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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/world/europe/alex-batty-missing-boy-france-uk.html
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Missing Boy Who Was Found in France Is Expected Back in U.K. Soon | Missing Boy Who Was Found in France Is Expected Back in U.K. Soon |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| For years, millions in Britain thought that Alex Batty vanished at the age of 11 into parts unknown. But it turns out that Alex had been traveling in Europe with his mother and grandfather from place to place in Morocco, Spain and France as part of an itinerant spiritual community that lived on the edges of society. | For years, millions in Britain thought that Alex Batty vanished at the age of 11 into parts unknown. But it turns out that Alex had been traveling in Europe with his mother and grandfather from place to place in Morocco, Spain and France as part of an itinerant spiritual community that lived on the edges of society. |
| They car-pooled with community members, carried solar panels with them for energy, ate homegrown vegetables and never stayed in one place long. | They car-pooled with community members, carried solar panels with them for energy, ate homegrown vegetables and never stayed in one place long. |
| This week, Alex re-emerged in France — resolving one of Britain’s best-known missing-person cases. But new questions arose. The French authorities said Alex had decided it was time to part ways with his mother when she decided that they would move to Finland from France, where they had been living most recently. | This week, Alex re-emerged in France — resolving one of Britain’s best-known missing-person cases. But new questions arose. The French authorities said Alex had decided it was time to part ways with his mother when she decided that they would move to Finland from France, where they had been living most recently. |
| The authorities in southwestern France said the teenager had walked for four days and four nights, sleeping when it was light, hiking in darkness and eating what he could find in fields and gardens. Around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, they said, a delivery driver saw him trudging in the rain and took him to the French police. | The authorities in southwestern France said the teenager had walked for four days and four nights, sleeping when it was light, hiking in darkness and eating what he could find in fields and gardens. Around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, they said, a delivery driver saw him trudging in the rain and took him to the French police. |
| Now, as details of Alex’s story continue to emerge, he is finally expected to return home to Britain in the next few days. On Friday, the British police said his family there — including his grandmother Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian — were enormously relieved. | |
| Chris Sykes, an assistant chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police, said the British authorities were “overjoyed to receive the news from the French authorities.” Alex, who is temporarily in the care of the French authorities, talked with Ms. Caruana via a video call on Thursday. |