The suspects in the homicide of a 12-year-old girl in the Siegerland region's Freudenberg are girls of about the same age, German authorities said on Tuesday.

The girl went missing on Saturday evening on the way home from a friend's house. Her body was found the next day near the border of the state of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

In a press conference on Tuesday, German police said that the suspects are two children from her circle of acquaintance. The two girls are said to have confessed to the crime.

 Authorities said the autopsy of the victim showed numerous knife wounds. The girl is believed to have bled to death.

Under the age of criminal responsibility

German laws stipulate that children reach the age of criminal responsibility at 14 years of age. Since both suspects are below that age, minor justice procedures differ from adult criminal legal processes.

The two suspects were handed over to the care of the youth welfare office, senior prosecutor Mario Mannweiler said during the press conference. Due to their age, no further details could be given regarding the course of events, the motive, or details before and after the crime.

Mannweiler said that this does not mean that "nothing is being done" at the moment. He added that the case was now in the hands of the youth authorities.

Girl was missing since Saturday

The child was last seen while visiting a friend and had started walking home on Saturday around 5.30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT), according to local media.

The shortest way between the friend's house and the girl's home was through an area of woodland.

After she failed to arrive home, the parents alerted the police.

Fire, police officers and sniffer dogs began a large search of the area where the girl — identified as Luise — likely walked on Saturday evening.

A body was discovered on Sunday afternoon and the search was called off.

Flags were set to half-mast in the town of Freudenberg, a rural village about 80 kilometers (49 miles) east of Cologne, as a sign of mourning.

"We in Freudenberg are deeply shaken and our thoughts are with the relatives," mayor Nicole Reschke said.

rt/rc (AFP, dpa)

A previous version of this article referred to the killing as a murder rather than a homicide without proof of intent. This has now been corrected. The department apologizes for the error.

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