The slaying of a 12-year-old girl whose body was found inside a plastic box in a Paris building courtyard has left France “profoundly shaken,” the French government's spokesperson said Wednesday.
A 24-year-old woman who was arrested Saturday in a northeastern suburb of the capital is in custody on charges of murder and rape of a minor, torture, acts of barbarity and concealment of a corpse, the Paris state prosecutor said Monday. A 43-year-old man is also in custody, charged with helping to hide the girl's body, according to a prosecutors' statement.
The killing of the girl, identified in the French media only as Lola, has sparked a vicious political debate after reports emerged identifying the main suspect as an immigrant who remained in the country despite a deportation order.
An autopsy showed the girl died of “cardiorespiratory failure with signs of asphyxia and cervical compression,” Paris prosecutors said. The coroner's report also cited wounds to her face, back and neck and injuries consistent with sexual assault, the prosecutor's statement said.
A judicial investigation is underway to determine the motive for the killing and a timeline of events that led to the girl's death on Friday and the discovery of her body that night in the courtyard of the building where she lived with her family.
“We are profoundly shaken, faced with the horror and the pain,” French government spokesman Olivier Veran said during a media briefing.
The girl's father reported his daughter missing Friday afternoon after she failed to return home from school. He works as a concierge in the building and used security camera footage to retrace the girl's movements.