A man has been arrested under an investigation into rape and murder, after the body of a little girl who went missing on Tuesday was found on Wednesday evening in the cellar of his apartment building in Sedan.
This was announced on Thursday by the Charleville-Mézières public prosecutor’s office.
The tenant of the premises, a man born in 1966, was placed in police custody, public prosecutor Magali Josse said in a statement, indicating that she would hand over the investigation to the Reims public prosecutor’s office.
Reims public prosecutor François Schneider is scheduled to hold a press conference on Friday afternoon.
The suspect has given “contradictory and fanciful statements” in police custody, a police source said, adding that he was known for common law offences, but not as a sex offender.
The body of the little girl, Loana, aged 10 and a half, was found in the cellar of the man’s home. He was a tenant in a building in downtown Sedan that comprised “a drinks shop on the ground floor and an adjoining apartment upstairs,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.
A reconstruction was underway in the early afternoon in the presence of the suspect, according to a journalist from French news agency AFP.
The investigation has been opened for “murder” and “rape” of a “minor under the age of 15,” according to the Charleville-Mézières public prosecutor’s office.
The Reims judicial police have joined forces with the Sedan police team.
