Advertisement

Child kidnapped aged 4 reunited with family 16 years later

A 20-year-old beauty queen who was kidnapped at the age of four and sold to a gypsy family for a ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.56 15 Jul 2014


Share this article


Child kidnapped aged 4 reunite...

Child kidnapped aged 4 reunited with family 16 years later

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.56 15 Jul 2014


Share this article


A 20-year-old beauty queen who was kidnapped at the age of four and sold to a gypsy family for a pair of gold earrings, has been reunited with her birth mother after 16 years.

Olga Romanovich was allegedly abducted from her birth mother and sold on to another family. 

With the help of Interpol and DNA testing, Olga has been reunited with her birth mother after 16 years apart.

Advertisement

east2west news

When Olga was a child her mother fled from her abusive husband and took Olga with her to the railways where they were cared for by gypsies. They eventually convinced Tamara, Olga's mother, to move from her home in Belarus to Moldova. 

Olga and Tamara were forced to beg on the street for money before Tamara was deceived and her young daughter was abducted.

Tamara was travelling in a car and told by the driver to go in to a shop to buy cigarettes. When she exited the car, the driver drove off with Olga and sold her in a nearby town along the border of Ukraine, for a pair of gold earrings.

"I got a new name - Maria, which I could not get used to, because I am actually called Olga," she told Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"And I had another surname, Preyda. My grandmother's son, Igor Preyda adopted me. My grandmother was a second mother to me. I grew up as a normal kid."

Olga's new family cared for her and she told the Russian tabloid that she lived a fine and normal life, but never felt like she belonged. 

"I was loved in that gypsy family, they raised me as well as they could."

east2west news

"Yes, you live by their customs, talking, behaving. But always I was asking one question: 'Who am I? Where do I come from? How did I come here?'

"These questions always tormented and tortured me. I wanted to know the truth. Who were my parents, even if they sold me. I would like to know who I am, what is the blood flowing in me," she said.

Olga eventually confided in a psychologist who then contacted Interpol and consequently was reunited with her birth family.

Shortly before finding her birth family, Olga won a beauty contest in Moldova.

"I wanted to achieve something, to prove myself, " she said. "I have been accepted back here very well."


Share this article


Read more about

News

Most Popular