Alleged Kidnapping: Could a Roma Couple Have a Blond, Blue-Eyed Child?

[Buster's Uncle]

Alleged Kidnapping: Could a Roma Couple Have a Blond, Blue-Eyed Child?
LiveScience.com
By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer  October 25, 2013 8:04 AM



The young girl allegedly kidnapped by a Greek Roma couple may have come from dark-eyed, dark-haired parents.



A Roma couple in Greece was charged last week with abducting a young girl who was found living with them. What made authorities suspect the girl wasn't the? Her blond hair and blue eyes.

The Greek Roma man and woman both have brown hair and brown eyes. The Roma — sometimes referred to as gypsies, although the term is now considered derogatory — are part of an ethnic group who live mostly in central and eastern Europe. DNA tests showed the girl is not biologically related to the Roma couple, or to anyone in Interpol's global database of missing people, NBC reported.

But the case begs the question, could brown-eyed, brunette parents produce a child with blond hair and blue eyes?

It's definitely possible, said Rick Sturm, a molecular biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia. "It would not surprise me that two Roma parents may have a blue-eyed child," Sturm said.

Many genes play a role in determining eye color, but a major player is the gene OCA2, Sturm told LiveScience. One version of the gene is linked to blue eye color, and is common in European populations, but a person must have two copies of that version in order to have blue eyes. Another version of the gene is linked to brown eye color.

If two brown-eyed parents each have one blue-eyed version of the gene, along with one brown-eyed version of the gene, they can pass on either version to their children. On average, one in four of their children would receive two blue-eyed versions, and would, therefore, have blue eyes.

Eye-color genes specify how much pigment, called melanin, is in the circular outer structure of the eye, or iris. Brown eyes result from an abundance of melanin, whereas blue eyes result from reduced or absent levels of melanin. The eyes appear blue for the same reason the sky does — blue light is scattered, while other colors are absorbed.

As for the case of the blue-eyed mystery girl, DNA tests now confirm a Bulgarian Roma couple are the girl's biological parents, the BBC reported.

"Most Roma have brown hair and eyes, but there are many blond Roma with blue eyes," said Juan Gamella, a social anthropologist at the University of Granada in Spain.

Gamella noted that he finds the attention the case has received troubling.

"For centuries, Roma have been falsely accused of stealing children," Gamella told LiveScience. "In fact, it has been Roma children who have been taken forcefully away from their parents, often by false allegations of bad parenting."


http://news.yahoo.com/alleged-kidnapping-could-roma-couple-blond-blue-eyed-120453333.html

[Geo]

There was a few days ago a picture on the enews of the appearantly biological parents with - wait for it - a redhead toddler in the mother's arms...

[Buster's Uncle]

Bulgaria takes seven of Roma girl's brothers and sisters into care
Reuters
7 hours ago



Bulgarian Roma Sasha Ruseva (L), 35, holds her daughter next to her husband Atanas, 37, in front of their house in Nikolaevo



SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian authorities said on Wednesday they would take into care most of the brothers and sisters of Maria, the four-year-old whose discovery in neighboring Greece captured global attention.

DNA tests have confirmed that Sasha Ruseva, 35, is the biological mother of Maria, whose blue eyes and blonde hair aroused the suspicions of Greek police when they raided a Roma camp this month.

Ruseva and her husband, both Bulgarian Roma, have nine other children aged between 2 and 20 and live in deep poverty, occupying one room in a crumbling house in the town of Nikolaevo, 280 km (170 miles) east of Sofia.

TV footage that showed the children in shabby clothes sleeping on a mud floor and speaking little Bulgarian caused public outrage.

"We decided to accommodate four of the kids with foster families," Diana Kaneva, head of the agency for social assistance in the area, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Two children will be sent to a state institution and one will be placed with relatives of the family," she said, adding that the measures were temporary and contacts between children and their parents would be encouraged by the social workers.

Two other children are over 18 and not subject to state protection.

Maria, dubbed "the blonde angel" by Greek media, is now in the care of the Athens-based charity Smile of the Child.

On Tuesday, Bulgarian authorities said they would take steps to bring her back to the Balkan country.

Ruseva, who said she left Maria as a seven-month-old baby with another couple in Greece because she was too poor to care for her, has also said she would like to take her back.

Both parents are jobless and live on welfare payments. Ruseva is under investigation over whether she was paid for handing over her child, which she denies. The couple in Greece have been charged there with abducting a minor and detained.

The case has illustrated the plight of Roma gypsies in Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest member state. Many spend their lives close to destitution, illiterate and on the fringes of society.


http://news.yahoo.com/bulgaria-takes-7-roma-girls-brothers-sisters-care-150431783.html