The parents of mystery girl Maria are the Bulgarian Roma couple who came forward earlier this week, DNA tests have confirmed.
Sasha Ruseva spotted the blond, blue-eyed girl on television after she was removed from a Roma camp in Greece last week, allegedly telling her neighbors she was the “fool” who had given the girl up, her grandmother Zineb Kasimova told NBC News in an earlier interview.
Zineb Kasimova had said that she would be prepared to “take her home,” if the tests proved conclusive, although the girl’s future now still remains unclear.
“They left the kid because they have no money at all,” said Zineb Kasimova, who has about 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“When the mother saw the child on TV, she went to the neighbors and told them, <<I was a fool to leave the kid there>>.”
Sasha Ruseva told Bulgarian TV on Thursday that she had once left a baby behind in Greece after working there.
“I didn’t take any money,” she said.
Sasha Ruseva spotted her daughter Maria on television after she was removed from a Roma camp in Greece last week
“I just didn’t have enough money to feed her. I intended to go back and take my child home, but meanwhile I gave birth to two more kids, so I was not able to go.”
Bulgarian police later questioned Sasha Ruseva and her 36-year-old husband Atanas Rusev, whose DNA was later shown to match with samples taken by the Greek police from the little girl.
“The prosecutors’ office has opened a pre-trial investigation against [Sasha Ruseva] for agreeing to sell her child on an undisclosed date in 2009 in Greece,” the regional prosecutor’s office in the southern town of Kazanlak said in a statement.
“The probe is opened following checks linked to the female child with the name Maria in Greece.”
Sasha Ruseva and her husband both vanished after being interviewed by investigators, police told NBC News on Friday.
From their small shacks next to an unpaved road in Nikolaevo, neighbors told NBC News that the couple have nine children – including four who are blond and fair-skinned like Maria.
Maria was found living with Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, last week in a Roma settlement near Farsala, Greece.
Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou have been charged with abduction and procuring false documents. Magistrates ordered that Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou be held in custody until they face trial.
Their lawyer Marietta Palavra told NBC News earlier this week that Maria’s real mother is a Bulgarian Roma prostitute who was looking for a home for the unwanted baby among local Roma families in Greece.
[youtube KHGTU041q3g 650]
Bulgarian police is questioning a couple suspected of being the biological parents of Maria, the young girl found in a Roma community in Greece last week, reports say.
Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev are said by Bulgarian media to have several children, some of whom resemble Maria.
The girl was reportedly born in Greece. But Sasha Ruseva is quoted as denying Maria was left there for money.
Bulgarian police have declined to comment on the reports.
Maria came to the Greek police’s attention after they raided the Roma camp near Farsala in central Greece, initially searching for drugs and weapons.
Maria came to the Greek police’s attention after they raided the Roma camp near Farsala in central Greece
They noticed the lack of resemblance between the blonde-haired, green-eyed, pale-skinned little girl and her parents, and found further discrepancies when they investigated the family’s documents.
The couple, Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, have since been charged with child abduction.
Maria is currently being cared for by a charity in Athens. There have been 8,000 inquiries following an appeal to identify her, and the international police body Interpol are involved in the search for her biological family.
[youtube TjHvqcYzJSY 650]
The Roma couple keeping mystery girl Maria in their camp have been formally charged in Greece with abduction.
The couple have been placed in detention pending a trial.
Maria was found during a raid on a Roma camp in central Greece last week.
DNA tests showed that she was not related to the couple, who insist they were given her legitimately.
Maria is being cared for by a charity in Athens, which has received more than 8,000 calls after an appeal.
The Roma couple appeared before judges on Monday to answer charges of abducting a minor and holding false papers.
The 39-year-old man and 40-year-old woman were identified by Greek police as Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou.
The Roma community where the girl was found has rallied around the couple, saying they looked after her well.
The Roma couple keeping mystery girl Maria in their camp have been formally charged in Greece with abduction
The head of the Roma association in Farsala in central Greece says the pair treated her better than their biological children and that she loved them.
Ahead of Monday’s hearing, a lawyer representing the Roma couple, Kostas Katsavos, said that they were carrying out a search for the girl’s mother.
He said the couple claim the woman had given Maria to them because she could not look after her daughter.
“Our clients’ claim is that <<we never abducted this child, we just adopted her>> in a way that was not legal, that we can confess,” said Kostas Katsavos.
But the couple are suspected by social workers of kidnapping the girl and sending her out to beg.
Police initially raided the Roma camp to search for drugs and weapons.
They noticed the lack of resemblance between the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned little girl and her parents, and found further discrepancies when they investigated the family’s documents.
The couple had registered different numbers of children with different regional family registries.
The Greek authorities say the couple were in possession of false papers which suggested the woman had given birth to six children within a 10-month period.
When questioned about how they came to have Maria, the couple made “constantly changing claims”, Thessalia Province Police Director Vassilis Halatsis said.
Through Interpol, Greece has requested assistance from other European countries.
Police decided to appeal internationally as the girl looked as if she might be from northern or eastern Europe.
[youtube Zsq8S6Hs3IU 650]
