France kidnapping: Girl found with mother accused of ordering abduction
An eight-year-old girl who was kidnapped in eastern France on Tuesday has been found with her mother in Switzerland.
The girl was in good health after being discovered in a squat in an old factory in the border village of Sainte-Croix, French prosecutor François Pérain said.
Her mother, Lola Montemaggi, was taken into Swiss police custody.
Officials say she ordered the abduction of the girl, of whom she no longer had custody, from her grandmother’s home.
Authorities previously said the girl had been abducted in Poulières, in the Vosges area, by three men who handed her over to her mother 20 minutes later. No violence was used.
Custody of the girl was given to her maternal grandmother last January after her mother reportedly told a family judge she wanted to “live on the margins of society”. Prosecutors said she had previously expressed the desire to sell up and live in a motor home “under the radar”.
How did the kidnapping unfold?
One of the suspected kidnappers had waited in the car, while two had approached the grandmother pretending to be child protection officers, officials said.
Mr Pérain, a prosecutor in Nancy, said investigators had determined that the mother and daughter entered Switzerland on the day of the kidnapping.
Three of the men and the mother crossed the French-Swiss border on foot along with the child.
On the other side, another man picked up the mother and daughter drove them in a car to a hotel in Estavayer-le-Lac, near the border with France.
They then went to the nearby town of Neuchâtel, where a woman hosted them for another night. On the following day, Mr Pérain added, they were taken to the factory.
Agencies