Suspect Abducted 4-Year-Old Under Pretext Of Giving Ice Cream, Child Found Strangled To Death In Bushes

An Indian man has been arrested after allegedly abducting and strangling a 4-year-old child to death, according to reports.

The gruesome crime happened on April 20, in the Hanuman Nagar area of Ulhasnagar, a city in Thane district, Maharashtra, India.

The accused has been identified as 24-year-old Kanchan Brijraj Pasi. He was arrested from Allahabad, a metropolis in the state of Uttar Pradesh, investigators said.

According to the police, the victim was playing in front of a temple when the accused abducted the child. The child’s gender has not been disclosed by the police.

The accused took the child to an ordinance factory premises on the pretext of giving an ice cream.

The incident came to light after the child’s father filed a missing complaint, local media reported.

A search was initiated and the child’s body was recovered from the isolated area near the factory.

The body was transported to a medical examiner’s office for an autopsy. The results indicated the child was strangled to death.

A preliminary investigation revealed the accused murdered the child and hid body in the bushes in the factory premises to erase evidence.

A further investigation is underway, police said.

In a similar incident, the latest details into the death of a 10-year-old Wisconsin girl, who was found dead near a walking trail a day after she went missing, revealed that she was sexually assaulted before being strangled to death by a 14-year-old boy.

Iliana "Lily" M. Peters went missing while visiting her aunt Sunday night, April 24. She was found dead in a wooded area near the Duncan Creek Trail in downtown Chippewa Falls, not far from her aunt’s home on Monday, a day after she was reported missing by her father.

The unidentified "juvenile suspect" was arrested Tuesday, April 26 and is now charged with Peters’ murder, authorities said. He was being held on $1 million cash bond.

During a court hearing before Chippewa County District Judge Benjamin Lane on Wednesday afternoon, county prosecutor Wade Newell said that Peters died a violent death and that the juvenile suspect had given the gruesome details of the same while speaking to investigators.

The prosecutor said the boy has confessed to the police that he'd been planning to rape and kill Peters.

"Given the statements the defendant made to law enforcement, that his intention was to rape and kill the victim from the get-go when he left the house with the victim going down the trail," Newell told the judge at the bond hearing, adding that there is a "need to protect the community".

"Protection of (the) community also is necessary in this case given his statements regarding his intentions and his statements."

"When he did get off the trail, he punched the victim in the stomach, knocked her to the ground, essentially strangled her, hit her with a stick, before strangling her to the point of death — before he then sexually assaulted her," the district attorney said, according to the Associated Press.

The 8th grader is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 resulting in great bodily harm.

After the hearing, Judge Ben Lane granted the prosecutors' request to detain the suspect on a $1 million cash bond, describing his alleged crimes "a serious threat to the community".

The next court appearance has been scheduled for May 5.