Where has Alex Batty been for the past six years?

All of a sudden, a 17-year-old British boy reports to the police in the south of France. His name is Alex Batty, disappeared in 2017 after a vacation in Spain. Was he abducted by a cult? Where did he live? British media are trying to find answers.

Not going to school for six years, instead seeing new countries and living abroad. This is what happened to Alex Batty from England. It was completely unclear whether he actually liked it. But then the now 17-year-old obviously found the erratic nomadic life with his mother and grandfather too much - and on Thursday he reported to the police in the south of France.

A 26-year-old delivery driver had picked up the teenager at night in the pouring rain somewhere between Camon and Chalabre, a 20-minute drive from the nearest town. He told him that he had been kidnapped by his mother and had escaped. "He said she was a bit crazy," said the delivery driver, according to media reports.

Case continues to pose a great mystery

The boy has since returned to his grandmother near Manchester, according to the police. But the story is far from over. Rather, it seems like a mystery. Why didn't the authorities find the child for years? The fact that the case had been publicly forgotten also caused astonishment.

The police in Manchester simply said that they wanted to talk to Alex in detail and in peace first. It is a story that is sometimes difficult to unravel. He apparently did not know that the boy had been wanted for six years. The French alerted the British - who confirmed the case. Soon afterwards, his step-grandfather and British police officers met the teenager in Toulouse and flew him back home. The case provides an insight into a difficult family situation, which was investigated in detail by the "Sunday Times ".

Precarious family situation, radicalization and abduction

It is unknown who Alex's biological father is, as his mother Melanie does not talk about it. His grandfather David had lost his job in 2013 for health reasons and the divorce from his wife was difficult. When bailiffs wanted to seize his house, he put up a fight - with the help of Melanie, who studied law. The daughter was intelligent but prone to conspiracy theories, according to an unnamed friend of David's who spoke to the Times.

Thanks in part to Facebook groups, the grandfather and mother have increasingly found themselves in an environment that rejects state intervention such as taxes, mortgage payments or TV fees. In Morocco, they temporarily lived with Alex in a commune that was trying to develop "fuel-free" energy sources. When mother Melanie moved on to Bali with her new boyfriend, grandmother Susan brought her grandson home. Alex settled in England - until his mother and grandfather reappeared and took him on a family vacation to Spain in 2017.

Alex was supposed to be back with his grandmother, who had been granted custody, on October 8, 2017. But instead of returning the then eleven-year-old child as promised, the now 38-year-old woman and her father ran away with the boy. Since then, Alex has disappeared from the face of the earth, according to British media reports. Even an extensive police investigation, an international appeal and the support of the Spanish authorities did not lead to the trio being tracked down.

Failed own school registration and return

The exact route is unknown, but the trio probably lived first in Morocco again, then in Spain and finally in the Pyrenees in southern France. According to British media reports, Alex was surrounded by a wandering spiritual community. It is not uncommon to meet people who follow alternative lifestyles, the Times quoted a local resident in the Pyrenean town of Quillan, where Alex is said to have recently tried unsuccessfully to enrol at a school.

The grandmother described the whole thing as a cult and was very relieved after the phone call with the French police. "I spoke to him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see him," she said after a video call. "I can't wait to be reunited with him." Nevertheless, the police will only decide whether to open a criminal investigation after a detailed conversation with Alex. The boy appears healthy and intelligent, although he has not been to school for six years, as French officials reported immediately after the case came to light.

It is still unclear where the mother and grandfather are. Residents in the village of La Bastide, where he is said to have last lived in a gîte - a kind of vacation home - contradicted reports from the UK that the 59-year-old died six months ago. And has Melanie traveled to Finland in the meantime? Allegedly, she wanted to see the Northern Lights there - but Alex didn't want to go and therefore ran away, according to the French police.