes the prosecutor.