Parents abandon brothers aged five and three after taking them to Portugal and leaving them in the woods blindfolded
In Portugal, two teenage brothers were abandoned in a forested area by their parents after taking the children there and leaving them blindfolded.
Barthélémy and Zacharie, aged five and three respectively, were found wandering along a rural road between the towns of Alcácer do Sal and Comporta around 7pm on Tuesday evening.
A local couple, Eugénia and Artur Quintas, found the children on the N235 highway with only a few clothes on, two pieces of fruit and two bottles of water.
Artur said: ‘They were crying, they were terrified. ‘They were crying and calling for their father.’
He added that both were covered in dirt and bruises, and one had injured his knee. Neither child had any identifying documents on them.
The Quintas took the young children to their home and called the police, who quickly arrived and took them to Setúbal Hospital for a full medical evaluation. There they were given a clean bill of health.
The toxicology report revealed that the children were not drugged by their parents.
After questioning them, they realized that the children were actually from France.
The children told authorities that their parents told them they were going to play a game to “exorcise the devil.”
Their mother, 41-year-old Marine, and stepfather Marc blindfolded them and took them to a wooded area, telling them they could only remove their eyelids if they found a knife the couple had buried in the ground and used it to cut them open.
Two teenage brothers (pictured) were abandoned by their parents in a forested area in Portugal after they took the boys there and left them blindfolded.
The children were taken to hospital for examination and police spoke to them there.
The children dug in the ground for several minutes before Barthélémy removed his blindfolds. The children realized in shock that they were all alone.
Believing they were still playing, the children wandered around the area for several hours in a part of Portugal where temperatures can reach up to 30 degrees during the day at this time of year.
Artur told local media: ‘The eldest told me that he and his brother got lost in the forest and their father and mother left without them.’
He added: ‘I knew immediately that their backpacks had abandoned them. ‘When I saw how the backpacks were packed I knew they had been abandoned.’
The children were placed in foster care after information requested from the French embassy in Portugal revealed that they had no blood relatives in the country. They will be transferred to the French embassy.
Investigative efforts by both Portuguese and French police have so far determined that Marine, believed to be from Colmar in eastern France, disappeared with her two children about two weeks before she set off for Portugal.
Marine’s mother, the boys’ grandmother, reported the boys missing to the police and told them they had been kidnapped by their mother.
The children’s father, who left Marine, also reported child abduction to the police. Colmar prosecutor Jean Richert told Le Parisien: ‘He’s like everyone else, he doesn’t understand.’
The family entered Portugal via Bragança on the Spanish border on May 11 and were seen driving the family car through a crossing point.
The family then traveled more than 310 miles, first to the Miranda do Corvo region, then further south to Alcácer do Sal.
The couple and their children stayed at a hotel in the town, about 12 miles from where they were found.
French police already know of the existence of Marc, who is believed to be suffering from psychiatric disorders.
They were given nothing but some clothes, two pieces of fruit and some water.
While the Portuguese police continue their investigation, French prosecutors are also filing a child neglect case.
Thereupon, an ‘urgent legal procedure’ was initiated in the family and children’s court in Santiago do Cacém, southern Portugal.
Portuguese police have not officially confirmed that the children were abducted and abandoned, and a spokesman said: ‘All possibilities are being considered.’
