France: Paris shocked by murder of Lola, 12, found in box

The girl's mother wrote on Facebook that she was dressed in white jeans, a white hoodie, and a grey backpack. She pleaded, "Please help us find her."

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Delphine Daviet's post was finished off by two images beneath her message. In one, 12-year-old Lola smiles for the camera, and in the other, a woman is visible in a doorway in a pixelated still image from security camera footage.

Just hours after her mother published this message on October 14, Lola's body was discovered mutilated and stuffed into a plastic box in a case that has gripped France. The woman who was with Lola the last time she was seen alive was caught on camera, according to her mother, in the apartment complex where the family resides.

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The two were seen entering the building where Lola lived at 3:15 pm on Friday, just after she had left school, according to a statement from the prosecutor of the Paris police. The woman left the building by herself, with her luggage in tow, around five o'clock. The statement added that three hours later, Lola's father called the police and reported his daughter missing. According to the statement, Lola's body was discovered in a wheeled plastic box just after 11 p.m. outside the family's building, where Lola's father serves as the concierge.

An official judicial investigation into the allegations of "murder of a minor under the age of 15, accompanied by rape of a minor, torture or acts of savagery; rape of a minor with torture or acts of savagery; and concealment of a corpse" was launched by French authorities on Monday, according to a statement.

According to the statement, Lola's autopsy revealed that she suffered from cardiorespiratory failure and showed symptoms of asphyxiation and cervical compression. The police statement stated that she also had numerous other wounds, "particularly to her face, back, and with large cuts to her neck, which did not play a role in her death according to the coroner's conclusions of her cause of death." The young victim's feet had a zero and a one written underneath them in red, according to the police prosecutor, and there were no indications of sexual assault injuries.

The primary suspect in the case, a 24-year-old woman who has not been named, was taken into custody by police in the northwest Paris suburbs just before 8 a.m. on Saturday, the day after Lola was killed.

During questioning, the woman's story "veered between acknowledging and contesting of the facts," according to the police prosecutor's statement, but she disclosed that she had taken Lola to her sister's flat, who lived in the same flat building. The statement claimed that she is currently the subject of a formal investigation into Lola's murder.

There, she allegedly admitted to "committing sexual assaults and other violence on her that resulted in her death," before concealing the child's body in the plastic box. She also allegedly claimed that she made the girl take a shower and then forced her to have a bath. Hafida, Lola's former classmate, said the following to CNN affiliate BFMTV: "It doesn’t want to go into my head." I'm trying to convince myself that I'll see her at recess later rather than now." The mother of a friend of Lola's who used to stay over at their home, Bamba, also expressed her shock at what had transpired. She told BFMTV, "I can't believe it; I'm telling myself it's not possible; that could happen to anyone, even to me."

In memory of a life brutally cut short, flowers were amassing outside Lola's flat building on Tuesday afternoon. In addition to stepping up police patrols around schools, local authorities in Paris' 19th arrondissement, where the murder took place, have opened a support centre for residents, particularly schoolchildren, according to a statement from the district's mayor. Police also detained a 43-year-old acquaintance who admitted to driving the 24-year-old woman to his house outside of Paris with her suitcases and the plastic box, then arranging for her to take a taxi back to the city with the box and cases. In addition to the main suspect, this acquaintance was also detained.

According to the police prosecutor's statement, investigations are still ongoing to ascertain the precise circumstances leading up to the murder.

Credit Global news