‘Junglewoman’ found after 19 years

A WOMAN who disappeared in the jungles of north-eastern Cambodia as a child has apparently been found after living in the wild for 19 years, police said yesterday.

The woman — believed to be Rochom P’ngieng, now aged 27 — cannot speak any intelligible language, so details of her saga have been difficult to confirm.

“She is like half-human and half-animal,” said Mao San, police chief of Oyadao district in Rattanakiri province. “She’s weird. She sleeps during the day and stays up at night.”

The woman’s father said he recognised his daughter by a scar on her back and her facial features, according to Mao San. The father is a village policeman named Sal Lou.

Rochom P’ngieng, then eight years old, disappeared one day in 1988 when she was herding buffalo in a remote north-eastern jungle area, said Chea Bunthoeun, a deputy provincial police chief.

She was discovered after a villager noticed food disappeared from a lunch box he left at a site near his farm.

“He decided to stake out the area and then spotted a naked human being, who looked like a jungle person, sneaking in to steal his rice,” said Chea Bunthoeun.

The villager gathered friends and caught the woman on January 13.

“Her parents had already lost hope of finding her. The father cried and hugged her when he met his daughter,” Chea Bunthoeun said.

Since being found, the woman has had difficulty adjusting to normal life.