Update 23/11:
The missing girl who grabbed headlines the world over has been identified as 21-year-old Swedish student, Embla Jauhojärvi.
Missing persons campaigners speculated she could be one of a number of the abducted children on their database
However her father Tahvo Jauhojärvi spoke to the MailOnline, revealing the girl to be his missing daughter who has Asperger’s Syndrome .
“She has been missing for six months since May,” Mr Jauhojärvi told the MailOnline,. “I knew she was going to Italy and to study Italian as a language. I’ve tried for six months to get help from police in Sweden, but they have been no help. I had hopes that she was going to do what she went there to do. I want her home.”
He says they wouldn’t take it further because she’s an adult.
Mr Jauhojärvi has been in contact with police in Rome and is waiting for Embla to be relocated before he flies to Italy to be reunited with her.
Original story 22/11:
Internet campaigners are desperately trying to identify a blonde girl known as ‘Maria’ who’s been sleeping rough in Rome, in a bid to get her home by Christmas.
She’s caught the attention of Italian police because of her polite demeanour and apparent inability to speak Italian.
Maria has no form of ID and people say she refuses to accept money and answers questions in English.
She has appeared on the Italian TV show Chi l’ha Visto (Who Has Seen) and has now received world-wide attention, with many saying she could be a high-profile missing girl.
Some are convinced she’s Amanda Adlai, an American who was abducted in Michigan in 2008.
Others are even saying she bears a likeness to missing British girl Madeleine McCann.
Madeleine, who vanished in Portugal in May, 2007, would now be 13 years old, which would likely rule her out as the mystery girl, who appears to be aged in her late teens.
Campaign group Houston’s Voice For The Missing wrote on Facebook: “This girl needs help. I have been in constant contact with everyone from NCMEC, Rome police, locals journalist, the embassy, locals and anyone else I could think of.”
We hope the young girl, whoever she is, is saved from her current dire situation and finds a loving home soon.
