Is this some other poor parent's Maddie? Police appeal for help identifying blonde girl, 4

[twinkles**stars]

• 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.

More...

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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.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2465942/Is-poor-parent-s-Maddie-Police-appeal-help-identifyi...
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[lionrose.7]

Henna is bright Red, I tried it once years ago

[***super_nova***]

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@azureline** wrote:

I disagree too..... they need to know it is unacceptable to keep having 8 to 10 children just because they can........and keep them filthy, poorly clothed and fed, uneducated.............

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I do not think that they are having children 'just because they can', they are having children because they have no access to contraception, and are dependent on a man who gets them pregnant.  They are uneducated because they spend their childhood begging .

[***super_nova***]

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@patchoo78 wrote:

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@**meep** wrote:

i think Supernova is right, its most probably henna.

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Hena is usually brown, not bright red

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The original Henna was actually usually very red.  But the child we were talking about was Maria and her hair was dyed dark not red.  And there are other natural plant dyes that gypsies would know all about; that is there tradition, like indigo.

[***super_nova***]

The child with orange hair is albino.  Albinism is a loss of pigment, in extreme cases there is no pigment in any hair and eyes are very light even pink, but in less extreme cases the dark pigment is diluted to red. 

[**meep**]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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@azureline** wrote:

I disagree too..... they need to know it is unacceptable to keep having 8 to 10 children just because they can........and keep them filthy, poorly clothed and fed, uneducated.............

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Who needs to know it is unnacceptable??

This child looked extremely healthy and well fed. Her clothes were clean. Her hair was clean. We don't know that she wasn't being educated. 

So her fingers were dirty (maybe cause she was playing) and she had her hair tips dyed. None of those things point to a child that isn't being taken care of. And who are we to say how many children any woman can have?

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From what I have read, according to the Smile of the Child charity who is taking care of Maria, she could only speak a few words in Greek and since in their care, she has learnt more. 

here is an interesting article:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/petre-florin-manole-cristian-delcea/educating-romani...

[**meep**]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

The child with orange hair is albino.  Albinism is a loss of pigment, in extreme cases there is no pigment in any hair and eyes are very light even pink, but in less extreme cases the dark pigment is diluted to red. 

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Yes, that was why I asked the question earlier, before the DNA results were confirmed  - could Maria be related.  There are more children in that family that appear to be albino.

[icyfroth]

Just because they're very fair doesn't mean they're albino.

Maria is not albino IMO.

Are they trotting out the "albino" thing to explain their fair-haired children? Oh please.

That's like Michael Jackson with his turning into a white person blaming it on Vitiligo.

[**meep**]

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@icyfroth wrote:

Just because they're very fair doesn't mean they're albino.

Maria is not albino IMO.

Are they trotting out the "albino" thing to explain their fair-haired children? Oh please.

That's like Michael Jackson with his turning into a white person blaming it on Vitiligo.

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I agree.  However, as I said before, I went to school with a girl who was Albino and she looked very similar to the children in Bulgaria.  Almost white hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.   The children do not resemble their parents at all,  DNA proved Maria is their biological child so I believed it was possible the children were albino, and now, according to a recent news report, the father - Atana Rusev "has an albino gene in his family that may have resulted in Maria's blonde hair and pale complexion"

[***super_nova***]

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@icyfroth wrote:

Just because they're very fair doesn't mean they're albino.

Maria is not albino IMO.

Are they trotting out the "albino" thing to explain their fair-haired children? Oh please.

That's like Michael Jackson with his turning into a white person blaming it on Vitiligo.

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There are many grades of albinism; when 2 very dark skinned people with very dark ancestors have several children with very pale translucent skin and very light or orange hair it is albinism.  Nobody is 'trotting' that out, it is quite obvious that Maria's family is producing albinos; the brother and orange haired baby certainly are.  There is nothing wrong with that, it is just an explanation why pale children are in gypsy family.  It is a genetic mutation which causes the pigment not being able to be expressed.

[kennedia_nigricans]

henna is not bright red unless your hair is white or blonde. the colour of henna depends on the original colour of hair.