French prosecutors said Thursday they had cracked a 36-year-old cold case after charging a man with the murder of a young woman who disappeared in a small Alpine town in the 1980s.

Marie-Therese Bonfanti, a 25-year-old mother of two, went missing while delivering newspapers in Pontcharra, north-east of Grenoble, and her body was never found.

Local prosecutor Eric Vaillant said that a man had been charged with her murder and had "confessed to having killed her" while in custody.

He had been considered a suspect at the time of the disappearance due to his violent character.

Prosecutors believe the murder was due to a "dispute", rather than being sexually motivated.

The case was re-opened in 2020 thanks to campaigning from Marie-Therese Bonfanti's family and her husband.