12-year-old housemaid who disappeared in the middle of court case returns home

Photo: WikiCommons / Afifa Afrin
Photo: WikiCommons / Afifa Afrin

A 12-year-old former housemaid who disappeared in the middle of her court case has been found, three weeks after she initially went missing, reports The Voice.

The girl was suing her former employers, the family of a retired lieutenant colonel, for allegedly abusing her. She testified that in one instance, the lieutenant colonel’s wife forced another housemaid to knock out six of her teeth with a pestle.

On July 3, the girl and her grandmother travelled to Yangon from their hometown of Myittha, located in the Mandalay Region, and attended a hearing at the Mayangone Township Court. The two spent the night at a monastery near the Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Station. Her grandmother had been tired from the day’s journey and slept in the next morning, and when she woke up, her granddaughter was missing.

The family filed a missing persons report at the Mingaladon Police Station, but hadn’t made any progress regarding the girl’s whereabouts.

On Wednesday morning however, 22 days after her disappearance, the family was shocked when the girl just showed up at their home in Myittha.

“My daughter said that a tall, thin man told her to come with him or else he would kill her. He raped her for the next 20 days. She arrived back at Myittha on her own around 11am this morning,” the girl’s mother told The Voice yesterday.

It’s unclear if the girl managed to escape her captor, or if he voluntarily let her go. Either way, we’re really happy to hear that she’s back home and that this story didn’t have a darker ending for a child who’s already been through so much.

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