Christian Hartmann/Reuters
Police in Paris suspect a botched kidnapping attempt led to the fatal throat slashing of a 12-year-old girl whose body was found stuffed into a plastic crate late Friday night. The middle school student, named only Lola in French newspapers, was last seen after class on Friday in the 19th arrondissement, known for its leafy parks and residential apartment blocks.
Lola’s parents raised the alarm first with the head of the kindergarten school next door, where the girl sometimes stopped to play with the youngsters, and later with police. Cops searched surveillance camera footage to determine that Lola had, in fact, come home from school Friday, but had been lured to the basement of her building by a woman.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, the footage was also seen by the father and neighbors who gathered to search for the girl. “We see Lola inside,” a neighbor who saw the video along with the girl’s father told the paper. “But the little girl is not alone. She is accompanied by a woman in her twenties. The lady makes a gesture to her as if she were telling her to come.” The neighbor added that “Lola didn’t look reassured at all.”