Two girls, both said to be under 14, have confessed to the killing of a 12-year-old girl, whose body was found last weekend in the German town of Freudenberg, having died of apparent stab wounds.

The victim, 12-year-old Luise, was reported missing last Saturday and her body was found the following day in a wooded area in the town of Freudenberg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where it appeared she had died after being repeatedly stabbed with a knife.

Two girls, both under 14, were later arrested by police and have since allegedly confessed to the killing, which was likely motivated by the victim informing an adult that the pair were bullying her, Kronen Zeitung reports.

Police have noted that while the two girls in custody have confessed to the killing, the knife used has yet to be found, despite searches by 30 officers at the crime scene.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Siegen stated that no new searches are currently planned for the knife, which is believed to be a kitchen knife.  “Everything that objectively substantiates a confessed statement is relevant,” the spokesman said.

According to a report from broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the two girls involved are under the criminal age of responsibility and have been transferred to the care of the youth welfare office.

In the wake of the killing, Freudenberg mayor Nicole Reschke stated, “We in Freudenberg are deeply shaken and our thoughts are with the relatives,” while flags in the village were set to half-mast.

The killing is just the latest murder of a child in Germany in recent years, although more often the suspects in other cases are adults, rather than fellow children.

In 2017, a Pakistani failed asylum seeker was arrested in Spain after fleeing Germany when he was suspected of killing his two-year-old daughter in Hamburg. The 33-year-old was suspected of murder when his daughter was found dead with severe injuries to her neck.

In 2021, another child murder case saw a Turkish national allegedly deliberately run his car into a group of children walking to school, leaving an eight-year-old girl dead and two others seriously injured.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.