Suspect held on Troja girl's murder dies

A 41-year-old man held by police on suspicion of murdering a 9-year-old girl in Prague last October has died in hospital after he attempted suicide while in custody at Prague-Pankrác Remand Prison.

Markéta Prunerová, a Prison Service spokeswoman, told The Prague Post that healthcare workers at a civilian hospital had initially been able to keep the man - known as Otakar T. - alive after the March 21 incident.

She added that he may have died in his cell if he had not been under strict surveillance.  

The spokeswoman also said that another inmate had been in the cell at the time, adding that the incident was now under investigation by the Prison Service and the police.

A suicide note recovered from the cell does not contain a confession, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported March 24.

Otakar T. was accused of murder, burglary and rape March 17 and taken into police custody a day later.

The charges came a day after police found the body of Anička, whose full name cannot be published because of a law barring the disclosure of a crime victim's identity. She had been missing since Oct. 13 after she did not show up at home after school.

More than 1,000 police officers took part in the initial large-scale searches for the girl, which were followed by continued searches by a dedicated 70-member team of police officers, soldiers, firefighters and dog handlers in the weeks following her disappearance. Her backpack, a water bottle and a set of keys were the only things found.

A post-mortem examination of her remains confirmed her identity and showed she had died a violent death.

The man has been the only suspect held in the investigation. Upon his arrest, he took up his right not to answer questions, Prague Police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulová told ČTK March 17.

The man had been arrested in the same investigation in October, at which time he said he was innocent and claimed he had never seen the girl. DNA tests later showed he had touched her backpack.

A judge refused to allow him to be taken into custody over insufficient evidence and he was released Oct. 23.

The girl's father, Miloš Janatka, had offered a reward of 3.5 million Kč ($195,000) to any possible kidnappers for her safe return. In an emotional video appeal viewed more than 800,000 times since it was posted online, Janatka said he would do anything to have his daughter back home.

Police have admitted the area where her body was found buried under a bush had been searched with sniffer dogs several times before.

Police President Petr Lessy told Radio Impuls that the remains were buried too deep for sniffer dogs to find them, and that it was only thanks to the use of new test equipment and the activity of local animals that they had been able to make the discovery.

Lessy said that because of the thawing winter frost and the activity of local animals, "a very small area ... was very partially unearthed."

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com