Lost 'jungle girl' found

By Khmerization
Source: RFA

Cambodia's "jungle woman," whose story gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has been found trapped in a 10 metre-deep toilet well, 10 days after she was reportedly went missing again, reports Radio Free Asia.

Rochom P'ngieng (pictured), now 29, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province, around 600 kilometres (400 miles) northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh.

In early 2007 the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.

But on 25th May 2010, her father reported her missing again. Police and relatives went searching for her in the forest where she have lived 18 years before she was found in 2007, but their searches were in vain.

However, on the afternoon of Friday 4th June, she was found inside a 10 metre-deep toilet well belonging to a family neighbour when that neighbour heard a weak voice when he/she went to open her bowel at the toilet located 200 metres from her family's home. The neighbour pointed the torch into the toilet well and found a person so he/she called neighbpours to come and help rescue the person. After she was lifted to the ground then they know that it was the missing 'jungle girl'.

Mr. Sal Lou, the father of the 'jungle girl', said his daughter has lost consciousness after she was rescued from the toilet well. She only gained consciousness after he washed her off the human faeces covering her face and body. He said she got blisters, bruises and infections due to long contact with the human faeces.

Mr. Sev Chhoeun, Deputy Director of Health Centre in O'Yadao district, said the doctor who examined her said she is suffering from inflammation of the bowel. Mr. Hing Than Sokunthea, Director of Rattanakiri Referral Hospital, said, due to his past treatment of the 'jungle girl', he found out that she is also having a mental problem. He said that normal people would have screamed out loud to alert villagers when they fell into the toilet well, but the 'jungle girl' was too weak and has no mental strength to scream out loud. The jungle girl is currently recuperating at Rattanakiri Referral Hospital.