Horror in Australia.
A man has been arrested and charged with the murder of nine-year-old Charlise Mutten, whose body was found in a barrel late last night, five days after she was last seen in the Blue Mountains. The child's body has not yet been officially identified, but police say the remains found in the barrel are consistent with Charlise Mutten's description.
Police believe 32-year-old Justin Stein acted alone in the alleged murder and revealed that detectives relied on GPS and CCTV data to find the barrel among bushes near the Colo River. An investigation into Charlise's whereabouts has been ongoing since last Friday, and on Monday, homicide detectives joined the effort.
New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said there were multiple inconsistencies in what the accused said, but mainly in his actions after the girl's disappearance.
"[His] moves escalated our control; they included buying 20kg of sandbags from a material [and] fuel store for a floating boat," he said.
The 9-year-old lived with her grandmother in Queensland and had gone on a 2-week vacation with her mother and her mother's partner to Mount Wilson. She disappeared at some point last Thursday, a day when, according to court documents, the young girl was most likely killed. Her mother announced her disappearance quite late, on Friday morning. Since then her mother is in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. The barrel has been taken to Sydney Mortuary, where a medical examiner will investigate the cause of Charlise's death.
The alleged perpetrator was arrested in an apartment in central Sydney, he appeared in the Central Local Court this morning where his lawyer claimed that his client suffers from long-term mental health problems. That he had been taking medication for mental health problems for years and had concerns about his personal safety in prison. He did not apply for bail and will appear in court again in March.
Source: ert.gr
