PARIS (Reuters) – Two French teenagers are being investigated for murder after police fished the body of a drowned schoolgirl from the river Seine, prosecutors said on Wednesday in a case that shocked France.
Prosecutors said the teenagers, a boy and a girl, both 15 years old, met the 14-year-old girl, whom they knew, in Argenteuil, west of Paris. The boy beat her and then threw her into the river with the help of his girlfriend, where she drowned.
“Two minors are being investigated for murder, premeditated murder,” Pontoise state prosecutor Eric Corbaux told reporters.
Asked about the possible motive for the attack, Corbaux said there was rivalry between the two girls and theft of photos of the victim. All three attended the same school.
French media reported that the victim was bullied at school and that nude photos of her were hacked and spread on social media.
The boy’s mother told BFM TV her son had a brief relationship with the victim before meeting his current girlfriend.
“I think it was a kind of love triangle and they couldn’t handle it,” she said.
The mother of the victim said the two suspects had earlier issued death threats against her daughter. “They ripped my heart out,” she told BFM TV.
(Reported by Geert De Clercq; Edited by Gareth Jones)