Wild jungle girl

Lost girl recognised by father after 19 years living wild in the jungle

January 19, 2007

HANOI: They say she is "half-human, half-animal". A woman who vanished in the jungle of north-eastern Cambodia as a child has been found after living in the wild for 19 years and has been returned to her father.

Ro Cham H'pnhieng, who cannot speak any intelligible language, appears to have survived by living nocturnally.

Her father, Ksor Lu, says he was able to recognise his daughter by her facial features and the scar on her back, according to yesterday's account in the newspaper Vietnam Rural Today.

Ms Ro was eight years old when she disappeared while herding buffalo in a remote jungle area in 1988. She was discovered this month after a villager noticed his food had been disappearing from a lunch container he left near his farm.

The villager staked out the area, eventually spotting a naked human sneaking in to steal his rice. He gathered some friends, and the group managed to catch her this week.

Ms Ro's father had long thought his daughter was dead. That was until last week, when he was told loggers had found "a forestman" in Ratanakiri province.

Mr Lu arrived and "recognised his daughter from the first sighting" even though her body was blackened, her hair was down to her legs and she could not speak.

Mr Lu said it was difficult to bring her back to normal life because she resisted showering, wearing clothes or using chopsticks. Instead, she would fend him off, shouting and crying.

Four days later she started co-operating, he said. "It is not easy, but life is waiting ahead for her."

Authorities want DNA samples taken from the parents and the woman to see if they match.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters