I amThe mother of a five-year-old girl found dead in Voszj vented her anger on Wednesday, a day after the arrest of a teenager who, according to local residents, had already been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
“I’m devastated,” the victim’s mother tearfully declared in front of reporters on the steps of her home in the small town of Rambervillers, where bouquets of flowers were laid.
The child’s body, unclothed, was found in a bag on Tuesday afternoon in an apartment owned by a social landlord in the town of 5,000 people.
In the morning, the gendarmes brought the young man, who was hidden under a blanket, into the apartment for a while. They left a few minutes later and the police made no comment.
“Yesterday at 1:00 p.m., he was behind the house and he asked me if I needed a hand, he is always ready,” AFP Sefa Chakan, 44, a neighbor of the suspect, testified. “I’ve never seen him act so strangely with my children.”
But other residents, on the contrary, described a provocative and threatening young man. One of them had this to say about a “controversy” that happened last year.
“He told my 11-year-old granddaughter + I’m going to rape you +,” said Mario, 55, who declined to give his last name.
“We saw him walking around all the time and insulting everyone. He disturbed all the children. I came to know that he had accommodation here, he lived alone and his mother rented accommodation for him,” he added.
According to several residents, the young man stayed in mental hospitals in Rouffach (Haut-Rhin) and Mirecourt (Vosges).
“The police know”
“Why did they let him out?” “, protested the victim’s mother, 34 years old.
“Whoever does this, I want him to pay well because I’ve been paying for the rest of my life,” said the black-haired woman, dressed in a thick gray woolen dress.
She confirmed that she reported her child missing to the police in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The municipal police officers were the first to intervene, they were the ones who found the body, then help came, they tried cardiac massage but did nothing, unfortunately it was too late,” said Mayor Jean. Pierre Michael.
According to him, the teenager was “known to the Metropolitan Police and certainly to the Gendarmerie for acts of sexual abuse”.
“He would have lured young children with inappropriate sexual gestures,” said the mayor of the town, located thirty kilometers northeast of Epinal.
“This young man was kept. It was only a few weeks ago that he reappeared in the Rampervillers area, which slightly worried the municipal police, who were alert,” said Mr. Michael said. “Everyone turned around (…) If a child dies, if it’s accidental, it’s dramatic, but in situations like this, it’s even more painful, it’s indescribable”.
Many residents said they were “shocked” by the drama in the city.
“I didn’t sleep all night, it shocked me,” explained one neighbor, Florence Idox, 53. “I’m thinking of the poor people who are the parents of the little girl. I’m in pain”.
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