Missing girl found safe and well after four years

A girl who went missing four years ago, and became known as Italy's Madeleine McCann, appears to have been found safe and well in Greece.

Police on the Greek island of Kos were alerted after an Italian tourist grew suspicious after the girl approached her with another youngster offering a bracelet for sale. DNA tests are currently being carried out on the eight year old girl to see if she is Denise Pipitone, who vanished in 2004. The DNA tests were ordered after Denise's mother Piera, shown photographs of the girl found in Greece, said the "shape of the eyes was exactly that" of her daughter. Other similarities were a birthmark under the same eye as Denise, the fact the girl spoke fluent Italian and most strikingly the 30-year-old Roma gypsy woman who was with her admitted to police she was not the girl's mother.

Six weeks after Denise disappeared from her home at Mazzaro dell Vallo near Palermo a bank guard in Milan saw a distressed little girl with a group of Roma gyspies. He made a videoclip with his phone but did not approach them. The footage was given to the police who showed it to Mrs Pipitone and she confirmed it as her daughter. In the footage the woman said to the girl: "Danas" and she answered, in perfect Italian "Dove mi porti" (where are you taking me?). The guard also noted the birthmark under the left eye.
Italian police scientists analysed the film and later said that the clip showed seven facial feature points similar to Denise but as no DNA was taken it was impossible to say for certain.

News of the discovery will bring fresh hope to Gerry and Kate McCann after their daughter disappeared in Portugal last year, and for the parents of Ben Needham who vanished in 1991 from the same Greek island where the Italian girl was found.