Man arrested in Germany after body of daughter thrown into canal

A man has been arrested in western Germany after his three-year-old daughter died while apparently locked in a basement room, before her body was thrown into a canal, authorities said.

The 40-year-old German man went to a police station in his hometown of Dinslaken on Friday and told officers that his daughter had died and that he had then thrown her body – loaded down with weights – into the canal in nearby Oberhausen, police and prosecutors said.

Investigators said they believe that the man had shut the girl in a basement room of an apartment building for a few days, possibly as an “educational measure”.

He had supplied her with food and drink and checked on her repeatedly.

When he checked on her last Sunday morning, she was dead, the statement said. He apparently threw her body into the canal that evening.

Divers recovered the body on Friday night and tests determined that vomited food pulp was the cause of death. There were no indication of any fatal injuries.

The father is being held on suspicion of bodily harm and deprivation of freedom resulting in death.

Police and prosecutors said he has not spoken yet on what exactly happened.