Célya, 6 years old, was found dead, the main suspect is on the run

The Kidnapping Alert system was triggered on Friday evening. Significant search resources are being deployed to find the partner of Célya’s mother, suspected of having kidnapped the child.

Célya, a 6-year-old girl whose disappearance in Seine-Maritime had triggered the “Kidnapping Alert” system on Friday evening, was found dead. Her body was discovered in a wood, near the vehicle of her mother’s partner, the main suspect in her kidnapping, the Rouen prosecutor announced on the night of Friday 12 to Saturday 13. “Significant gendarmerie resources are currently deployed” to catch the suspect, “still on the run”adds prosecutor Frédéric Teillet. He calls on the inhabitants of Saint-Martin-de-l’If (Seine-Maritime), where the tragedy took place, to “the greatest vigilance” And “Anyone who may be able to contribute to the investigation or the arrest is invited to dial 17”.

The day before, a child abduction alert had been triggered around 9:30 p.m. “Célya, aged 6, European type, mid-length dark brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a black unicorn dress, 1.10 m tall, disappeared from her home in Saint-Martin-de-l’If”about twenty km northwest of Rouen, shortly before 6 p.m., the document detailed. “She is likely to have been abducted by her mother’s partner: 42-year-old man, 1.80 m tall, very thin build, brown hair, blue eyes, driving a navy blue Golf with registration number 7189 WM 76”continued the gendarmes.

More than a hundred gendarmes were mobilized from Seine-Maritime and neighboring departments, as well as mobile gendarmes, a dog team and a helicopter. “A little after 10 p.m., a local resident informed by the kidnapping alert helped locate the vehicle of the alleged kidnapper. The police searches then led to the discovery of the child’s lifeless body, in a wood near the vehicle.”relates Frédéric Teillet.

It was the mother who called the police around 6 p.m. to say that her partner had attacked her with a knife, a source within the police force added to AFP. She said she had managed to get out of her house but that her partner, who is not the child’s father, was still there with the little girl. “Célya’s mother, who was the victim of the first violence, is currently hospitalized but her life is not in danger”explains the Rouen prosecutor.