Mexico City arrests 2 suspects in death of 7-year-old girl
Authorities said late Wednesday they arrested a woman and a man suspected in the kidnapping of a 7-year-old girl whose dead body was found wrapped in a plastic bag days later, a case that has provoked outrage in Mexico as the latest brutal exemplory case of killings of women and girls.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said via Twitter that the suspects were detained in a community of neighboring Mexico State by state police and the National Guard. She said additional information will be released later.
Sheinbaum earlier had said that the two suspects are apparently a couple and that witnesses told investigators the pair had abandoned their rented home in a southern neighborhood of the administrative centre Saturday, the day prior to the girl's body was discovered.
Authorities searched the home Tuesday night and found clothing and other items owned by the girl, Fatima.
Sheinbaum also said the woman was known to the girl's family. The previous day, Fatima's grandfather told The Associated Press that he didn't recognize a police sketch of the feminine suspect, but authorities on Wednesday released photographs of the both suspects.
Fatima, who was buried Tuesday by grieving members of the family, others who live nearby, was seen on video leaving her school Feb. 11 with a woman who was not her mother. That day her mother was about 15-20 minutes late to choose her up, according to members of the family.
In Mexico City, grade school students often go out of school after classes to meet up parents waiting on the sidewalks, but there were few controls to make sure someone is there to meet up them.
The girl's grandfather and others have criticized the institution for turning Fatima out onto the street when classes were done for the day and for not calling police to come get her when there was no parent there to get her.
Children who aren't picked up are supposed to be taken to a prosecutor's facility in the central neighborhood of Doctores. Normally it takes an hour or even more to get there from outlying neighborhoods, in particular when the sprawling capital's notorious traffic reaches its peak.
With the death of Fatima, officials have said they plan to have prosecutor's offices around metropolis care for children who aren't found until their parents have the ability to claim them nearer to home.
Sheinbam said officials also intend to bolster protocols for identifying people who pick kids up from school, accelerate deployment of security cameras and have uniformed employees readily available for security at drop-off and pick-up hours.
City prosecutors said the arrest warrants would be on charges of kidnapping with intent to cause harm. It is possible that murder or other charges could possibly be added later.
Authorities lost a complete day in looking for Fatima because they waited for a formal missing person's case file to be opened.
Sheinbaum said officials were reviewing the timeline of response from when the girl was first reported missing.
