NOTE: This article contains descriptions that are disturbing. Please read at your own discretion.
Parisians are outraged after the shocking death of 12-year-old Lola Daviet, whose body was discovered abandoned in a plastic packing box just outside her apartment building on Friday.
Daviet’s hands and feet were bound and two Post-It notes were placed on each foot, one labeled “0” and the other “1.” Despite a visible gash on her neck, the autopsy report claimed Daviet died of asphyxiation.
The girl’s mother told police of her daughter’s disappearance on Friday afternoon when she did not return from school.
Daviet was last seen on CCTV footage only hours before her death when she entered her Paris apartment building around 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Her father, who works as a caretaker for the property, told police he reviewed the building’s security video and saw his daughter accompanied by an unknown woman.
According to the Washington Post, the same woman was seen on CCTV footage about two hours later carrying two heavy bags.
On Saturday, police arrested a 24-year-old Algerian national, according to numerous French media reports. The woman, who the BBC identified as “Dahbia B,” is believed to be the person in the apartment building’s security footage.
The BBC reported that an eyewitness saw Dahbia B “leaving the building pulling a container and then acting incoherently on the street.”
The suspect allegedly asked the witness for help in exchange for money from an “organ-trafficking affair.”
In her police interview, Dahbia B did not make mention of any organ trafficking. Despite the witness’ alleged account, police are reportedly not considering organ trafficking as a motive in this case; instead, local authorities suggested Dahbia B is psychologically unstable.
The Washington Post obtained a statement from the public prosecutor who claimed the suspect made contradictory reports to police. She allegedly told authorities that she led Daviet to her sister’s apartment in the same building, where she sexually abused the French schoolgirl.
On Monday, Dahbia B appeared in court, where she was accused of murdering a child under the age of 15, rape, acts of torture and of concealing a body.
Police also arrested a second unnamed suspect who is believed to have driven Dahbia B and the plastic box around in his car on Friday, according to the BBC. Eventually, Dahbia B and the box returned to Daviet’s apartment complex. She later left again without the box.
Amid outrage around Daviet’s death, far-right politicians in France have initiated heated debate about immigration policy.
France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna claimed the suspect entered the country legally as a student. The minister further alleged they were provided an expulsion order in August, giving the suspect 30 days to leave the country.
Several politicians, including the acting leader of France’s nationalist, right-wing populist National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, criticized the current government’s stance on immigration.
“This Algerian woman was under an obligation to leave French territory, issued 2 months ago,” Bardella wrote in French. “She had nothing to do in France, yet nothing was done.”
“We have before our eyes the complete bankruptcy of a government,” he continued.
Éric Zemmour, president of the far-right political party Reconquête, called Daviet’s death a “Francocide.” He tweeted that Daviet’s killer “should have never crossed her path.”
As of now, there is no known motive for the suspects’ actions regarding Daviet, and French authorities are working to uncover more details about the girl’s death.
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