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A French mother who allegedly abandoned her two young children in a forest in Portugal while blindfolded was arrested with her former law enforcement boyfriend while eating at a café near Libson.
Marine Rousseau, 41, was taken into custody Thursday with Marc Ballabriga, 55, two days after the couple allegedly dumped her helpless 3- and 5-year-old children in a remote forest and left, according to Portuguese and French media.
“They stayed sitting and didn’t seem nervous,” café owner Jorge Lopes told the news outlet. “They were searched and handcuffed without any stress at all. When I saw them so at ease in front of the authorities, I was astonished. It was as if they didn’t have blood running through their veins.”
The boys were found crying and alone 125 miles away, MetroUK reported.
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“Given the situation of evident vulnerability, the children were taken to the home of a local resident, where they remained and received initial care in the presence of the officers until they were transferred to a hospital unit,” Portuguese authorities said in a statement.
The two boys were in good health and were discharged from hospital on Thursday,” Portugal’s Public Ministry said.
The couple face child endangerment and abandonment charges. Ballabriga — a former French policeman who quit the force in 2010 — faces an additional aggravated assault charge.
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They were ordered held pending trial.
Rousseau’s sons were rescued by Artur Quintas, a local baker who spotted them “screaming and crying” while frantically stumbling along a main road on May 19, the New York Post reported.
They were carrying backpacks stuffed only with clothes, water and snacks.
Quintas recalled the older brother telling him that their mother and her boyfriend allegedly took them into the forest and covered their eyes as part of a “game.” When they removed their blindfolds, both adults had vanished.
The pair have since been placed in temporary foster care.
Their biological father — who reported them missing on May 11 — is working to bring them back to France.
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“It’s only a matter of days before I get my children back,” he told French broadcaster Ici Alsace TV on Monday. “I think about them every second since the Colmar police station contacted me to tell me they were missing. My children will have to rebuild their lives, just as I rebuilt mine.
“And they don’t need to be constantly reminded of this tragedy.”
