Horrific discovery as police find body of little girl in concrete block that her mother was using as a bedside table
1 December 2022, 00:24 | Updated: 1 December 2022, 00:42
The body of a little girl has been discovered inside a concrete block that her mother was using as a bedside table.
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Vanesa Alejandra Mansilla, 27, told police that she had found the body of her five-year-old daughter Milagros when she was already dead in their home in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
But officers believe after the girl died, she put her in a nylon bag inside a wooden box before filling it with concrete, according to local media.
She reportedly used the box as a bedside table for several months before police made the shocking discovery.
Mansilla's friends and family say she favoured her other children, aged 2 and 3, over Milagros. Local publication Clarin reported that the young mother often went out at night and left her children alone, and did not keep them in very hygienic conditions.
Officers said they were alerted to the case by the girl's father, who was worried about his daughter's wellbeing.
Milagros was reportedly last seen by relatives on July 30 at a party for one of her siblings.
Police said Mansilla told them she was "scared" when she found her daughter dead, and did not know what to do.
A spokesperson for the police said: "She used the box with the body as a bedside table in her bedroom. She was a young girl who was born prematurely, had multiple pre-existing conditions and had a tracheotomy and a nasogastric tube.
“[Vanesa] said everything happened one afternoon. After bathing her three children, she went to take a nap and when she woke up, she went to see the girl who had already passed away."
"She said that she had a runny nose and drool on her mouth, that she choked.”
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Prosecutor Daniel Cangelosi said that police were currently investigating the case as a murder, although this could change as more facts emerged.
“So far, there is no record of previous complaints of violence of this kind," he said.
Mansilla's two other children are now in the custody of their maternal grandmother.
