One victim and two suspects, all minors. Two teenagers were taken into police custody after a 16-year-old girl was found dead on Wednesday in Saint-Pierre, in the south of the island of Reunion, five days after her disappearance. The teenager had been missing since Saturday. She had left her father’s home in Saint-Denis, in the north of the island, to go to a friend’s house in Saint-Louis, in the south.
After the disappearance was reported, investigators from the territorial service of the judicial police (STPJ) “were able to identify the person with whom she had an appointment,” said Carole Pantalacci, acting prosecutor of Saint-Pierre, in a statement. “This young girl, a minor of 14 years old, admitted to having participated in the company of one of her friends, aged 16 or over, in the murder of the missing girl,” adds the magistrate.
Investigations continue to “determine” the circumstances of the crime
The two minors were placed in police custody at the Saint-Pierre police station. “They explained how the events happened and admitted to being the perpetrators of the crime,” underlines the prosecution. The body was found by police in an abandoned sugar factory. The first conclusions of the forensic doctor confirm the violence suffered by the victim, indicates the prosecutor without specifying the nature of this violence. Investigations and hearings are continuing in order to “determine and deepen” the circumstances in which the crime was committed, according to the prosecution.
The facts caused a stir in the large French island in the Indian Ocean, where two cases of this type have occurred in recent years. In April 2022, a 14-year-old girl was seriously injured in the head in Saint-Pierre. A minor was placed in pre-trial detention for attempted murder. Two others had been arrested for complicity.