Maëlys de Araujo

Case background and investigation

Maëlys de Araujo went missing in the early hours of Sunday, August 27, 2017, while attending a wedding party with her family at a community hall in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, a town near Chambéry in south-eastern France. Most contemporary news reports gave her age as nine; Wikipedia gives her date of birth as November 5, 2008, which would make her eight at the time.

According to France 24, the search that followed lasted about a week and involved police, rescue teams, divers and cavers. Sniffer dogs followed the child's scent but lost it in the venue's car park. Investigators questioned the wedding guests, and attention turned to Nordahl Lelandais, a 34-year-old local man and former soldier who had been at the party.

France 24 reported in early September 2017 that Lelandais was placed under formal investigation for kidnapping and illegal confinement after traces of the girl's DNA were found on the dashboard of his car, which he had cleaned the day after the wedding. He told investigators that the girl and another child had briefly got into the car to see whether his dogs were there and had then gone back to the hall. The Local reported that he was additionally charged with murder on November 30, 2017, and that investigators relied on enhanced CCTV images showing a small figure in a white dress in the passenger seat of his car as it left the venue, and on records showing his phone had been switched to airplane mode for 39 minutes around the time she vanished. He continued to deny involvement.

On February 14, 2018, according to France 24, Lelandais asked to be questioned by the investigating judges after traces of the child's blood were found in the boot of his car. He admitted killing her, saying it had been unintentional, and led investigators to a snow-covered ravine where her skull and other remains were recovered. He did not explain at that time how she had died.

In a separate case, Lelandais was sentenced in May 2021 to 20 years in prison for the killing of Arthur Noyer, a 23-year-old army corporal who disappeared in April 2017 after hitchhiking near Chambéry, France 24 reported.

His trial for the abduction and murder of Maëlys was held before the Isère assize court in Grenoble and lasted about three weeks. The Associated Press reported that he admitted in court to taking the girl in his car and striking her several times, while maintaining that he had not meant to kill her. On February 18, 2022, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years to be served. According to the Associated Press, he was also found guilty of sexually assaulting two young cousins, aged four and six. France 24 reported that prosecutors reopened several other unsolved disappearances in the region but that no evidence had linked him to them.