A man has been arrested for killing his four-year-old stepdaughter and setting her body on fire while her mother was in hospital giving birth to his son.
The girl’s charred remains were found on a rural road near a cemetery in the Romanian city of Arad on Saturday, 30th November, with the subsequent post-mortem suggesting she had died 24 to 48 hours earlier.
The investigation turned a corner when the police took the victim’s mother and stepfather from their home in Arad for questioning on Monday, 1st November, and subsequently made an arrest, according to local media outlet Observator News.
The man, whose name was not reported but who is 23, told officers that his stepdaughter had slipped and hit her head on the floor and died. He said he then put her body in a suitcase and dumped it where it was later found, but denied setting fire to it.
He was taken into preventive custody after his version of events failed to convince the police, who noted that he had failed to report his stepdaughter’s disappearance.
The police believe the crime took place while the man was looking after his stepdaughter and his three-year-old stepson while their mother was in hospital giving birth to a baby boy. The woman was back at home by the time the police turned up to take the couple in for questioning.
Prosecutor Pavel Palcu believes the young man allegedly killed the girl by repeatedly banging her head on the floor, a wall or some other hard surface.
He also believes the suspect set the the girl’s body on fire after dousing it in a flammable liquid, despite the young man’s protestations that someone else must have done it.
Forensic pathologists who performed a post-mortem on the girl’s charred remains gave the suspected cause of death as acute craniocerebral trauma.
The suspect remains in custody as the investigation continues, and it is unclear to what extent the police regard the victim’s mother as a suspect.
It is currently unclear if the suspect has been charged. The investigation, initially carried out for murder and desecration of a corpse, has been extended to domestic violence, although there were no further details at the time of writing.
