Girl found after 11 years

2008-08-12 19:39

Helsinki - A Finnish girl who went missing 11 years ago has been found at the age of 20 but she has refused to disclose what happened to her and has forgotten her mother tongue Finnish, police said on Tuesday.

Nadia Bouteldjan went missing in May 1997 when she was nine years old.

Police suspected her Algerian father had kidnapped her and fled with her abroad and they were sought by police around the world to no avail.

"Finding someone after so many years is quite rare but this gives us hope that it can happen," Finnish detective Chief Inspector Jukka Kaski told AFP.

In May 1997 Bouteldjan and her father were spotted in Britain but after that all trace of them disappeared.

The Finnish police and foreign ministry were in regular contact with the father's relatives in Algeria as well as international organisations that help search for missing children.

Tips were also checked in Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Algeria, Tunisia and Tahiti.

In 2006, after Bouteldjan turned 18, she contacted her mother and began what would become a two-year correspondence by e-mail. She finally agreed to meet her mother, together with police, in Luxembourg in July.

However, the young woman did not want to tell police about her disappearance, her whereabouts for the past 11 years, nor where she lives now or what had happened to her over the years.

"She did not want to tell us what had happened," Kaski said, adding that Bouteldjan behaved suspiciously towards authorities.

"She was rather icy in the meeting towards her mother and police," he added.

Bouteldjan had also forgotten the Finnish language, so English was used in the meeting.

- AFP