Pont-de-Beauvoisin, France: French investigators have released two suspects held in connection with the disappearance of a nine-year-old girl during a wedding in the Alps nearly a week ago, as hundreds of people took part in a police-coordinated search on Saturday.
Maelys de Araujo was last seen in the early hours of Sunday at a community hall where the wedding was held in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, a village some 50 kilometres north of Grenoble.
According to a source close to the investigation, the two suspects, both 34-year-old men who knew each other, were released on Friday evening.
Both had been held over inconsistencies in their statements.
“The investigation is ongoing,” the source said, without further comment.
Investigators suspect that the little girl with dark brown hair and eyes, who was attending the wedding with her parents, was kidnapped.
Scores of police, search and rescue teams, divers and cavers have spent the week trawling through the heavily wooded area for signs of her.
On Saturday morning, more than 1,200 people were expected to participate in a “citizens’ search” for signs of the girl’s whereabouts, a private initiative organised via social media networks, and coordinated by about 15 gendarmes.
A first group of about 400 volunteers braved heavy rain to gather at a parking lot at the local high school at 8 am, before donning yellow safety vests and splitting up into groups to search the surrounding forest.
— AFP
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