DNA Test Reveals 'Blonde Angel' Roma Girl Has Bulgarian Mother

Bulgarian officials confirmed Friday that the pale, blonde Roma child taken from her darker complexioned guardians is the child of a Bulgarian Roma woman, reports the AP.

The girl, known as Maria, is the daughter of Sasha Ruseva, who apparently had her four years ago and then gave her away because she couldn’t afford to take care of her. On Thursday, the AP reported that Ruseva wasn’t sure if the girl was her daughter, but denied selling her to the couple that Maria was found with:

“I don’t know if it’s her. How would I know that? I didn’t take any money. I just didn’t have enough money to feed her,” Ruseva said speaking on TV, which showed pictures of her and her family outside her mud-floored village home outside the town.

…

“I intended to go back and take my child home, but meanwhile I gave birth to two more kids, so I was not able to go back,” Ruseva said.

Christos Salis and his partner Eleftheria Dimopoulou (also known as Selini Sali) were found with “Maria” last week during an unrelated raid on their camp in Greece. According to the Daily Mail, Ruseva’s husband “has an albino gene in his family that may have resulted in Maria’s blonde hair and pale complexion” and several of the couple’s other children are also blonde and look like her. They note that Ruseva has been arrested on suspicion of selling children twice before.

This is the second Roma child this week whose parent or guardian has been accused of kidnapping. The last was a 7-year-old girl living in Dublin.