Five days after the murder of 11-year-old Louise in Longjumeau, south of Paris, prosecutors announced that the main suspect has been charged and placed in provisional detention. After more than 24 hours in police custody, Owen L., aged 23, confessed to killing the child, according to prosecutor Grégoire Dulin, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, February 12.

Owen L.'s girlfriend was charged with not reporting a crime and placed under judicial supervision. The defendant's parents were released without charge after almost two days in police custody, said the prosecutor.

On February 7, Louise finished school at 1:50 pm. From the André-Maurois secondary school in neighboring Epinay-sur-Orge, it normally takes her 11 minutes to get home. When her mother didn't see her arrive, she quickly became worried. After calling the emergency services, she went to the Savigny-sur-Orge police station at 4 pm.

In the evening, police, gendarmes and firefighters, supported by dogs as well as a helicopter and a drone equipped with thermal imaging cameras, began the search. Shortly before 2 am, investigators found the child's body in a wooded area a few hundred meters from the family home. The autopsy, carried out on Saturday, ruled out "the possibility of sexual violence," but "revealed the presence (...) of numerous wounds made with a sharp object in several vital areas," attesting to the "extreme violence of the blows inflicted."

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