Cambodian jungle girl 'returns home'

Phnom Penh (dpa) - Cambodia's mysterious "jungle girl" has disappeared back into the forests where she was found less than a year ago, police said Tuesday.

The wild woman believed by the parents of Rochom P'ngieng to be their long-lost daughter melted back into the jungle about a month ago and searches for her have proven fruitless, said Ley Tom, O'Yadaw district deputy police chief in the remote north-eastern province of Ratanakiri.

Rochom P'ngieng disappeared while herding buffalo as an 8-year-old, which would now make her 27. Her parents believe the woman captured by local workers who caught her stealing food from their logging camp is their daughter, saying they identified her by a distinctive scar even though the woman was unable to communicate in any known language. They did not undergo DNA tests.

"One day she just disappeared back into the jungle, and no one has seen any sign of her since," Tom said by telephone.

The wild woman's story fascinated the world as researchers and psychologists tried to piece together her story after her discovery in January and human rights groups rushed to assist.

Tom said her behaviour changed little during her months in civilization and after the initial excitement died down, people from the outside world forgot about the strange girl in a faraway corner of Cambodia near the Vietnamese border.

"After the first rush of people, organizations stopped coming and no one asked about her," Tom said. "She didn't begin to speak, and she used to walk around ripping her clothes off. Look, I think she was just crazy.

"I have to say it is strange, though, how she can just disappear without a trace."

He said he did not know how the parents, members of an ethnic minority hilltribe who have no access to communication with the outside world, had taken her disappearance, 19 years after they first lost their daughter.