Remains that leave “absolutely no doubt” that missing nine-year-old Maëlys de Araujo is dead “and that she was killed” by the man who has been held in solitary confinement since shortly after she vanished have finally brought almost six months of agony for her parents to some form of closure.
Searches yesterday uncovered the child’s head and a “long bone”.
“There is no doubt, they belong to Maëlys de Araujo”, Grenoble public prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat has told journalists, adding: “The parents are no longer in the dark”.
Today (Thursday) further searches of the area where the bones were recovered – around an hour’s drive from where the little girl with Portuguese ‘roots’ went missing (click here) – hope to be able to reconstruct her skeleton, and determine how exactly she died.
Though he has finally admitted to killing her, former soldier Nordahl Lelandais has still stopped short of saying how, suggesting only that it was “involuntarily”.
Already suspected of murdering a young soldier – and under investigation for a grisly series of unsolved cases (click here) – Lelandais’ name has been linked to the sexual abuse of minors, say reports in the Portuguese media.
In France, newspaper Le Parisien stresses that forensic experts and anthropologists will now be “appointed determine the real causes of Maëlys’ death”.
A source close to the investigation admits that almost six months on, with the body disturbed as much as it has been by “predators”, this will be difficult.
The breakthrough in this case came on Tuesday when Lelandais was ‘presented by new irrefutable evidence’: a micro-spot of blood found under the floor mats in the trunk of the Audi A3 that he had scrubbed with cleaning products.
Le Parisien explains that the traces were only able to be found after “complete dismantling of the car” which Lelandais had been actively trying to sell as frantic searches were underway trying to find Maëlys back in August last year.
Portuguese tabloid Correio da Manhã suggests the products he used to clean the car were so strong that they “poisoned” two of the police dogs that initially tried to get a scent from it.
This week, Lelandais has given his “apologies” to the parents, and has been described by his lawyer as “remorseful”.
This has been an investigation that tugged at the heartstrings of so many, to the point that Jean-Yves Coquillat, giving the bombshell press conference yesterday, was in tears and using a handkerchief.
“Our first mission has been accomplished”, he told reporters. “The parents can now bury their daughter. Up until now, they have been in the worst of places, in ignorance of what happened to their child”.
The next few days, possibly weeks, will be focussed on filling in the blanks.
Meantime, the little girl’s mother has uploaded new photographs from the family’s much happier past, saying that she hopes her daughter will haunt Lelandais until he dies and goes to hell.
Jennifer Cleyet Marrel says the guilt of not being able to protect her child from the man who killed her will “continue for a long time”.
“Maëlys I am so proud of you, my little chick, you are so beautiful, so smiling. You are my marvel, my sunshine, you will always be in my heart. That monster won’t hurt anyone else anymore…” she concludes.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
