Greek Police May Have Found Girl Missing for 4 Yrs

Authorities have sent the girl`s blood-sample to Italy to confirm her identity.

Greek police may have found an 8-year-old Italian girl reported missing in Sicily four years ago, officials said on Thursday.

On a tip off from Interpol after a family friend spotted the child on the Aegean island of Kos, police seized the girl and arrested a 34-year-old Roma woman she was with.

"The girl has the same birthmark as the missing girl. She also only speaks Italian," said a police official, who declined to be named.

Denise Pipitone disappeared on Sept. 1, 2004 while she was playing with her cousins in the street of her hometown Mazara del Vallo, near Trapani.

Her mother, Piera Maggio, has always insisted she was alive and often appealed on television for help in finding her.

She said the girl found in Greece had similar eyes to Denise but only a DNA test would confirm whether it was her.

"I am waiting for certainties not hypotheses, facts not words," she told Italian news agencies. "If this girl is my daughter my joy as a mother will be boundless, but if it is not her I will keep on fighting because my daughter is alive."

Authorities have sent the girl's blood-sample to Italy. They did not release her name but said she was receiving care and psychological support on the island's hospital.

The Roma woman, who says the child is not hers, was due to be questioned by a prosecutor later in the day.