Marine Rousseau, 41, was arrested by the GNR in Fátima, together with a 55-year-old man. According to the police force, they are “suspected of committing the offences of domestic violence and exposure and abandonment, in connection with an incident involving two minor children found alone on the public highway in the municipality of Alcácer do Sal”.
Little is known about the French woman, let alone the reasons why she left her two children, aged four and five, alone in an unknown location. Marine Rousseau was arrested around 170 kilometres from where the children were found.
On social media, she presents herself as a “sexologist” who, according to her, can help “all people who have suffered trauma to regain serenity and sexual satisfaction”. On professional networks like LinkedIn, she says she “specialises in body practices, developmental dynamics and specific care for trauma”, and is able to accompany young people.
It was also online that it publicised videos about training aimed at helping parents approach sexuality with their children. According to the information provided, she studied psychomotricity at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and also worked with EFT, a technique associated with emotional release.
Family reported her missing
It was her maternal family who reported her disappearance to the French authorities.
“On 11 May 2026, the Colmar police station was contacted by the family of a 41-year-old woman living in Colmar who had disappeared from her home without giving any explanations,” said the Colmar public prosecutor’s office in a statement, quoted by TF1. The disappearance was presented as worrying, not least because the woman left behind another child, aged 16, the fruit of a previous relationship.
The public prosecutor of Colmar, Jean Richert, quoted here by the same media organisation, explained that the children’s father, separated from their mother, had also approached the authorities with a complaint of child abduction. The French press also indicated that it was the mother who had legal custody of the children.
The disappearance, reported on 11 May, was investigated by the French police who, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, managed to locate the woman “successively in the south of France, in Spain and in Portugal, but without being able to contact her”.
News of the children’s appearance on a national road triggered an investigation on Portuguese soil and also in France, with the Colmar prosecutor’s office opening a judicial enquiry into “child neglect”.
Stepfather already convicted of domestic violence
Information about the mother is scarce, but the profile of her current partner, identified as Marc Ballabrigade, 55, who was also arrested by the GNR, can be considered problematic.
According to Le Parisien , he is a former police officer, convicted in 2010 of harassment and domestic violence against the mother of his daughter. The French newspaper quotes a source close to the case, explaining that the individual was sentenced to nine months in prison and two years suspended.
Despite the conviction, the psychological assessment at the time described him as a “normal person” and “without pathologies”. The same source explained to the French newspaper that the man had “gone through a long period of depression which led him to resign from his post” in the police.
On social media, the man says that he worked as a “slave for the Ministry of Defence” between 1994 and 2010, and also posts several conspiracy theories, the latest dated March.
The couple will be brought before a judge today to determine coercive measures.
“Minors are in good health”
The controversial case began on Wednesday, after two children were found alone, with signs of abandonment, by the side of a national road, in an area of scrubland in Alcácer do Sal, in the Setúbal district.
A couple driving past noticed the children, explaining to the Portuguese press how the children appeared confused as they told how they had been taken to the forest, allegedly to play.
Following the tip-off, “GNR soldiers immediately travelled to the scene, where they located the minors and ensured their protection and safety”. They were taken to the Alcácer do Sal Territorial Post, “where the soldiers endeavoured to provide the first care, ensuring food, comfort and an atmosphere of tranquillity and protection, particularly important given the age and emotional fragility of the children”, the police force said in a statement.
The children were then taken to hospital to determine their state of health. According to the Setúbal District Prosecutor’s Office, “the minors are apparently in good health and have received the necessary medical attention, having been discharged from hospital”.
The statement emphasises that the “priority of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has been to ensure the well-being and safety of the children, which has been achieved”.
The two siblings are currently in the care of a temporary foster family, after the Family and Minors Court of Santiago do Cacém opened an urgent protection procedure.
The Portuguese and French authorities have been communicating to determine the children’s future and a possible return to French soil. The boys’ father is already on his way to Portugal. According to SIC, the man will undergo an assessment to determine whether he is able to keep the children.
The Setúbal District Court has made it clear that the children can only be returned to France following a formal request from the French authorities.
“It will be up to the French judicial authorities, through the mechanisms of judicial co-operation, to initiate the process of returning the children to the State of their habitual residence. In this case, the French courts are internationally competent to decide on definitive protection measures and parental responsibilities,” says the Setúbal District Court.