{"id":338644,"date":"2026-05-22T01:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=338644"},"modified":"2026-05-22T01:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:53:16","slug":"mother-arrested-after-brothers-5-and-three-blindfolded-and-abandoned-in-woods-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/mother-arrested-after-brothers-5-and-three-blindfolded-and-abandoned-in-woods-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother arrested after brothers, 5 and three, ‘blindfolded and abandoned’ in woods | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
The boys were crying for his or her father (Picture: GNR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The parents of two young boys found wandering alone down a rustic path lots of of miles away from home have been arrested.<\/p>\n

The siblings were crying for his or her father when police found them between the favored seaside resort towns of Alc\u00e1cer do Sal and Comporta in Portugal.<\/p>\n

The French brothers told authorities their mother, 41-year-old Marine, and stepfather Marc had driven them to distant woodland and told them they were going to play a game to \u2018drive away the devil.\u2019<\/p>\n

Blindfolding the boys, they told them that they may only remove their eye covers once they’d found a knife they’d buried within the soil.<\/p>\n

The elder brother dug across the dirt attempting to follow their instructions before finally removing each their blindfolds, only to grasp they’d been left within the woods.<\/p>\n

Police said they arrested Marine Rousseau, 41, and Marc Ballabriga, 55, on suspicion of domestic violence and child abuse on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the most recent stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n

Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The 2 were travelling in a automotive with French license plates, which was found parked next to a restaurant.<\/p>\n

CNN Portugal reported that the couple had been within the cafe for \u2018several hours\u2019.<\/p>\n

The youngsters\u2019s mother and stepfather remained silent after being approached by officers.<\/p>\n

The boys were found by local baker Artur Quintas driving along the distant track along with his wife, when he spotted the boy\u2019s blonde hair just before sunset on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He told Portuguese outlet Correio da Manh\u00e3<\/a>: \u2018They were crying, they were terrified.\u00a0They were crying and calling for his or her father.<\/p>\n

\u2018The oldest one told me that he and his brother had gotten lost within the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their hands were covered in dirt, and considered one of them had a knee injury. <\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Parents\t<\/div>
Portuguese police ask the children some questions as they struggle to trace down their parents
(Picture: GNR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He added: \u2018I saw that they were each carrying a backpack. I immediately realised they’d been abandoned.\u2019<\/p>\n

Their backpacks had nothing greater than a change of garments, an apple, an orange and two bottles of water.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Parents\t<\/div>
The belongings found on the 2 boys (Picture: GNR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still believing they were a part of a game, the youngsters wandered the desolate area, which may reach 30C in Spring, before finally being found by the motive force.<\/p>\n

It is believed the siblings were living in Colmar, eastern France, before their mother vanished with them around two weeks ago driving them to Portugal.<\/p>\n

It has since emerged that their birth father, who’s separated from Marine, had also filed\u00a0a toddler abduction report back to French police. Colmar prosecutor\u00a0Jean Richert told Le Parisien: \u2018He\u2019s like everyone else, he doesn\u2019t understand.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Teacher accused of murdering adopted son says baby was never harmed or abused<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Teenagers who raped two young girls spared jail \u2018to avoid criminalising them\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Kids to be offered free bus travel in August \u2014 all the pieces parents have to know<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\tComments<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tAdd as preferred source<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n
\n
\n

Breaking News<\/h4>\n

Never miss the most important stories with breaking news alerts in your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The boys were crying for his or her father (Picture: GNR) The parents of two young boys found wandering alone down a rustic path lots of of miles away from home have been arrested. The siblings were crying for his or her father when police found them between the favored seaside resort towns of Alc\u00e1cer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[6556,3550,51995,5432,5639,395,4491,813],"class_list":["post-338644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-abandoned","tag-arrested","tag-blindfolded","tag-brothers","tag-mother","tag-news","tag-woods","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338647,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338644\/revisions\/338647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}