Murder of a minor under 15, rape with torture and acts of barbarism
On 14 October 2022, 12-year-old Lola Daviet was found dead in a travel trunk in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France.[1][2] The prosecutors said that she had been asphyxiated. The main suspect was recorded in a CCTV video carrying heavy luggage, which included the suitcase holding the victim, while leaving the building in the afternoon.[3]
Lola Daviet was born on 18 July 2010 in Béthune to Johan Daviet and Delphine Daviet-Ropital.[4] She was a pupil at the Collège Georges Brassens in Paris and was a champion in aerobics.[5]
Abduction and murder
On 14 October 2022, at about 16:30 (UTC+1), Johan Daviet reported the disappearance of his daughter to a police station after she failed to return home from school.[6] As the caretaker of the apartment building, he consulted the CCTV footage.[7] Lola was seen entering the building at 15:20, before following a woman, suspected to be Dahbia Benkired.[6][8] According to Benkired's initial confession, she lured Lola into Benkired's sister's apartment and ordered the girl to shower. Benkired then forced Lola to perform cunnilingus on her before putting adhesive tape on the girl's face.[9] An autopsy revealed that Lola died from asphyxiation. She was also stabbed multiple times in the body and neck and there was evidence of cervical compression.[10] Lola's mother, Delphine, posted a message on Facebook at 18:45 reporting her daughter's disappearance.[6]
Police found duct tape and a box cutter in the apartment building's basement, and started a criminal investigation.[11] At 23:30, a homeless man reported the discovery of a body inside of a travel trunk; the body had been mutilated and tied up.[12]
Perpetrator
On 17 October, 24-year-old Dahbia Benkired was indicted on charges of "murder of a minor under 15" and "rape with torture and acts of barbarism".[13][14] Born in Algiers, Benkired came to France legally in May 2016 on a student visa.[14][15] She had had no prior criminal record and was known to police as a victim of domestic violence in 2018.[16] She is currently being held in isolation at Fresnes Prison.[7]
Benkired had no job or home, and lived with an acquaintance in Val-de-Marne and her 26-year-old sister in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.[17][18] Her sister testified to investigators that Benkired had been making incoherent statements at night.[16] Lola's mother, the caretaker of the apartment where Benkired's sister lived, rejected Benkired's request for a pass to enter the apartment on her own.[19][20]
Benkired was not known to psychiatric services, and was declared mentally fit to be interviewed by police.[16] Benkired's lawyer, Alexandre Silva, denied that the murder was motivated by race.[21]
On 21 August, Benkired was detained at Orly Airport for having neither a plane ticket nor valid identity papers, and was issued an obligation to leave French territory (French: Obligation de quitter le territoire français; OQTF) the same day.[16][15] As she had no criminal record, she was not sent to a detention centre, but given 30 days to return to Algeria.[16]
Investigation
During her interrogation, Benkired fluctuated between accepting and denying responsibility, and said that her account of committing the crime was actually a recall of a dream. At points, she blamed the crime on an armed stranger, or a ghost. When shown pictures of Lola's body, Benkired said "That leaves me indifferent. I was raped too and I saw my parents die in front of me". Benkired said that her motive was her dispute with Lola's mother.[16][10]
Trial and sentence
After a weeklong trial, Dahbia Benkired was sentenced on 24 October 2025 to life in prison without parole, known in France as perpétuité réelle ("real life imprisonment"), for raping and murdering Lola Daviet. Benkired is the first woman in France to receive this sentence since it was introduced into French law in 1994. Only four other criminals have been thus sentenced, all of them men. Psychiatric evidence introduced at Benkired's trial stated that she was of normal intelligence and was not suffering from any psychological trouble, displaying no psychiatric pathology. When handing down the sentence, the chief judge ("président de la cour") stressed "the extreme cruelty of the criminal deeds" and "real torture", further saying that the court had taken into account the indescribable psychological harm done both the victim and her family (which included her father's death soon after her murder).[22]
Macron met Lola's parents.[23] He condemned the murder as an act of "extreme evil"[24] and the Minister of the Interior was present at Lola's funeral.[25] The parents' attorney said they called on politicians to not exploit her photograph for political ends.[26] Devastated by his daughter's fate, Lola's father fell into alcoholism, separated from his wife, lost his job and died of health complications on 23 February 2024 in Fouquereuil at the age of 49.[27][28][29]
↑ "Meurtre de Lola". La Dépêche du Midi (in French). 15 October 2025. Archived from the original on 21 October 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025. Johan Daviet, ne sera pas présent. Dévasté par le décès de sa fille, retombé dans l'alcoolisme en raison du chagrin causé par la perte de son enfant, l'homme de 49 ans est est mort un an après elle.[Johan Daviet, will not be present. Devastated by the death of his daughter, falling into alcoholism due to grief caused by the loss of his child, the 49-year-old died a year after her.]
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