Missing Swiss girl Ylenia found dead - police

ZURICH, Sep 15 (Reuters) A five-year-old Swiss girl who went missing some six weeks ago was found dead today, Swiss police said.

The body of a child, found by a man in a forest close to the Swiss town of Oberbueren, was identified as Ylenia Lenhard, police in the canton of St Gallen said in a statement.

The man suspected of abducting Ylenia, 67-year-old Urs Hans Von Aesch, was found dead on August 1 near Oberbueren, one day after the girl went missing in the nearby town of Appenzell.

Police believe Von Aesch committed suicide, after shooting another man, who survived.

The case has been investigated for links to the murder of several other young people in the 1980s.

Swiss authorities have also been in touch with police investigating the case of Briton four-year-old Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in May while on holiday with her family in a Portuguese resort.

REUTERS GL AS2211