This is the heartbreaking story of a 9-year-old boy forced to live by himself in a cold apartment for two years after his mother moved in with her boyfriend 3 miles away.

French newspapers recently reported the sad and shocking story of a boy who lived alone in a low-income housing unit in Nersac for two long years after being abandoned by his mother who went to live with her boyfriend in a nearby town. Between 2020 and 2022, the unnamed boy survived mainly on sweets, canned food, and handouts from neighbors, while his mother lived comfortably at her boyfriend’s house, just 5 kilometers away, in Sireuil. She only came by once in a blue moon to check up on him and bring him some food, but she never stayed long and she never once took him to her place. It was because of these sporadic visits that neighbors took so long to realize that the boy was living by himself and finally call the police about it.

Photo: Soragrit Wongsa/Unsplash

When the gendarmes entered the boy’s apartment in a low-income housing building in Nersac, they found an empty fridge, a trash can full of cake wrappers and empty food cans, and no sign of an adult – no clothes, no shoes, not even a toothbrush. After questioning the boy living there, they confirmed that he had been living by himself for two years and that his mother rarely came to visit.

Alexandra, the boy’s mother, was found at her boyfriend’s home in Sireuil, where neighbors didn’t even know she had a son, let alone see him. However, she adamantly denied abandoning the boy, instead claiming that he lived with her. Asked by the judge why the boy himself accused her of abandoning him for two years, all she could say was “I don’t know why he says that.”

None of the things Alexandra claims add up. She accuses the neighbors who confirmed her son’s story of being “problematic people”, and insists that she took the boy to school every day, even though her own phone tracking data shows otherwise. “I always forgot by phone at home,” she explained.

Photo: Raya Mal/Unsplash

As to why people always saw her leaving her son’s apartment alone every time she visited him, the 39-year-old woman claims that she always put him on a bus to Sireuil, while she rode home on a scooter, which authorities and the judge presiding over her case found extremely hard to believe.

Since the boy was put in foster care last year, Alexandra only went to visit him twice, and he has now decided to cut all ties with her. A judge recently issued a suspended sentence of 18 months behind bars for neglecting her child, but she will only have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet for six months.

As for the boy, an educator described him as “very mature, very resilient, and self-reliant, maybe too much so.” Considering the hardships he has had to endure – enduring winters with no heat, having to cover himself with multiple duvets at night, and having to bathe himself with cold water or live in total darkness, because most of the time he had no heating or electricity – it’s easy to understand why he matured so fast.

 

Shockingly, despite his sad situation, the boy went to school every day and did so well in class that his teachers never suspected anything.