A Portuguese court has ruled that a French woman and her partner will continue to be held in pre-trial custody following allegations that they abandoned the woman’s two young sons along a rural roadside in the country’s south. The disturbing case unfolded earlier this month, drawing cross-border attention from both French and Portuguese authorities and media outlets.
The two boys, aged four and five, were discovered on the evening of Tuesday last week, huddled and crying beside a highway near the town of Alcacer do Sal, located roughly 100 kilometers south of Portugal’s capital Lisbon. According to accounts shared with local media by the mother of the motorist who found the children, one of the boys told rescuers their mother had blindfolded them, luring them to search for a hidden toy. When the children removed their blindfolds, she had already disappeared.
Two days after the boys were found, law enforcement apprehended the pair — identified by official sources as 41-year-old Marine R, the children’s mother, and her 55-year-old partner Marc B — in the central Portuguese pilgrimage town of Fatima. Under Portuguese legal regulations, all criminal suspects must be brought before a judge within 48 hours of arrest to determine whether they will remain in custody or be released pending trial.
When the pair arrived at the Setubal District Courthouse on Saturday morning, observers documented unusual public behavior: Marc B shouted “I love you” to onlookers in French, while Marine R sang aloud to herself. After closed-door proceedings, the judge issued an order remanding both suspects to pre-trial detention, as confirmed by reports from both French and Portuguese media. The couple face a trio of criminal charges: aggravated assault, child endangerment, and willful abandonment of minors.
Prior to their disappearance, the boys had been living full-time with their mother in Colmar, a city in northeastern France, according to local media reports shared with the court. The children’s biological father only held limited, supervised visitation rights, and he officially reported the boys and their mother missing to French authorities on May 11. That missing person report triggered a cross-border search, which led to a European arrest warrant being issued for the mother before the children were found in Portugal. Investigators have noted that the couple appears to have no pre-existing ties or connections to Portugal, leaving their motive for traveling to the country with the children still unclear.
The couple’s professional backgrounds have sparked particular public interest in both countries. Marine R’s public LinkedIn profile lists her as a sexologist specializing in body-focused therapy, psychotrauma treatment, and developmental dynamics. Marc B, meanwhile, is a former officer with the French national gendarmerie who left the force in 2010. Local Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã has also reported that prison staff have overheard the pair shouting at each other through the walls of their separate holding cells. Since their arrest, both suspects have undergone several hours of questioning by investigating officers.
For the time being, the two young boys have been placed in the care of a French foster family based in Lisbon, and authorities are arranging for them to return to France in the coming days to be reunited with their biological father, according to official updates.