A “wolf girl” rescued in Spain: she was raised in a Swiss forest
The minor was supposedly raised by her father and two sisters in a forest in Switzerland “totally disconnected” not having any contact with society.
Apparently, Swiss authorities had been looking for the girl since her father fled the country with her. Her sisters have been located in the Malaga town of Coín. According to Diario SUR, the media outlet which has nicknamed her “wolf girl”, and sources from the investigation itself, there was an international search order to separate the minor from her father. It’s reported that when she was located by the law enforcement agents in the municipality of Malaga, she was transferred by a court to a juvenile center of the Regional Government of Andalusia.
The discovery was made this past March 18 after members of the local police found a vehicle with a damaged tire and which seemed to them that people were living inside it. Next to the vehicle they found a man with a disheveled appearance and next to him was a girl with her head down and with “quite dirty” clothes.
A “wolf girl” rescued in Spain
After searching for his name in the police database, an alert was sent to the agents from the SIRENE office, an acronym that stands ‘Supplementary Information Request at the National Entries’, which notified them of the disappearance of the minor, that she was in a situation of serious danger, and she had to be kept in a safe and appropriate place due to a high risk of escape.
The young woman was repatriated to Switzerland
After the teenager was found, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Malaga Child Protection Service contacted their counterparts in Switzerland who warned that the minor had been raised by her father with her sisters in a forest, with a “totally disconnected from any administration or public entity” and had never gone to school or had any type of medical visit, according to the newspaper.
The minor, who turns 18 this month, had to enter a child protection center located in the province of Malaga until the procedures for her subsequent repatriation were completed, which was completed on May 3. she is currently under the guardianship of the Swiss Government and is doing well in terms of health.
According to reports from Swiss social services, the girl’s family had always lived in vulnerable conditions. The mother of the minor had not seen her three daughters for six years. Likewise, the reports indicated that the two parents could have mental disorders or psychological problems, however, they did not provide further details.
The nickname “wolf child” or “feral child” is given to children who have grown up on the margins of society for a long period of time during their childhood. Although there is little scientific documentation on these types of cases, there are some examples that have been studied.
One of them, according to Diario SUR, is the example of Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja, who grew up from the age of 6 to 17 taken in by a pack of wolves in Sierra Morena, in the south of Spain. His case was brought to the big screen under the direction of Gerardo Olivares under the title ‘Among Wolves’ (Entre Lobos) in 2010. A similar case was also brought to the silver screen by filmmaker François Truffaut in 1970, who made the movie ‘The Wild Child’ (L’Enfant sauvage). Its inspiration was the discovery of two cases in the 18th century in France.
Yet another example was narrated by Reverend Singh in a diary he kept over nearly ten years. He claimed that he had met Amala and Kamala (two girls “raised by wolves”) in a forest of India in 1920. However, several investigations have questioned the veracity of his texts, and believe that this case was an inventioned story to raise funds for his orphanage, and it really involved girls with autism.