Little girl kidnapped by her father and raised in a forest cut off from the world: what is the origin of the term “wolf child” which designates her ?

L’adolescente a pu être rapatriée en Suisse en mai dernier. Illustration Unsplash – Luka Silling

Abducted by her father in Switzerland, a "wolf child" 17-year-old was found in the south of Spain last March.

Aged 17, the young girl has never been to school and has the intellectual capacity of a little girl. The only contact she has never had is with her two sisters and her father who raised them in a forest in Switzerland, reports the Spanish media Diario Sur.

The girl and her father checked by the Spanish police

How the teenager was able to be found? It all dates back to last March 18 in Coín, province of Malaga in Andalusia. That day, police officers came across a man with an unkempt appearance accompanied by an underage girl with her head bowed. They are standing near a damaged vehicle which appears to be inhabited according to police officers.

The latter then decide to identify the two madmen by entering their names in the SIRENE database ("supplementary information request at national entry") commissioned for  "technical and operational" cooperation between the countries of the Schengen area.

High in "total disconnection"

The agents then discovered a note from the Swiss authorities specifying that the child was in an unknown situation or in serious danger and that she had to stay in a safe place. The police note also underlined the & ;quot;high risk of kidnapping" by his father, considered as "a danger for her" for the young girl.

The young girl had been kidnapped with her two sisters by their father. Opposed to any form of institution, the man had raised them in a forest in Switzerland in "total disconnection& quot; of society, before fleeing with them to Spain. The three "wolf children" n’had  nbsp;never consulted a doctor or underwent the usual health checks. Socially, they never existed.

Where does the term "wolf child" ?

come from?

The term, wolf child" or "wild child" dates back to World War II. Children who were separated from their families found themselves without any loved ones to help them. Some were forced to wander in the forests to survive, isolated from humanity, until they found someone to shelter them.

These are generally people who have lived, for voluntary reasons or not, on the margins of society throughout their lives or at least for a long period of time. Very few documented cases of feral children exist.

The parents suffer from mental or psychological disorders

According to reports from Swiss social services, the family of the young teenage girls had always been in a situation of precariousness and vulnerability. The mother, who had not seen her daughters for six years, is said to suffer from a mental disorder or psychological problem, just like her husband.

Finally the young girl was able to be repatriated to Switzerland on May 3 and was placed under the protection of social services. His two sisters, who were adults, could not legally be repatriated against their will, according to el Diario Sur.