MADRID: Police in Spain found an eight-year-old boy dead in the boot of his stepmother’s car, the government said Sunday (March 11), in a case that has gripped the nation.

Hundreds of officers had been mobilised in the search for Gabriel Cruz after he went missing in late February in the southeastern village of Las Hortichuelas.

“This morning, the Civil Guard stopped the companion of Gabriel’s father while she was transporting the little boy’s corpse in the boot of a car,” Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said, told AFP.

A missing person’s alert with a photo of the smiling boy went viral in Spain via mobile messaging services and social media.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted his condolence. “I share with all Spaniards the pain of losing Gabriel,” he wrote.