The relatives of a French couple who disappeared four weeks ago have arrived in the Bolivian capital La Paz in hopes of finding answers to their worrisome ordeal.
Jeremie Bellanger, 25, and his girlfriend Fannie Blancho, 23, have not been seen since they traveled the night of Aug. 28 across the Brazilian border to Guayaramerin, near a lawless area known for drug-trafficking and high crime rates.
“We came to learn more about where our children are,” Bellanger’s father Patrick told reporters on Saturday at the airport, where he was greeted with Blancho’s father Jean-Paul by French consular authorities.
A visibly emotional Benjamin Dupont, the father of Fannie Blancho’s three-year-old son Bounty — the only survivor found so far — is due to be reunited with his son and return to France with him early next week, a French embassy official said.
The Bellanger and Blancho families are due to meet with French and Bolivian officials. They hope to head to Guyaramerin, about 800km from La Paz, next week.
The couple had traveled to the village and rented a room for a night there to attend a local festival. They were then invited by a man to visit a farm about 12km away. Bellanger had apparently borrowed a motorbike at the farm to return briefly to check on Bounty, who was staying with the landlord in Guayaramerin. However, he then set off again and has not been seen since.
The man — the last person to see the couple — appeared before a Guayaramerin court as a suspect but local prosecutor Carlos Aponte told reporters that “nothing incriminates him” at this time. He was not detained.
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