The girl's father was reportedly worried when the 12-year-old didn't come home from school on Friday afternoon. He alerted his wife, who went to the police and reported the daughter missing.

The girl's mother also published an appeal for witnesses on Facebook, to which two photos of her daughter were attached. One apparently showed footage from a surveillance camera. Her daughter was "last seen at 3:20 p.m.," in her home and accompanied by a girl "we don't know," the mother wrote.

According to the public prosecutor's office, a murder investigation was initiated. According to those around her, the surveillance cameras recorded the girl entering the apartment building after school. After that, however, it disappeared, it said.

Investigators said the suitcase was found in the courtyard of the house where the girl's family lives and her father works as a janitor. The body of the twelve-year-old was therefore covered with towels. Next to the large suitcase with the mutilated corpse were two smaller suitcases.

According to investigators, three people were arrested during the night near the site. A woman was also arrested on Saturday morning in the town of Boi-Colombes, northwest of Paris. All four were taken into police custody, the prosecutor said.

A police forensics car was parked on the street in front of the family's home on Saturday morning, an AFP news agency reporter said. The 12-storey building is located in a district of Paris' 19th arrondissement, which is home to both residential buildings and shops.