{"id":70217,"date":"2026-04-16T11:29:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/first-words-of-a-shocked-9-year-old-boy-who-was-locked-in-a-van-by-his-father-for-a-year\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:30:10","slug":"first-words-of-a-shocked-9-year-old-boy-who-was-locked-in-a-van-by-his-father-for-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/first-words-of-a-shocked-9-year-old-boy-who-was-locked-in-a-van-by-his-father-for-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"First words of a shocked 9-year-old boy who was locked in a van by his father for a year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A boy held hostage in a van by his own father for more than a year has revealed the real culprit behind his captivity, describing him as his “worst enemy”.<\/p>\n

The nine-year-old boy was found naked, malnourished and unable to walk, after being trapped in cramped conditions for several months.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsign up for Sun<\/span> Newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Parking area at the location where a boy was found naked and malnourished in a van<\/span> Credit: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The house where the boy’s father and stepmother lived while he lived out in his father’s utility van<\/span> Credit: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

In late 2024, when he was just seven years old, his father locked him in a van.<\/p>\n

Police found the child a year later when a neighbor reported hearing “a child’s voice” coming from a utility truck.<\/p>\n

He said the boy was found “in a fetal position, naked, covered with a blanket on a garbage heap, close to human excrement” when he was rescued from the van on April 6 in Hagenbach, a village in northeastern France.<\/p>\n

In interviews with detectives, the boy blamed his stepmother for neglecting his father because she wanted him out of her life.<\/p>\n

He called her his “worst enemy” and “a despicable woman”.<\/p>\n

According to the boy, his stepmother wanted to get rid of him by sending him to a psychiatric hospital in September 2024.<\/p>\n

The boy said his father had “no choice” but to lock him in his van to prevent him from being sent away.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Nicholas Heitz told a news conference yesterday that inside the van, the child had “nothing else except some clothes and some empty bottles to urinate in”.<\/p>\n

The boy also said that his last bath was in 2024, and he did not have a toothbrush or clean clothes.<\/p>\n

The boy’s 43-year-old father has confessed to the crime but the 37-year-old stepmother denies everything.<\/p>\n

Friends and family said they did not look for the boy because the father had told them he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n

But the boy had no history of mental health problems, and had reportedly achieved good grades in school before being locked in the van.<\/p>\n

This disgusting crime took place in the village of Hagenbach in northeastern France<\/span> Credit: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Boy accuses his stepmom of forcing his father to lock him in his own van<\/span> Credit: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The stepmother, who lived with the boy’s father in the house next door to the van, denies any wrongdoing<\/span> Credit: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Prosecutor Nicholas Heitz revealed the latest update on this horrific case during a press conference on April 15<\/span> Credit: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A boy held hostage in a van by his own father for more than a year has revealed the real culprit behind his captivity, describing him as his “worst enemy”. The nine-year-old boy was found naked, malnourished and unable to walk, after being trapped in cramped conditions for several months. sign up for Sun Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[5990,1355,111,8906,3674,11307,2902,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-70217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-9yearold","9":"tag-boy","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-locked","12":"tag-shocked","13":"tag-van","14":"tag-words","15":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70221,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70217\/revisions\/70221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}