France
The trial of the murder of an eight-year-old girl begins
People wait outside the Grenoble courthouse where the trial for the murder of eight-year-old Maëlys de Araujo begins. Photo: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The case caused a stir and horror in France. In August 2017, an eight-year-old girl was murdered. The perpetrator is caught, now the process begins.
In France, the trial of a former soldier in the sensational murder case of eight-year-old Maëlys has begun. This was reported by the French news agency AFP on Monday.
The accused must appear in court in Grenoble by February 18. During the investigation, he had reportedly admitted to having killed the girl – but according to him unintentionally.
The mother wrote a book about the case
Eight-year-old Maëlys disappeared from a wedding party in a small community in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region on the night of August 26-27, 2017. At the time, DNA traces and camera recordings confirmed the suspicion against the man, who was also present at the celebrations. Finally, about six months after the disappearance of the little ones, he led the investigators to their bodies. The girl’s mother later wrote a book about the mysterious case and her handling of the loss of her child.
In the Grenoble trial, the accused is also accused of sexually abusing two little cousins. The man in his late thirties faces a life sentence. The former dog handler was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of a young soldier last May. Investigations have been reopened into other unsolved missing persons and murder cases in order to examine a possible connection to him.