Parents of 4-year-old girl found dead in France in 1987 go on trial 39 years later

The trial opens

The trial of the girl's parents opened on Monday, 2 November 2026, 39 years after her body was found. It is expected to run until 18 November. The two defendants are not in custody and arrived at the courthouse separately. The mother, 72, arrived with her face hidden behind her scarf. The father, 74, climbed the courthouse steps with difficulty, leaning on a walking stick and wearing a black surgical mask. The case is one of France's oldest unsolved cases and has been the subject of many books and documentary series. On the first day, the court dealt mainly with preliminary matters, including a defence request to stop broadcasting the hearing into a second courtroom, which was rejected, and applications from parties seeking to join the proceedings as civil parties.

The charges

The mother is charged with torture and acts of barbarity that caused the child's death without intent to kill. The father is charged with complicity. Both face the possibility of life imprisonment if they are convicted. Both are defendants, and the court has not yet ruled on guilt.

The discovery in 1987

On 11 August 1987, two workers found the body of a girl, about four years old, in a ditch beside the A10 motorway near Souvray. The village lies in Loir-et-Cher, between Orléans and Tours in central France. The body showed signs of abuse, including burns from an iron and scars from human bites. According to forensic findings reported by AFP, the bites were attributed to a woman. Nobody had reported the child missing, and the police did not know her name.

A search that went nowhere

The French gendarmerie launched a large operation to establish her identity, sending her photograph to about 65,000 schools and 30,000 town halls. The searches extended to around 30 countries. Since no one had reported her missing, the operation relied on her image alone. Despite this effort, no lead pointed to who she was, and the case was shelved in 1991 and again in 1997 because authorities lacked enough evidence to bring prosecutions.

Schools65,000

Town halls30,000

Schools

65000

Town halls

30000

Data from the article text

How the case was solved

The breakthrough came in 2018, when a DNA sample taken from one of the girl's siblings during an unrelated violence case helped investigators identify her. The parents were arrested in June 2018. The couple had seven children in total. Another eight years passed before the trial began. The timeline below sets out the main milestones from the discovery to the trial.

Outside the court

During a break, the mother came face to face with members of Mouv'Enfants, the collective that had organised a protest outside the courthouse. When she left the building, a small group followed her for about 100 metres, shouting for justice for the girl and calling out 'shame'. At least three police officers were needed to restrain Arnaud Gallé, the organisation's president. The two defendants, now separated, did not exchange a single glance and remained expressionless throughout the hearing.