A French sexologist mother and her partner, accused of abandoning her two young sons in the Portuguese woods, were caught sunning themselves just hours after taking off without the children. The 41-year-old mother, Marine R, and stepfather Marc B, 55, were arrested yesterday for allegedly dumping the schoolboys, aged five and four, hundreds of miles from where they grew up.
The brothers were found wandering down a rural road between the Portuguese towns of Alcacer do Sal and Comporta on Tuesday evening. The parents were arrested in the city of Fatima, 124 miles north of Alcacer do Sal. The brothers told the local couple that found them that their parents had abandoned them, blindfolded, with nothing more than a change of clothes, two pieces of fruit, and two bottles of water.
Arrest and Discovery
Marine, a French sexologist, and her partner Ballabriga were tracked down by police more than 100 miles away in a cafe south of Lisbon, where they were found enjoying snacks on a sunny terrace. The pair were located after a woman who spoke to them called the police, becoming suspicious that they were the couple police were looking for after news emerged of two abandoned boys.
According to cafe owner Jorge Lopes, who spoke to Portuguese daily Correio da Manha, the couple, who 'only spoke French,' spent 'more than five hours' on the establishment's terrace, eating cakes and drinking coffees. New footage obtained by local media showed the boys innocently playing in their parents' car at a petrol station in Miranda do Douro, near the border with Spain, after they arrived in Portugal.
Background of the Parents
Marine, born in 1984, graduated in psychomotor therapy from the Pierre and Marie Curie University of Paris in 2008. She worked in Troyes for 10 years before studying sexology at the Paris Diderot University between 2019 and 2022. She left Troyes in 2025 to settle in Colmar. Following her separation from the boys' biological father, she obtained custody of her two children.
As a sexologist, Marine specialises in 'body-based practices, developmental dynamics, and specific trauma care, offers consultations in France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as via videoconference,' according to her LinkedIn. She adds: 'I help women and men achieve sexual fulfilment. At your own pace, even if you're traumatised.' On her Facebook, she promotes her business heavily but has no images or videos of her children.
Marine also organises masterclasses on 'co-construction of sexuality,' intended 'for parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, for every member in families, for anyone who would like to pass on something about sexuality, whether to children, adolescents or young people, while respecting their sensitivity and level of development.'
Events Leading to Abandonment
The boys' biological father, who was given 'limited and supervised visitation rights,' also filed a child abduction report to police. Colmar prosecutor Jean Richert said on Thursday: 'He's like everyone else, he doesn't understand.' After arriving in Portugal, the family travelled more than 310 miles, first to the Miranda do Corvo region before heading south to Alcacer do Sal. They stayed in a hotel in the town, about 12 miles from where the boys were found.
On Tuesday, the young boys were found by a local couple, Eugenia and Artur Quintas. Artur said: 'They were crying, they were terrified. They were crying and calling for their father.' He added that they were covered in dirt and bruises, and one had hurt his knee. Neither boy had any identifying documents. The Quintases took them home and called the police, who quickly arrived and took them to Setúbal Hospital for a full health assessment, where they were given a clean bill of health. A toxicology report revealed the boys had not been drugged.
Children's Account
The boys told authorities that their parents told them they were going to play a game to 'drive away the devil.' The couple blindfolded them and took them to a wooded area, telling them they could only remove their eye covers once they had found a knife the couple had buried and used it to cut them off. The boys dug in the dirt for several minutes before the older one took their blindfolds off. Realising they were alone, they wandered for several hours through a part of Portugal that can reach up to 30C during the day.
Artur told local media: 'The oldest one told me that he and his brother had gotten lost in the forest and that their father and mother had left without taking them.' He added: 'I realised right away that they had been abandoned by the backpacks. When I saw the way the backpacks were packed, I knew they had been abandoned.'
Arrest and Legal Proceedings
On Thursday, Portuguese police announced the arrest of a 55-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman 'linked to the incident involving two minor children found alone near a public road in the municipality of Alcácer do Sal.' They were arrested at a café terrace in Fatima on suspicion of abuse, endangering others, and abandonment. Marine was seen in a police station in the city today, apparently in handcuffs.
The boys were placed into foster care after information from the French embassy revealed they had no blood relatives in Portugal. French authorities are now set to process the boys' return to France. French police are already aware of the stepfather, who is believed to suffer from a psychiatric disorder. French prosecutors are opening a child neglect case.
Psychological Impact
Experts fear the children may suffer long-term psychological harm. Psychologist Melanie Tavares told CNN Portugal: 'It's the feeling of abandonment, of being lost, unprotected, of not having familiar resources to ultimately soothe the fear.' She said being left in the woods may affect their emotional security and cause sleep difficulties, eating disorders, irritability, and isolation.
Tavares said: 'This will obviously bring, in the coming days, some symptoms to which those caring for these children will have to be very attentive. We are talking about several situations, namely great difficulty in sleeping, falling asleep and maintaining sleep, changes in normal routines, including eating, irritability or even almost permanent isolation, as well as great difficulty, often, in accepting rules and the context in which they are, because none of this is familiar to these children.'
She added that the parents pretending to play a 'game' could result in significant distrust in parental figures. 'These children will be in constant distress, a great deal of distress from abandonment, and distress from separation. This is a trauma that will remain, just like when we get a tattoo. It stays for life.'
