See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy OLIVIA ALLHUSEN, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 21:45 BST, 5 June 2026 | Updated: 22:04 BST, 5 June 2026
A body discovered in southwestern France was identified on Friday as that of a missing 11-year-old girl.The victim, who has only been identified by her first name, Lyhanna, was reported missing in the small southern town of Fleurance on May 29, after leaving school. The 41-year-old father of a classmate was arrested on evidence that he was seen with her on the afternoon she disappeared.After a massive search, the body was discovered on Thursday in farmland near her hometown.'At this time, the victim's identity has been confirmed through DNA testing. 'The body found is indeed that of Lyhanna,' the prosecutor's office in the southwestern city of Agen, which is overseeing the case, said in a statement on Friday.Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on French television that the judicial system 'failed to protect this little girl.''I would like to offer my apologies to this family and to the French people, who are rightfully shocked and terrified by such failures,' he said.The prosecutor said medical examiners planned to perform forensic analysis to determine the cause of the girl's death. A videographer films the entrance of a farm silo where a body was found yesterday during the search to find missing 11 year-old girl Lyhanna The victim, who has only been identified by her first name, Lyhanna, was reported missing in the small southern town of Fleurance on May 29, after leaving school French police block the road near a farm silo where a body was found yesterday during the search to find missing 11 year-old girl LyhannaA lawyer for Lyhanna's family said the sadness and anger of her parents 'cannot be expressed,' while the suspect's lawyers said he must receive a presumption of innocence.The case sparked public outcry after officials revealed the suspect had been accused in several cases involving young girls.The most serious was a mother's complaint in August that he raped her 10-year-old daughter several times. Despite medical evidence supporting that accusation, the suspect was not questioned by police.France has summoned all state prosecutors to a meeting next week, and findings from an investigation into the handling of Lyhanna's case were expected within two weeks.'We can't look at the faces of her family members and tell ourselves that everything went all right,' President Emmanuel Macron told reporters as he entered a summit in Montenegro on Friday.Political figures on the right and left have said the case exemplifies a broader failure by the judicial system to protect women and children from sexual violence.'The question is whether all the warning signs were addressed in a timely manner, whether all procedures worked as they should have, and whether the right priorities were set,' Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement after meeting with the ministers of justice and the interior.
