Police Find Body of Missing 11-Year-Old Lyhanna Near Fleurance After Man’s Car Sighting

A body was discovered on Thursday in the case of 11-year-old Lyhanna, who had been missing since last week after being seen getting into a man’s car near the village of Fleurance in south-western France.

“The lifeless body of Lyhanna Rameau Bernard, the 11-year-old girl who had been missing since the end of last week in the south of France, has been found by the police in a grain silo on a farm, 15 kilometers from the town of Fleurance where she lived”

El Mundo

France 24 reported that Mié Kohiyama, co-president of 'Be Brave France', told FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney that "the judicial system should consider first and believe the victims and the survivors".

El Mundo

The Guardian said the body was found on Thursday and that formal identification was under way, while it described the suspect as a 41-year-old father of two detained as the key suspect.

The Straits Times said volunteers on horseback helped some 170 police search for the child on June 4, after she went missing on Friday near Fleurance.

Le Monde reported that search teams in southwestern France found the body on Thursday in a silo on a farm near the village of Puycasquier, with an autopsy required to formally identify the remains.

The case has sparked nationwide outrage in France after it emerged the main suspect had been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children with no action taken, with Maud Bregeon telling Europe 1 and CNews that "What we’re discovering day after day is absolutely unbearable."

The Sun said government spokesperson Maud Bregeon asked, "It raises a profound question: what importance do we give to victims’ testimonies? How are investigations conducted?"

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The Straits Times reported that after being shown security camera footage, the suspect admitted giving her a lift but insisted he dropped her off at a swimming pool.

Prosecutor Clemence Meyer said there had been previous complaints against him, including a case in December 2017 that was dropped in 2018 after the girl said she had consented.

The Guardian reported that the investigation was still under way when Lyhanna went missing, and that Meyer said "The investigation was still under way when Lyhanna went missing."

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told parliament on Wednesday that he had demanded the justice ministry carry out an inquiry into the handling of the cases, as Le Monde reported that Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said, "We are all terrified by this malfunction, which, I believe, reflects our poor organization."

“Search teams in southwestern France on Thursday, June 4, found the body of a child suspected to be a missing girl, in a case that sparked a national uproar about alleged judicial failings”

Le Monde.fr

The Brussels Times said Nunez confirmed the disappearance of 11-year-old Lyhanna had led to an administrative investigation into a prior rape complaint against the man suspected of abducting her, conducted jointly by the Inspectorate General of Justice and the Inspectorate General of the National Gendarmerie.

The Brussels Times reported that the prosecutor in Toulouse revealed the 41-year-old suspect had been accused of raping a 10-year-old child, with the complaint filed in August 2025 with the Plaisance-du-Touch gendarmerie in Haute-Garonne department.

The Sun said France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, demanded an inquiry into how the earlier cases were handled, while Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Women’s Foundation said, "Another 10-year-old girl found the immense courage to tell her parents."

Le Monde reported that Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu would discuss the case with the ministers of the interior and justice on Friday, as it described the suspect as Jérôme Barella, 41, and said all suspicions fall on him.