Breaking news: Unidentified 4 year old girl found in Roma camp in Greece (title edited by MNHQ)

[YourHandInMyHand]

Unidentified 4 year old found with couple who are not her parents.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/who-four-year-old-blonde-girl-found-2467385

news.yahoo.com/greece-trying-identify-girl-found-roma-camp-151038923.html

Ben would be in his 20's now I think.

Ben needhams family wanted that camp searched 20 years ago

Why was it not searched?

Greek police never followed it up

I wonder if she's giving Jimmy Saville the benefit of the doubt too?

I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. Because they haven't been tried and found guilty yet.

I just wish all these missing children could be found and returned to their families. It can be nothing less than torture living the way they do..

This terrifies me the fact that someone could steal children but also the painful hope that if you have lost a child that they could be found alive

I hope the parents are found and the girl can have a happy home and that they are all supported xx

(im not sure if the above makes sence as im tired and its hard to put into words the mix of emotions this has)

I was also going to say Northern European. Finn, almost Icelandic.

According to USA today (reliable?), the police were doing a crack-down on illegal activities such as drugs and in the course of this raided the camp. From the website

"..the blonde, pale-skinned and blue-eyed girl stood out. She bore no resemblance to the Greek couple, a 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman, who were arrested and charged with abducting a minor. Police said DNA testing confirmed that they weren't related...

Police are trying to establish why the girl was living with the couple, who are also accused of falsifying identity and family certificates — with the mother claiming to have given birth to six children within a total of less than 10 months...

The suspects allegedly offered conflicting accounts — that the girl was found in a blanket, was handed to them by strangers or had a foreign father.

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.

Charity director Costas Giannopoulos said ...
"There is much more to investigate, there are other registered children that were not found in the settlement, and I believe police will unravel a thread that doesn't just have to do with the girl."

If this is true, they have already been charged.

My mind immediately jumped to Ben Needham in this case. (Not the fact that a 4 year old girl has been found obviously, as that's blatantly not going to be him.)
When you put together the fact this girl was found in Larissa, which is where Ben Needham was purpoted to have been seen.. surely it's worth investigating anyone else?
Little blonde girl in Larissa www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/10/18/greek-police-searches-biological-parents-of-little-blond-girl-kept-by-roma-family/

History of Ben Needham - clearly states Larissa in there. OK, the chance is remote, but if there's any shred of doubt, surely it's worth following up?
www.helpfindben.co.uk/history.html

I think that the poor children were living in squalor and all need to be taken into care whoever the parents are.

It would be wonderful news if it was the case that Madeline McCann was living in a Roma camp, but sadly that seems very unlikely.

Ben needhams family wanted that camp searched 20 years ago

That's disgraceful - Why weren't they allowed to if that is the case?

"OutragedFromLeeds Fri 18-Oct-13 22:19:22

I'm sure if she was adopted or with friends of her parents they could have explained that?! I don't think the police are in the habit of swiping kids on the basis they have different coloured hair to their parents."

Well exactly. But now people seem to be doubting it all/

After all if they were picking up adopted children there must be thousads

Just caught up = that is heart breaking about Ben Needham

How many under 4's have been reported abducted in the past 4 years?
A lot of news reports this morning are saying she may have been abducted but although I realise most cases are low profile in comparison to MM, seems odd to me that abduction is the first suggestion here. I think it's more likely to be child trafficking or a sold on baby. Is there an interpol database of children reported missing? Are there that many children of this age reported missing that they are still sifting through info.

The picture on the news this morning is different and the little girl looks quite Scandinavian to me.

Do you think if she was 'snatched' her parents would have come forward by now?

more details reported here

Yes ILoveMakeUp I do think that or maybe hope it. Although we have no idea how this is being reported in other countries and I suppose there could be people out there wondering if she is their daughter. If she was taken as a baby - would you know? I would be the first person in the queue demanding DNA tests if she even fitted roughly the age of a missing child of mine.

I really hope they can trace where she is from. Not just for her but for all the other missing children ad families like the Needhams and McCanns - this could potentially point us in the direction of a lot of missing children.

The Independent are reporting quotes from the couples solicitor. This child had been begging on the streets apparently

If they managed to obtain her birth and baptismal certificates (how did they do this?), then surely it is known who she really is.

I am confused by this. How do they know the couple obtained the certificates unless they were found with them or the certificates were used for registration, in which case her real name (as on the birth and baptismal certificates) must have been used in the Registration or was on the documents found.

Unless the couple just admitted to having done all this - taking the baby from her parents soon after birth, getting the certificates etc, I don't see how the Greek police can know. In order to get the certificates, I assume the couple knew the names of the parents.

It is all very odd.

www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/23727231/greece-trying-to-identify-girl-found-in-gypsy-camp

This link explains how the system of Birth registration was easily exploited in Greece.

It was changed in May 2013.

I see. If all you need is the parent and two witnesses in order to register a birth, it was very easily done. I wonder if they will be able to find out what happened if no one speaks.

I don't think it is likely that what the solicitor says is true, that a mother who could not afford to keep her baby gave her to them, asking them to look after her. The fact is they have a total of 6 dc registered as having been born within 10 months. So were all of/most of those dc also given to them and they took them in out of charity?

If it were one dc, it might be possible I suppose but 6? And of the total of 14 dc they have registered as theirs, I don't think anything has yet been proven as to parentage, since only 4 including this girl Maria were found at their settlement.

If Maria was abducted or bought to be sold later at a profit (suggested as a possibility by a Greek man from the charity caring for her on BBC website), I wonder who wanting to buy a child would know to go there to get one. Also would have thought it would be easier to find a home for a baby than for an older dc.

In any case it was not a good home, if she lived in squalor, was neglected, sent out to beg, traumatised and has developmental deficiencies as various sources claim. Even if it is the only home she has known, I think she is better off out of it for those reasons.