PALMA
THE National Police have identified the remains of the body of the child found in a suitcase in Minorca on Wednesday and an arrest has already been made.
According to the National Police, the body was that of an 11-year-old boy and that his mother was arrested on Friday afternoon as the prime suspect behind the death of the child which is though to have occurred in 2008.
The suitcase containing the remains of the child and various other items including an aircraft boarding card, children's comics, cheap coloured prints, colouring pencils and a toy spider and scorpion set in glass, was discovered in a dry riverbed on a farm near Binidali in the south of the island.
Police also found a tracksuit, some jeans, shorts and short-sleeved shirt for a boy aged between 10 and 13.
The head of the National Police Murder Squad yesterday praised the team which handled the investigation for their extremely quick work in solving the case and making an arrest.
However, the case remains open because the human remains have been sent to Madrid to be examined by forensics and a full press conference has been scheduled for Monday to give further and more precise details about the case.
DNA tests are also being taken in order to establish the exact age of the body and the cause of death.
Apparently, despite the child having been dead since 2008, there was enough organic remains for forensics to examine.
Last night, the National Police reported that the 30-year-old mother, who was a single mother at the time, apparently told them that she found her son dead in the Spring of 2008 and hid his body in the suitcase because she was scared.