French Wedding Kidnapping Suspect Says Missing Girl Got Into His Car

The man charged in connection with a missing 9-year-old French girl admitted the child got into his car, but he maintained he did not kidnap her, authorities said. The unidentified 34-year-old was charged with kidnapping and illegal confinement or arbitrary detention of a minor after his explanation proved insufficient to investigators.

Maelys de Araujo went missing from a wedding Aug. 27 in Pont-de-Bauvoisin, France. Guests realized the child vanished when a DJ announced she could not be located around 3 a.m. Guests initially thought Maelys fell asleep or was lost. They launched a search of their own, but called authorities after an hour. Upon arrival at the scene, police were able to track her scent to the parking lot where the trail went cold. Based upon that, police theorized she may have been taken from the venue in a car. An exhaustive search of the woods and rivers nearby included cadaver dogs and police divers, but yielded no trace of the girl.

Upon further investigation, French authorities found traces of Maelys’ DNA on the dashboard of the suspect’s car, which had been cleaned the day after the wedding at which he was also a guest. A lawyer for the man said the child had been inside his car playing with another child but had returned to the party.

“His dogs were mentioned during the party so the children, as they were playing outside, came to him and asked to see his dogs in the car,” Bernard Meraud told BFM-TV. “He opened the door, turned over the passenger front seat, the children went on the back seat, looked inside the boot and came out, that’s it.”

Meraud also said the man washed his car not to destroy evidence but because he planned to sell it.

“The little girl and a little boy approached the car, next to which he was smoking a cigarette,” he reiterated to Agence French-Presse. “Given there had been a conversation during the evening about his dogs, the two children asked to see whether they were in the car.”

As for the DNA on the dashboard, Meraud said it could have been “transferred” there by someone else who came in contact with Maelys, according to AFP.

Authorities were unsatisfied with the explanation and re-arrested the suspect Sunday. He was previously detained for questioning but released.

“Confronted with testimony, findings and scientific evidence, he persisted in his denials and explanations,” the prosecutor’s office said, according to the Associated Press. “This did not convince the investigative judges, who decided to hold him.”

The suspect reportedly lives with his parents near Pont-de-Beauvoisin. His mother insisted her son did not kidnap the girl.

“He’s a good boy who wouldn’t hurt a soul,” his mother told France’s RTL radio. “[The authorities are] hounding him because they have to find a culprit.”