Maëlys de Araujo
Commemoration scene dedicated to De Araujo in Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin in March 2018
Born(2008-11-05)5 November 2008
France
Disappeared27 August 2017 (aged 8)
Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin, Isère, France
StatusFound dead 14 February 2018
Cause of deathHomicide
Body discoveredAttignat-Oncin

Maëlys de Araujo (5 November 2008 – 27 August 2017) was a French child who was last seen alive in the early morning of 27 August 2017 at a wedding in the Chambéry region of south-eastern France.[1] Her remains were found on 14 February 2018 when Nordahl Lelandais, who admitted to killing her, led investigators to the area where he had disposed of the body.[2][3][4] On 17 February 2022, Lelandais was sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of De Araujo.[5]

Investigation

Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin, Isère, the town where Maëlys de Araujo disappeared
An Audi A3, like the one owned by Nordahl Lelandais

Maëlys de Araujo was last seen at a wedding in Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin, Isère at approximately 3:00 am on 27 August 2017. After a DJ working at the wedding announced that she was missing, guests immediately started looking for her, and after an hour of searching, a police report was filed. In the months that followed, police interviewed 180 wedding guests. Along with local volunteers, they also searched the dense woodland around the area.[6]

Nordahl Lelandais, an ex-soldier who attended the wedding, was taken into custody in September 2017 after traces of De Araujo's DNA were found in his Audi A3 car. Two police dogs fell seriously ill after searching the car. Lelandais had reportedly used a strong detergent to clean it a few hours after De Araujo disappeared. A car wash CCTV camera recorded him cleaning the car for more than two hours.[7][8] CCTV footage showed Lelandais leaving the wedding venue with a "small, frail figure in a white dress" in the passenger seat of his car shortly before De Araujo was reported missing.[9] Lelandais' mobile phone was in airplane mode around this time, and then reconnected after 39 minutes, when he returned to the wedding alone.[10]

On 14 February 2018, Lelandais admitted to killing De Araujo, and led the police to where he had hidden her body. He told prosecutors he had killed her "involuntarily" but refused to elaborate further. The post-mortem established that De Araujo had suffered a fractured jaw, possibly from a violent blow to the face. Lelandais was held in custody in a psychiatric unit in a prison in Bron, just outside Lyon.

According to a witness from the wedding, Lelandais had been invited as a guest, first only to the reception, then to the party that took place later in the evening. Known as being a part of the local drug scene, Lelandais was asked to bring cocaine which he did. He arrived shortly after midnight.[11]

On 17 February 2022, his 39th birthday, Lelandais was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years for the kidnapping and murder of De Araujo.[12][5]

Prosecutors investigating De Araujo's death suspected that Lelandais is a serial killer. On 21 December 2017, he was charged with the killing of Arthur Noyer, a 23-year-old soldier who vanished after hitchhiking from a disco in Chambéry on 12 April 2017.[13] Investigators found that Lelandais's mobile phone had been in the same area at the same time as Noyer's. Lelandais's Audi A3 car was identified in the area on surveillance cameras. An analysis of his computer found he had searched for "decomposition of a human body" on the internet two weeks after Noyer disappeared.[14] Lelandais admitted having given Noyer a lift but first denied any involvement in his death,[15] before eventually admitting the killing on 29 March 2018. Other cases that may be linked to Lelandais include those of Jean-Christophe Morin and Ahmed Hamadou, who vanished from a festival in Fort de Tamié in 2011 and 2012 respectively.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mothers in plea to French kidnap suspect". BBC News. 29 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Remains of missing French girl found". BBC News. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  3. ↑ Emeri, Évelyne (21 February 2018). "France - Affaire Maëlys: dans les pas du monstre". lematin.ch. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Le corps de la petite Maëlys retrouvé : retour sur six mois d'enquête". leparisien.fr (in French). 14 February 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Maëlys de Araujo: Ex-soldier jailed for life for French girl's murder". BBC News. 18 February 2022. p. 1. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Taylor, Joshua (1 October 2017). "Mum's agony after daughter, 8, vanishes without trace at wedding party". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "Man charged over missing wedding girl". BBC News. 4 September 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  8. ↑ Samuel, Henry (21 December 2017). "France to reopen Alps murder investigation of al-Hilli family after possible serial killer charged". The Telegraph.
  9. ↑ "Fears for girl missing at French wedding". BBC News. 29 August 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "Murder of Maëlys: 39 minutes in airplane mode, the time for Nordahl L. to kill the child?". Archys World News. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  11. ↑ Mirkovic, Philippe (9 February 2022). "Procès de Nordahl Lelandais. Entre clope et cocaïne, ils racontent la nuit du mariage avec l'accusé". ouest-france.fr. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  12. ↑ "Maëlys De Araujo: former French soldier sentenced life in prison for girl's murder". The Guardian. 18 February 2022. p. 1. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  13. ↑ Bremner, Charles (21 December 2017). "Nordahl Lelandais, suspect in Maëlys de Araujo murder case, 'may be serial killer'". The Times. Retrieved 23 August 2018. (subscription required)
  14. ↑ Bar, Roni (23 August 2018). "People Have a Right to Disappear, France Said. Then Came a Serial Killer". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Detained ex-soldier investigated for 2012 Alps shooting". Radio New Zealand. 22 December 2017.
  16. ↑ "Maelys de Araujo: Killer's confession links him to second murder". Yahoo! News UK. 9 March 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
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