This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24673804
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 1 | Version 2 |
---|---|
Mystery girl Maria's parents found in Bulgaria by DNA | Mystery girl Maria's parents found in Bulgaria by DNA |
(35 minutes later) | |
DNA tests have confirmed a Bulgarian Roma couple as the biological parents of mystery child Maria, found in Greece last week, Bulgarian officials say. | DNA tests have confirmed a Bulgarian Roma couple as the biological parents of mystery child Maria, found in Greece last week, Bulgarian officials say. |
They identified the couple as Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev. | They identified the couple as Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev. |
The officials are investigating whether the mother had sold the child - a claim she has denied. | |
Maria was found at a Roma camp in central Greece. Police noticed the lack of resemblance between the blonde girl and the adults she was staying with. | Maria was found at a Roma camp in central Greece. Police noticed the lack of resemblance between the blonde girl and the adults she was staying with. |
The couple, Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, have since been charged with child abduction. They have insisted the girl was given to them legitimately. | The couple, Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, have since been charged with child abduction. They have insisted the girl was given to them legitimately. |
Maria - who was found near Farsala, central Greece - is currently being cared for by the Athens-based charity The Smile of the Child. There have been thousands of inquiries following an appeal to identify her. | |
'Mother's story' | |
The child's parents - Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev - and their eight children, had been filmed earlier by Bulgarian television at their home in the Roma district of the central town of Nikolaevo. | |
Ms Ruseva, holding a child with red hair, told reporters that she and her husband had been working in the Greek city of Larisa four years ago when she gave birth to a girl. | |
The girl was seven months old when they had to return to Bulgaria, and she said she could not afford to take the child with her. | |
She said she was talking to a woman she worked with who told her: "Give me this child, I will take care of it. You can come and take it back anytime you want. | |
"But I had other children to take care of and I couldn't go... I have never got any money for it." | |
Bulgarian officials said that during questioning Ms Ruseva said she had recognised Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou as the people she left her child with. | |
Prosecutors have pressed preliminary charges against Ms Ruseva for "deliberately selling a child while residing out of the country". | |
Greek news site zougla.gr earlier published what it said was Ms Ruseva's identity card and a birth certificate for Maria from a hospital in Lamia, not far from Farsala and Larisa. | |
The birth certificate says the girl was born in January 2009. | |
Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou told police Maria was four years old, but the Smile of the Child charity say medical examinations suggest she is more like five or six. |