Delivery Driver Rescues Missing Teen on Dark Mountain Road

Six years after disappearing with his mother and grandfather, Alex Batty was discovered by a student working as a delivery driver in the Pyrenees in southwestern France. It was nighttime and Fabien Accidini was delivering medicine to local pharmacies near Chalabre when he spotted a young man walking along the side of an unlit mountain road. The 17-year-old had decided to leave his mother's life in a spiritual commune and search for his grandmother in England. He had been walking in the Pyrenees for four days, wearing a white sweater, black jeans, and carrying a skateboard and a backpack. Intrigued, Accidini offered him a ride and they started talking. The teenager revealed his true identity, Alex Batty, and explained that his mother had kidnapped him when he was 12. According to Alex, they had lived in a luxurious house in Spain before joining a strange spiritual commune in the Pyrenees. Accidini searched his name on the internet, confirmed his identity, and lent him his phone so he could contact his grandmother. Alex expressed his desire to leave the commune and have a normal life. Accidini, instead of taking him to an embassy, contacted the French military police, and Alex is now in the custody of the French authorities in Toulouse. UK detectives are trying to locate his mother and grandfather.