Story By: Maja Mishevksa, Sub Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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The ‘man’ caught on CCTV abducting a 4-year-old girl has been identified as a schoolboy aged 15 after his mum recognised him on CCTV footage showing the child being carried away.
He had reportedly told the young girl that he would help her find her mother.
The child had been left by the mum in the care of a nine-year-old cousin so she could go to a party, and when the mum stayed out too long the kids went looking for her when they met the teen boy.
The Peruvian National Police have now arrested the unnamed 15-year-old boy in the surroundings of the Mercado de Frutas in the Victoria District of the country’s capital Lima.
His own mother reportedly alerted the authorities when she apparently recognised him carrying the victim in the last images of her alive.
The country’s Interior Minister Carlos Moran said that the suspect had confessed to committing the crime to investigators.
The 4-year-old victim, named Camila, together with her sister aged 2 had been left in the care of a 9-year-old cousin by their mother who wanted to go to a party.
Police officers had been searching for her after her mother, identified as Mirella Alexandra Huaman Santiago, 22, reported she had been taken by a man.
In the CCTV footage, a male figure can be seen with the four-year-old Camila in his arms as the other two girls walk with him. He can then be seen turning around and walking towards the camera, with the other two girls behind.
The mother of the suspect said that her son had been living with a relative in the Tahuantinsuyo area, which is in the Independencia district of Lima where the victim’s body was found in a sack.
Police chief Manuel Galvez said the girl had suffered injuries to her neck and her death had been caused by a traumatic brain injury caused by a sharp weapon.
Cops went to the house where the suspect was living and reportedly found a bag containing clothes similar to those the suspect is wearing the video.
Investigators are working to discover if the girl had been sexually abused but the results of the analysis have not been released.
Gloria Montenegro, the Minister of Women and Vulnerable People, said the suspect would be punished as a minor if found guilty and not receive a penal sanction.
Interior Minister Moran said the suspect will be taken to the Re-educational Institute for Minors in Maranga.
Reports state the mother had gone to a “yunza”, a traditional party to celebrate the beginning of the carnival.
Police chief Galvez told local media that the three girls had left the house looking for the mother as she had not returned from the party.
The investigation is ongoing.
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