The remains of a 9-year-old French girl who mysteriously went missing from a wedding last year have been found.
Araujo’s disappearance at the time spurred nationwide concern. That was 6 months ago.
Nordahl Lelandais, a 34-year-old man who attended the wedding, has now admitted to investigators that he killed the girl “involuntarily,” before hiding her body and returning to the wedding celebration.
He later dumped her body into the ravine.
According to the BBC, Lelandais only agreed to co-operate with authorities after a trace of Araujo’s blood was found on the dashboard of his car.
It’s unclear what the killer meant by his “involuntarily” comment. As of writing, more details surrounding the case had not been released yet.
Lelandais, a former army dog handler, was a guest at the wedding and had already been charged earlier over her disappearance, according to the Independent.
Since then, Lelandais has maintained his innocence, according to the BBC, and had reportedly spent hours the next day cleaning his car with powerful detergents, claiming he was preparing to sell it.
After the evidence of blood was also found in his car boot, he changed his approach, eventually leading authorities to the location of the girl’s remains.
In court, Lelandais admitted he “got rid of the body,” and apologized to the girl’s parents, prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat said, according to the BBC.
Earlier, Lelandais had also admitted that the girl was in his car the night she disappeared.
Araujo attended the wedding with her parents and older sister. She was last seen in a playroom before her disappearance.
In the aftermath of her disappearance last year, around 100 officers, including divers and dog handlers conducted a wide-reaching search of the nearby area.
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