Johannesburg – A Johannesburg couple was arrested on Tuesday for killing their child, after previously reporting her as missing, Gauteng police said.

The couple reported the 3-year-old girl missing on 10 July, but the dog unit found the child’s body on Friday in the basement of the block of flats where they lived, police spokesperson Xoli Mbele said.

“She was wrapped in plastic and her body was in a decomposing state.”

Mbele said the child’s mother told the investigating officer the child had died after an illness.

She said that when she told the child’s father, he wrapped the body in a plastic bag and threw it into the basement.

The couple would appear soon in Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.

– SAPA