A Missouri couple whose baby daughter vanished two years ago have asked investigators to see if the unidentified blonde girl found last week in a Greek gypsy camp is their child.
A lawyer for the parents of missing Lisa Irwin – who was 10 months old when she disappeared from her Kansas City bedroom in 2011- said Monday he has contacted the FBI about the case, and the US agency is working with authorities in Greece.
“Whenever the authorities in Greece investigate and inform us, we will know,” Joe Picerno, lawyer for Jeremy Irwin and Lisa Bradley, told Kansas City TV5.
Lisa’s parents are among the four American leads – of a total of eight – that Greek police are taking seriously in an international hunt for the true identity of the mystery child known as “Maria,” according to the Daily Telegraph.
Maria was rescued during a raid of a transient camp in Tabakou last week. DNA tests proved she wasn’t the child of the couple she lived with.
Maria is believed to be four or five years old, making her older than Lisa, who would be three in November. But a computer-generated, age-enhanced photo of what Lisa would look like now bears a resemblance to Maria.
The gypsy couple arrested and charged with abducting Maria, Hristos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, were in court Monday to face charges of kidnapping and forging birth documents.
In a “Today” show appearance last year, Jeremy Irwin said someone stole his debit card a month after little Lisa disappeared. It was suspended after he noticed a fraudulent charge, for $69.04, from a UK website that offers to legally change your name or a child’s name online.
Lisa was discovered missing October 4, 2011, when her father came home from working late and found the front door open, the lights on, Bradley asleep and their daughter missing from her crib. A bedroom window was open and a witness later said he saw a man carrying a baby in a diaper down the street. Bradley, who had been drinking that night, was initially suspected in the disappearance.