A 34-year-old man has been charged with kidnapping and placed in provisional detention, in the search for missing nine-year-old French child Maelys de Araujo.
The man, who had been taken in for questioning last Friday, was a guest at the wedding Maelys was attending at the time of her disappearance.
According to a statement from Grenoble’s prosecutor, DNA evidence taken from the man’s car connected him with Maelys’ disappearance.
The prosecutor’s statement confirmed that the man had been charged with ‘kidnapping, illegal confinement or arbitrary detention of a minor of less than 15 years’.
“Brought before investigating judges at the end of the afternoon, he contested the facts. Confronted with testimony, findings and scientific evidence, he persisted in his denials and explanations,” the full statement read.
Please help find #Maelys #MaelysdeAraujo - a 9 year old #Portuguese girl who disappeared at a wedding in the Alps #Kidnapping #France https://t.co/Om03KIuBCm
— Maria Monteiro PR (@mlpmonteiro) August 30, 2017
When the investigative judges were ‘not convinced’ by the man’s denials, they chose to hold him in ‘provisional detention’.
The man was among around 250 people interviewed in connection with Maelys’ disappearance since last weekend, including guests of the wedding as well as two local events being held in the wider area of Pont de Beauvoisin.
Apparently, suspicions surrounding the man were raised when police discovered that he had washed his car after the wedding.
Maelys was last seen in the early hours of Sunday, August 27. She had been attending a wedding with her family at the time.
When Maelys’ family were unable to locate her, they asked the wedding DJ to put a call out over the sound system.
With no trace of Maelys ever since, teams of police and divers have been scouring the area for clues as to where she may be.
