A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were indicted and placed in pre-trial detention for the murder of Théo, an eleven-year-old child who was strangled to death on Sunday in Rennes, the prosecution announced on Wednesday May 27.
The two teenagers admitted during their police custody to having wanted to “take revenge” on the victim and “recover” fishing equipment worth “a few dozen euros”, explained Tuesday the public prosecutor, Frédéric Teillet. They are indicted for “murder of a minor” and “theft in a meeting,” he said in a press release released Wednesday evening.
Murder of a minor is punishable by life imprisonment, but when these acts are committed by a minor, the penalty incurred cannot exceed 20 years of imprisonment, recalls Frédéric Teillet. The child’s body was found on Sunday around 5 p.m. in a wooded area on a bank of the Vilaine, not far from the city center. The death was caused by “strangulation”, the autopsy confirmed.
“Children’s cries”
The alert was given by a couple of local residents who called the police “after hearing the cries of a child”, reported the Rennes prosecutor on Tuesday during a press conference. Arriving on site, the police discovered the body of the boy inanimate, “a bath towel wrapped tightly around his neck”.
According to initial information, Théo had arrived on the scene to fish on the banks of the Vilaine during the afternoon in the company of the two teenagers. These two young people were then seen running from the scene. The investigation led to the identification and arrest of the 16-year-old on Monday morning. The 15-year-old girl went to the police station and was taken into custody on Monday afternoon.
The 16-year-old teenager and Théo “did not know each other” before the day before the incident. They had fished together on Saturday in the Vilaine and had arranged to meet “the next day for another fishing trip”. Théo had “spontaneously” told his parents “the day before that the young man he had met had given him his lures”. The investigation continues under the authority of an investigating judge, the prosecution said on Wednesday.
