With still no closure in the case of missing French-Portuguese nine-year-old Maëlys de Araújo, Nordhal Lelandais, the principal suspect for her kidnapping and murder, is today answering questions in a French court over a second missing person.
According to French paper Le Dauphiné Libéré, the former soldier who has been in police custody since shortly after Maëlys went missing, is suspected of involvement in the disappearance of 24-year-old Arthur Noyer – also a soldier – who disappeared last April after a night out with friends.
Noyer was last seen in the town of Chambéry, setting out to walk the 5kms back to his barracks.
Says the French press, Lelandais is known to have frequented the same bars in which Noyer had been drinking.
Authorities expect to hold Lelandais for the next 48-hours, says the Dauphné Libéré, as they try and get him to give them answers.
Searches meantime have taken place in Lelandais’ home and prison cell.
Throughout his detention Lelandais has denied that he had any involvement in the abduction of the little girl from a wedding reception in the French Alps on August 27, but trace evidence has put her in his car which he was found cleaning thoroughly after she disappeared.
Despite Lelandais’ assertions that he is not involved in the mystery that has left the child’s family in limbo, French authorities have refused to release him from preventive custody.
