Alex Batty’s mum ‘abandoned France to go to Finland’ as whereabouts a mystery

Alex Batty claims his mum abandoned her campervan in southern France to "go see the Northern Lights" in Finland, but authorities say her whereabouts remains a mystery.

The British lad was found in France six years after he vanished. The now-17-year-old arrived back in Oldham, Greater Manchester, on Saturday evening after a whirlwind few days in which he was picked up by a driver on a rural road in southern France.

Alex will now spend Christmas with his legal guardian, grandmother Susan Caruana, the Mirror reported. Alex was reported missing in 2017 aged 11 when he went on a pre-planned holiday to Marbella, Spain, with mum Melanie Batty and grandfather, David Batty.

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And now, a French source believed to be a police officer has told The Sun: “Alex said his mother wanted to go to Finland to see the Northern Lights.

“We must ask how she was able to book a plane ticket while on an Interpol list. It seems unlikely.”

They also added: “There is every possibility that Alex’s grandfather, David Batty, is still alive.

“There does not seem to be a death certificate, or any other kind of official confirmation of his death.”

The Sun also tracked down the campervan, now abandoned, with a didgeridoo, guitar and long extension lead left inside.

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And the owner of the campsite, who asked not to be identified, said she arrived in May and left without warning at the end of September.

“She called herself Rose and I have only recently discovered she was the mother of the missing boy," they said.

“I saw the woman from time to time and she said ‘Bonjour’.

“But she does not speak French and I do not speak English so we did not communicate other than that."

They added that Melanie would spend all day tapping away on her computer.

After arriving in France in 2021, Melanie – a suspected 'conspiracy theorist – went to live in a “spiritual community”.

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