FLEURANCE, France: Search teams in southwestern France on Thursday found the body of a child believed to be a missing girl, in a case that sparked a national uproar about alleged judicial failings.
Dozens of police and volunteers had for days been combing the countryside in southwestern France to find 11-year-old Lyhanna.
A 41-year-old father of two has been detained as the key suspect. Public anger erupted after it emerged he had been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children with no action taken.
Lyhanna went missing on Friday near the village of Fleurance, after she was last seen getting into a man’s car.
On Thursday, police discovered a body believed to be hers in a silo on a farm near the village of Puycasquier.
“A body believed to be that of a child was discovered, wearing clothes similar to those worn by the abducted minor at the time of her disappearance,” prosecutor Olivier Naboulet said in a statement.
An autopsy will be required to formally identify the remains.
According to a local agricultural official, the main suspect had worked on the farm.
Prosecutors said that previous legal complaints existed against the suspect accusing him of raping a minor.
After being shown security camera footage, the suspect admitted giving the girl a lift but insisted he dropped her off at a swimming pool.
Prosecutor Clemence Meyer on Wednesday said there had been previous complaints against him.
In December 2017, a mother reported that her 17-year-old daughter was in a relationship with the man.
The case was dropped in 2018 after the girl said she had consented. In January 2022, a complaint accused him of raping a child younger than 15 in 2020 at his home in southwestern France.
The case was transferred to the local prosecutor but dismissed in 2024 for lack of evidence.
In a third case, on August 22, 2025, the mother of a girl born in 2014 accused him of raping her child between September 2024 and May 2025 at his home, the prosecutor said.
The complaint was first examined in the nearby city of Toulouse, then transferred to the local prosecutor’s office, which in January demanded police investigate.
But they had still not questioned him when the 11-year-old disappeared.
“The investigation was still underway when Lyhanna went missing,” Meyer said.
She added that a new complaint for the alleged rape of a minor had been filed on Wednesday but provided no further details. – AFP
