Discovery of girl’s body in box in Paris sparks shock, right-wing outcry

After Lola failed to return to the family’s apartment from school, her mother, Delphine Daviet, reported her daughter’s disappearance to police on Friday afternoon and appealed for help to find her.

The final hours of her life remain unclear. An autopsy revealed that the child died of asphyxiation and that the numbers zero and one had been written in red on her victim’s feet. No clear motive has been established for the killing.

Lola’s father — who works as a caretaker in the building where the family lives — reviewed the security footage and saw his daughter enter the hall accompanied by a young woman unknown to the family.

Some two hours later, the woman — identified in French media as a 24-year-old Algerian national, although officials have not yet named her or shared her nationality — left the building, this time alone and carrying two seemingly heavy bags.

The suspect was arrested the following day and appeared before a judge Monday, accused of murdering a child under the age of 15, rape, acts of torture and of concealing a body.

The suspect made contradictory statements to police, first admitting and then denying certain accusations, authorities said.

At one point, the woman said she had led Lola to her sister’s flat, which is in the same building, and made the victim shower before sexually abusing her, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.

The suspect did not mention organ trafficking when speaking to police, although this was mentioned as a possible motive by one witness early in the investigation, prosecutors said.

A second suspect, a 43-year-old man, admitted driving the suspect, along with two suitcases and the plastic box, to his home. She allegedly stayed for two hours, before leaving with all the luggage and heading back to Lola’s apartment building.

The case has added to the somber mood in France around the second anniversary of the murder of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded after showing his students caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

The far right quickly seized on Lola’s killing as an example of the failure of French immigration policy, after news broke that the suspect had been ordered in August to leave France within 30 days. The foreign minister said the suspect came legally as a student but confirmed the expulsion order — known as the obligation to leave French territory — and added that the woman was not previously known to the police.

The acting president of France’s far-right National Rally — the party of former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen — said on Twitter late Monday that the suspect “did not belong in France, yet nothing was done. We have before our eyes the complete bankruptcy of a government.” Éric Zemmour, another far-right politician, wrote on Twitter: “#Lola’s killer should never have crossed her path.”

France’s interior minister condemned the “indecency” of politicians he said were using the case to score political points, as some suggested that such rhetoric was dangerous to both immigrants and those of North African heritage.

“Politicians need to think about the consequences of their words,” Gérald Darmanin, the minister, told French radio network RTL Tuesday.

Ellen Francis contributed to this report.