ogQ!(U~$(KGrHgoOKjYEjlLmS1ctBJ1K-4Uyh!~~_7.JPG?set_id=81 "i-need-a-martini"){kind=avatar}
- Unidentified girl found living in a Roma gypsy camp in central Greece
- Man, 39, and woman, 40, arrested and charged with abducting a minor
- The girl has fair hair and pale skin and bears no resemblance to them
- DNA testing proved she was not related to the couple
- Charity now caring for the girl requests global hunt to find her real parents
Who is she? Police are appealing for help identifying this four-year-old girl who was found on a gypsy camp in Greece after she was allegedly abducted
Greek authorities have requested international help to identify a four-year-old girl found living in appalling conditions in a gypsy camp with a couple whom they have arrested and charged with abducting her.
The child was found on Wednesday near Farsala in central Greece during a routine search of the camp by police looking for drugs and weapons.
The girl reportedly sparked one of the officer's curiosity as she is blonde, pale skinned and bore no resemblance to the other Roma children or the couple who claimed to be her parents.
A 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman have been arrested and charged with abducting a minor.
Police said they offered conflicting accounts about the girl, one claiming that she was found in a blanket, the other claiming she had been handed to them by strangers.
Police said today that DNA testing proved the girl, who is believed to be called Maria, was not related to the couple.
'Her features suggest that she might be from an eastern or northern (European) country,' regional police chief Panayiotis Tzavaras said.
Police have notified Interpol for assistance.
Detectives say they also found drugs and unregistered firearms in other parts of the settlement, which is about 280 kilometers (170 miles) north of Athens.
The police statement said the couple claimed to have a total 14 children, and had registered different numbers with authorities in three different parts of Greece.
Officers found three minors living with them in the settlement who appear to be their children - although that hasn't yet been verified by DNA testing.
The case bears a disturbing similarity to theories about the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who went missing on a family holiday in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
The girl is now in the care of the charity 'A child's smile,' which said today it has sought the assistance of European and global groups for lost or abused children in tracking her parents.
She does not speak other languages than Roma but appears to understand Greek and is being communicated with by sign language.
She was said to traumatised when she arrived at her care home but has since settled and is living in a safe family environment with other children of her age.
Distress: Dirty and grimacing as her photo is taken, the little girl is now the centre of an international appeal. Authorities hope her parents can be found so the family can be reunited
Police said the child was found near Farsala in central Greece during a crackdown on illegal activities by Roma
A medical examination is ongoing.
Panayiotis Pardalis, a spokesman for the charity, said: 'It was obvious that she was not a Roma girl.
'She was afraid and under some psychological pressure when she arrived. Colleagues have been trying to communicate but are struggling.
'She seems to understand Greek but cannot speak it. She was living under bad conditions and was very dirty but is now safe.'
Charity director Costas Giannopoulos said the child was undergoing medical examinations.
'We are shocked by how easy it is for people to register children as their own,' he told private Skai TV.
Question is....was the child better off with the Roma couple or should she be returned to her real mother if it is proved that this woman is her real mother?
Either way, it doesn't sound like the kid is the winner
@am*3 wrote:icy - I have asked you to expand on your previous statements, nowhere did I make any snarky remarks in doing so.
Well that's your take on it but ok
I am interested in comments that are made on rdetails reported in the media so far,not made up stuff.
Nothing's been made up, you are simply misinterpreting...
The drug/weapon search of Roma Gypsy camps in Greece - where was it ever reported that that those searchees were initiated because of the Maddie McCann's case being in the media recently?
...nowhere (that I've seen) and that's not what I said. If you read back you'll find I said Maria was found during a search of her "parent's' premises for drugs and arms during which they found the blond kiddy known as Maria. They may have let it pass except for the fact they were on the alert for a missing young girl, namely Madeleine McCann, whose case had been reopened in Britain.
The two children the mother in Bulgaria has.. where did anyone in the media or elsewhere apart from 1 poster in this thread, suggest they aren't the mothers biological children? She actually has 4 children with the fair hair/colouring.
No media report (that I've seen) suggested any of her children weren't the mother's bio children. The article I read this morning, that I commented on, said she several children, some of them fair-haired and with a resemblance to "Maria".
I raised the question on whether the fair-haired children were actually her bio children. Not an unreasonable question seeing that Maria's parents first said she was their bio child until DNA proved otherwise.
Further not an unreasonable question seeing that Gypsys tend to take in children from relinquishing parents as has been reported in various article in recent days...
I haven't read any further news articles on the subject since this morning so I'm a bit behind in latest developments, but this morning's report said the Bulgarian woman wasn't sure if Maria was indeed the child she gave away.
A DNA test will reveal one way or the other I'm sure.
Goes without saying, doesn't it?
@ambercat16 wrote:Question is....was the child better off with the Roma couple or should she be returned to her real mother if it is proved that this woman is her real mother?
Either way, it doesn't sound like the kid is the winner
That's true, poor kid. I'd say she wouldn't be returned to either set of parents but would be either institutionlised or fostered out.
She may well yearn to be back in her Gypsy life.
