Body of child allegedly drowned by mother in Sava River in January found in Belgrade

Police in Serbia have confirmed that the body of a child found in the Sava River near Belgrade matches the identity of a toddler whose mother confessed to drowning her near Zagreb earlier this year.

Interpol in Belgrade has informed the Croatian Ministry of the Interior that they have found the body of the child which the 34-year-old mother said she had led into the Sava River and let go near the Jankomir Bridge in January of this year, Zagreb police said.

Belgrade Interpol said they had found the body of an unidentified child in March of this year and through international cooperation and DNA analysis, a match had been established with the DNA of the child that went missing in the Sava in Zagreb on January 15.

According to media reports, the child's body was found beneath one of rafts that line Belgrade’s waterway. The media adds that the body was recovered by police officers with the help of firefighters. The Belgrade Institute of Forensic Medicine performed an autopsy and the DNA match.

The mother has been charged by Croatian authorities with aggravated murder of a close relative.