Mexican police arrest couple suspected of kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing a seven-year-old girl before dumping body in a bin bag

Mexican police have arrested a man and his girlfriend over allegations of kidnapping, torturing and murdering a seven-year-old girl, Fatima Aldrighett, and then dumping the body in a bin bag.

Fátima disappeared after leaving school in Mexico City on 11 February and her body was discovered with signs of physical and sexual abuse four days later in a bin bag. On the day she disappeared, a CCTV  outside her school captured her with an unknown woman later identified by police after being tipped by her landlord.

The police found the suspect’s home to be around the Xochimilco area of the capital, not far from where Fátima lived with her family and after using a drone to confirm the presence of the suspect, pounced on the house.

The female suspect had fled her apartment, but photographs, Fátima’s shoes and sweater and the clothes the female suspect wore on the day abduction were discovered.

Fátima was reportedly waiting for her mother to pick her up outside her school when she disappeared on the afternoon of Tuesday 11 February. The girl had been left to wait outside the school on her own. as her mother was running late in traffic. After the mum arrived, they reported Fatima missing to the police after searching the school premises to no avail.

On Tuesday, prosecutors released pictures of two suspects, a woman and a man and on Wednesday, police announced that they have detained the man and a woman linked to the abduction and murder.

The Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed the arrests in a tweet.

“The alleged perpetrators of the femicide of the minor Fátima Cecilia [Aldrighett] were detained in a town in the State of Mexico with the support of the National Guard,” the mayor wrote.

A funeral procession occured on Wednesday in Mexico for Fatima.