Bulgarian woman quizzed over ‘Maria’ mystery

She says she is willing to do a DNA test and take the child back if she is proved to be hers.

The case of the girl, known as “Maria” and believed to be five or six years old, has gained international attention and drawn what some say is unwarranted and unfair attention to the Roma community in Europe.

Greek authorities took custody of the girl after finding her while raiding a Roma camp for illegal weapons and drugs.

The child stood out to police because she was blonde and fair-skinned, and looked nothing like the couple who claimed to be her parents.

The couple, Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, have since been charged with child abduction. They have insisted the girl was given to them legitimately.

After a DNA test proved the girl wasn’t theirs, an international search was launched to find her real parents, while the couple she had been living with were arrested.

The Greek police’s search apparently led to central Bulgaria, where police tracked down 38-year-old Sasha Ruseva in the town of Nikolaevo.

Ms Ruseva told Bulgarian TV that she gave birth to a girl while working in Greece “several years ago,” but that she had to leave the child because she didn’t have enough money to take her home. She has had eight children.

“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 back,” she said, insisting that she did not get paid for giving up the girl.

Police in Bulgaria declined to immediately comment on the case.

Maria is currently being cared for by the Athens-based charity the Smile of the Child. There have been 8,000 inquiries following an appeal to identify her, and the international police body Interpol is involved in the search for her biological family