After spending six years as a missing person, Alex Batty, a 17-year-old from Britain, has been found in rural France. A delivery driver, Fabien Accidini, found the exhausted teenager walking in the rain in rural France and took him to the safe keeping of French police. British and French authorities have confirmed that Batty was the boy who vanished at age 11, when his mother and grandfather took him on what was meant to be a two-week family holiday in Spain.

Missing at age 11, found six years later in France: UK teen pops up one rainy night https://t.co/LUcYiJDpob

— Brian Berlin (@BrianBerlin50) December 15, 2023

Instead, it turned out to be a six-year odyssey through Morocco, Spain, and southwest France, where they lived an off-the-grid life. Batty told police that it was a nomadic life and that they lived in a spiritual community. The mother, Melanie, has probably left for Finland, and the grandfather, David, is thought to have died six months ago. Batty used Accidini's mobile phone to send a message to his grandmother in the UK. French and British authorities are working to establish the full circumstances around his disappearance and where he has been all these years. Batty would return to his family in the UK and it was likely that the mother, Melanie Batty, and his grandfather, David Batty, would be held accountable.