Gasic: Sad day for Serbia, suspects in toddler's killing in custody

BELGRADE - Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said Thursday was a sad day for Serbia following the tragic death of two-year-old Danka Ilic from Bor, eastern Serbia, who went missing last Tuesday.

At a press conference at the Palace of Serbia, Gasic said the suspects in the killing had been arrested and placed in custody after a comprehensive 10-day police operation.

Extending condolences to the child's family, Gasic said the crime had deeply shaken the entire country.

He said 50-year-old men identified with the initials S J and D D were suspected of killing the girl in a March 26 hit-and-run accident involving their employer's car and then disposing of her body at a landfill.

Gasic said the two were employees of the local waterworks company and had admitted to having committed the crime, describing it in detail.

They have been placed in 48-hour custody on suspicion of complicity in aggravated manslaughter, the minister said.

He also said the girl's body had still not been found as it might have been taken to another location by one of the suspects.