The father of the two young boys who were reportedly left alone and blindfolded in the woods by their mother and stepfather has broken his silence about the disturbing case.
His sons, aged 5 and 4, were left alone in the woods in Portugal under the pretense that they would be playing a “game” in which they had to find a knife buried in the dirt.
Highlights
- Two young boys, aged 5 and 4, were left blindfolded and abandoned in Portuguese woods by their mother and stepfather.
- The children said they were told it was a "game" to find a buried knife before being left alone for hours.
- The boys were found terrified and with bruises when they were rescued by a local couple.
The children, whose identities have not been revealed, were discovered on a rural road between the Portuguese towns of Alcacer do Sal and Comporta on May 19, several hours after being abandoned.
Image credits: GNR
Following the children’s rescue, their father is awaiting Portuguese authorities' approval to retrieve them.
He said the boys’ mother, a 41-year-old French national named Marine Rousseau, had obtained custody of their two children following the divorce, a decision he reportedly challenged in court.
The father won’t “defend or minimize the acts committed,” which he called “serious and deeply shocking,” but said he won’t speak out against the children’s mother.
Image credits: GNR
“I refuse to add hateful words, insults, or derogatory terms intended to dehumanize a person, even if they are found guilty,” he told the French channel Ici Alsace TV.
“For my part, I choose not to fuel hatred or participate in verbal attacks, even in the face of the unacceptable.”
He asked for privacy for the two minors, who are still dealing with the mental health consequences of the traumatic experience.
Image credits: Marc Ballabriga
“My children will need to rebuild their lives, just like me. They won't need to be constantly reminded of this tragedy,” he said.
The father has thought about his two boys “every second” since being alerted about their disappearance by the French police. He said he keeps his phone by his side “day and night” as he awaits authorization to travel to Portugal and be reunited with them.
“It's only a matter of days until I get my children back,” he said. “I’m letting the authorities do their work while I wait for their green light to get them back.”
Image credits: Marine Rousseau
Although the father didn’t have custody of the children, he did have visitation rights. He has now filed a complaint for child abduction.
The boys’ mother, Marine Rousseau, and stepfather, Marc Ballabriga, are accused of abandoning the children in the woods, hundreds of miles from their home in Colmar, France.
After arriving in Portugal, the family traveled more than 310 miles before leaving the children alone, blindfolded, with a backpack containing food and water.
Image credits: Observador
They were discovered on May 19 by the child of a local couple, Eugenia and Artur Quintas. The Portuguese couple described the brothers as looking “terrified.”
The boys were reportedly covered in dirt and bruises, and one of them had a visible injury on his knee.
“They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father,” Artur recalled.
Image credits: AFP
“The oldest one told me that he and his brother had gotten lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them,” the man described.
“I realized right away that they had been abandoned by the backpacks. When I saw the way the backpacks were packed, I knew they had been abandoned.”
Eugenia, a baker who fed the children, said they had only an orange, a pear, and a bottle of water each in their small backpacks.
“The mother probably left all this so that these children could fend for themselves for at least a day,” she suggested.
Image credits: Observador
Speaking with authorities, the boys said their mother and stepfather had told them they would be playing a game to “drive away the devil.”
After being blindfolded, they were taken to the wooded area and told they could only remove their blindfolds once they dug up a knife that the couple had buried.
The brothers dug for the knife for a few minutes and later removed their blindfolds, realizing they were alone.
They subsequently began wandering in the woods for hours until they were found by the Quintases.
The schoolboys were placed into foster care after the French embassy in Portugal found they had no blood relatives in the country where they had been abandoned.
French authorities will now process their return to their country of origin.
Image credits: GNR
Marine and her partner were arrested on May 21 while eating at a café terrace in Fatima, Portugal.
Two days after the boys were abandoned, Portuguese police announced they had detained a 55-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman “linked to the incident involving two minor children found alone near a public road in the municipality of Alcácer do Sal.”
Café owner Jorge Lopes told the Correio da Manha that the couple who “only spoke French” spent “more than five hours” on the terrace, eating cake and drinking coffee.
Marine and Marc were identified by a woman who spoke to the pair at the establishment. She had heard the news about the abandoned children and called the police to report the couple.
They are both accused of child endangerment and abandonment. Marc faces an additional charge of aggravated a*sault.
Last Saturday (May 23), Marc reportedly shouted “I love you” at Marine as the couple was being led into court. The mother was reported to be singing.
Image credits: GNR
According to Correio da Manhã, Marine and Marc were heard “shouting at each other” from their separate prison cells.
Marine reportedly graduated in psychomotor therapy in 2008 and later studied s*xology. Last year, she left Troyes to settle down in Colmar.
Her LinkedIn page states that she specializes in “body-based practices, developmental dynamics, and specific trauma care” and offers consultations in France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Marc is a retired French gendarmerie officer. The suspect, who left the force in 2010, is believed to suffer from a psychiatric disorder.
According to L’Alsace, Marc has a conspiracy-minded profile and has posted social media content predicting the end of times.
He reportedly shouted “Armageddon" twice as he left a Portuguese courthouse and got into a police van.
