Thousands of people dressed in white gathered in the small southwestern French town of Fleurance on Sunday to march in silent tribute to Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl whose body was found last week after she went missing on 29 May. Her death has triggered a wave of national outrage, not only over the crime itself but over a series of apparent failures by the French justice system that may have allowed it to happen.

Lyhanna was last seen getting into the car of a man identified as Jérôme B., 41, the father of one of her school friends. Her body was discovered six days later in an agricultural grain silo in a village some 15 kilometres from Fleurance, a town of around 6,000 people located roughly 80 kilometres northwest of Toulouse. The suspect had been charged with abduction and remanded in custody even before the body was found; the exact cause of death has not yet been established. What has caused particular alarm is that Jérôme B. had previously been the subject of four complaints and two official reports for alleged sexual abuse of minors, yet he had never been convicted. A complaint filed in 2022 was classified without further action; an investigation into a second complaint filed in 2025 was still ongoing at the time of his arrest.

Around 6,000 people joined the march through Fleurance, many holding white flowers and dressed in white. Lyhanna's parents and brother led the procession behind a banner reading: