French ex-soldier Nordahl Lelandais admitted today during his trial for the murder of little Maëlys (8) that he deliberately killed the girl after kidnapping her. “I confess all the charges against me,” he said through his lawyer, Master Alain Jakubowicz, after five hours of interrogation at the Assize Court in Grenoble.
Lelandais had to answer for his involvement in the disappearance of 8-year-old Maëlys during a wedding on August 27, 2017 in the French Alps in the past two weeks. Her body was found in mid-February of the following year at the direction of Lelandais. The ex-serviceman was the only suspect in the case.
The 38-year-old Lelandais was sentenced to 20 years in prison in May 2021 for the manslaughter of Arthur Noyer. During the investigation into the Maëlys case, he was associated with the disappearance of the missing 23-year-old corporal a few months earlier.
Remains of the victim’s skull were found on a hiking trail in a small town in Savoie. Lelandais admitted to killing Noyer, speaking of a “fight” that culminated in a fatal “fall” by the soldier.
Lelandais faces a life sentence for the murder of Maëlys.
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