Five-year-old girl dead in Blois: drug poisoning, infanticide suspected
A five-year-old girl was found dead on Monday in Blois, the presumed victim of drug poisoning. Her 42-year-old father has been hospitalised in critical condition.
Death of child in Blois: father suspected of infanticide
A five-year-old girl was found dead on Monday evening at her father's home in Blois, in Loir-et-Cher. The child apparently succumbed to "drug poisoning", according to a statement from the public prosecutor's office released on Wednesday 23 September, as reported by BFM TV.
The prosecutor of the republic in Blois, Stéphane Javet, clarified that "the most plausible hypothesis remains that of infanticide followed by an attempted suicide" on the part of the father. The latter, aged 42, was transported to hospital in critical condition and was in a critical medical state at the time the facts were discovered.
Discovery following absence reported to school
It was the girl's school that alerted her mother, noticing the child's absence on Monday morning. The mother then contacted the police services at Blois police station, triggering the intervention that led to the macabre discovery at the paternal home.
According to a police source cited by RMC, the father had not taken his daughter to school as agreed with his former partner, even though he had spent the weekend with the child.
Primary residence with mother, standard visiting rights
The prosecutor's office recalled that the family court judge in Blois had established the child's principal residence at her mother's home. The father had standard visiting rights.
The prosecutor's office also stated that "monitoring of the open-environment educational assistance procedure resulted in no particular incident or concerning report to the children's judge, particularly regarding any suspicions of violence against the young girl".
Father's criminal history
Prosecutor Javet also revealed that the father had been sentenced in 2025 to six months' imprisonment with a suspended sentence for making malicious telephone calls to his former partner, the mother of the deceased child.
The father's placement in police custody is planned "as soon as it becomes feasible", according to the prosecutor's office, the man's state of health currently preventing this measure.
Source: BFM TV