On Saturday, a judicial court in Portugal’s southern port city of Setubal ordered a French woman and her male partner to be held in pretrial detention, following a two-day court hearing over allegations that the pair abandoned her two young sons, aged 4 and 5, on a remote roadside in the country’s south. Beyond charges of child abandonment and endangerment that apply to both suspects, the 55-year-old male partner also faces an additional aggravated assault charge relating to one of the two children, court officials confirmed following closed questioning of the pair. After the hearing concluded, the couple was transported from the courthouse via an unmarked police van, which exited directly through the building’s private garage to avoid public attention.
The high-profile case has sparked intense public scrutiny in both Portugal and France, ever since the two young boys were discovered crying on the side of a road near the town of Alcacer do Sal, roughly 60 miles south of the Portuguese capital Lisbon, on Tuesday evening. According to local Portuguese media reports, the pair left the children with small backpacks stocked with basic food and water, but no form of identification that could connect the boys to any guardian or family.
Portuguese law enforcement tracked down and arrested the couple on Thursday at an open-air cafe in Fatima, a central Portuguese pilgrimage town, and they were first brought before an investigating judge at the Setubal court the following day. Speaking to local Portuguese broadcaster SIC, Carlos Canatario, a spokesperson for Portugal’s national GNR police force, described the pair’s demeanor after arrest as deeply disturbing to officers. “After something as shocking as abandoning two small children, finding this couple sitting relaxed at an outdoor cafe for hours was quite shocking,” Canatario said. He added that the couple displayed a striking emotional detachment from the situation: “They did not respond much. They appeared very withdrawn and therefore did not react.”
During the initial questioning session at the court Friday, the pair was interviewed for multiple hours. As they arrived at the courthouse, the male suspect, identified by authorities only as Marc B. to comply with privacy rules, twice shouted “I love you” in French to onlookers, while the children’s mother, identified as Marine R., hummed a quiet melody. Shortly after midnight on Friday, as Marc B. was being led to a police transport van, he shouted “Portugal Armageddon” toward the crowd of journalists gathered outside the courthouse building. To prevent further public disruption, when transporting the pair back to the courthouse for the second day of the hearing Saturday, law enforcement kept the suspects inside the vehicle until it had fully entered the closed garage and all external doors were secured.
In the aftermath of the discovery, the two young boys have been placed in the care of a French foster family based in Lisbon, as authorities coordinate arrangements to return the children to their native France. Official records show the brothers had been living with their mother in Colmar, a city in eastern France, while the children’s biological father was granted only limited, supervised visitation rights under a French court order. French law enforcement had been searching for the mother and the two boys since May 11, when the father filed a missing person report for the group, prompting French authorities to issue a cross-border European arrest warrant shortly after.
New details from the motorist who first encountered the boys have also shed light on the children’s experience. Eugenia Quintas, whose son discovered the abandoned children, told AFP that one of the boys told rescuers the pair had been blindfolded by their mother and told they were searching for a hidden toy. When the children removed their blindfolds, both their mother and her vehicle were already gone. Quintas added that despite the traumatic abandonment, “On them they had an orange, a pear and a bottle of water each. We didn’t see any signs of mistreatment.”
Investigators have noted that the couple appears to have no prior personal or professional ties to Portugal, which has deepened public curiosity around the motivation for the abandonment. Further reporting on the suspects’ backgrounds has amplified public interest in the case. Marine R. describes herself on public social media profiles as a sexologist specializing in somatic body practices, developmental therapy and trauma care. Marc B., meanwhile, is a former officer with the French national gendarmerie who left the force in 2010; French media reports confirm he has repeatedly shared conspiracy theory and antisemitic content on his public social media accounts.
This case marks the second high-profile incident involving French citizens in Portugal within the span of a few months. Earlier this year, Portuguese authorities charged French national Cedric Prizzon with murdering his current and former romantic partners in northern Portugal, before fleeing the area with the young children he had with the two women. Portuguese courts have rejected France’s extradition request for Prizzon, ruling that the alleged crimes were committed on Portuguese territory and fall under Portuguese national jurisdiction.