Found in the Jungle: The sad story of a Cambodian Mowgli woman

The world community was shocked when in 2007 a dirty naked woman was found in the Cambodian jungle, who did not speak, could not eat with a spoon and refused to wear clothes. At first, it was claimed that she was a girl who disappeared from a neighboring village, who grew up in the rainforests and spent about twenty years there. The truth was even more shocking. The secret was revealed thanks to a photo from Facebook.

In 2007, a Cambodian who was working in the jungle discovered that food was disappearing from his bag. The man decided to track down who was stealing his supplies. What was his surprise when he saw a naked, dirty woman, all bruised, who was taking food out of his bag and quickly disappeared behind the trees.

The man called his comrades, and together they caught the Mowgli woman. They brought her to the local authorities. Dirty and thin, she did not talk, preferred to crawl rather than walk, and tore off her clothes when they tried to dress her. When a woman found in the jungle was hungry, she pointed to her mouth. She liked to play with children's toys.

Soon, rumors about the woman from the jungle spread. A policeman from a nearby village said that she was his daughter Rochom, who disappeared in 1998 at the age of eight. The girl went to the pasture with a buffalo and mysteriously disappeared. The father says that there was a scar on her arm, presumably from a knife wound before she disappeared. The woman found had the same one. In addition, the similar facial features became one of the confirmations that the Mowgli woman is really his daughter.

The story of Mowgli became known all over the world. People began to wonder how she managed to survive in the jungle. Western journalists began to suspect something was wrong. They noticed that the woman's hair was cut short, and there were deep scars on her left wrist and ankle. It turned out that the woman had mental problems, and in that outback people with similar deviations were often put on a chain.

Journalists doubted that the woman had spent 20 years in the jungle. They assumed that the unfortunate woman was in prison, somehow got out to freedom, and then found a father who had been trying to find her missing daughter all these years. Her parents refused to take a DNA test, and Mowgli lived with them in poverty for more than a year.

After a few years, the unfortunate woman, who was constantly being chased by people who wanted to look at her, began to run away into the jungle. Often she disappeared for a couple of days, and then returned. Despite the fact that the Mowgli woman learned to eat, take a bath and dress herself, her "father" tried to raise money to expel the "jungle spirit" from her with the help of a shaman.

One day a Mowgli woman went to wash at the well behind the house and disappeared. She was found 11 days later in a 10-meter cesspool, where the unfortunate woman was standing chest-deep in excrement. The woman was taken to the hospital, and after recovery, a psychiatrist began to visit her every week. It was said that she preferred to live and sleep in a chicken coop, coming to the house only once every 3-4 days to eat. She never learned to talk, but she began to establish eye contact with other people.

As it turned out, in 2016, there was a dramatic turn in the history of the Mowgli woman. A 70 – year-old Vietnamese man, Pel, saw her photos on Facebook and said that she was his daughter Tak, who disappeared in 2006 at the age of 23. The girl had a mental disorder. According to the new facts, she disappeared somewhere for a whole year. The father recognized his daughter by a spot on her lips, a scar on her wrist and an ear disease. He said that the girl had not spoken since birth.

To confirm his words, the Vietnamese provided the certificates of nine relatives and documents — a birth certificate and papers about the disappearance of the Fuel and energy Complex. After the government authorities reviewed the case for two weeks, the Mowgli woman went from Cambodia to Vietnam with the permission of her parents, who mistakenly believed her to be their daughter.

Since then, the name of Tak has ceased to flash in the news headlines, and now almost nothing is known about her fate. We hope that she is under the care of her relatives and receives the necessary medical care.

There are many examples of the real existence of Mowgli children in the world who grew up with animals. Their destinies after returning to the people turned out differently.