The parents of a eight-year-old girl whose body was found encased in concrete in France have been held on suspicion of manslaughter, official sources say reports the BBC.
Marina Sabatier (8), was discovered at her father's workplace in Le Mans, south-west of Paris.
The parents originally told police the girl had been kidnapped says the BBC.
Eric Sabatier (37), Marina's father, reported that she had been abducted from his car as he bought their lunch from a local McDonalds.
The apparent kidnapping made national headlines until Friday, when Sabatier and his partner Virginie Darras (30), told police that they had found Marina dead six weeks earlier and panicking, hid her body says Time Online.
Prosecutors say after being beaten to death, Marina's body was kept in a freezer before being covered in concrete says BBC.
The British broadcasting agency also says that prosecutors claim the couple confessed to police that they maltreated Marina, who had mild Down's Syndrome, but insisted that she had died of natural causes.
French social services came under fire yesterday over their failure to save the eight-year-old reports Times Online.
The online news site said public anger erupted when it emerged that two primary schools that Marina attended over the past year had alerted social services to her battered condition but investigations had been dropped.
The parents have four other children, who have been placed into care by social services.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
French girl, 8, found encased in concrete
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