JEDDAH, 1 December 2003 — Ten-month-old Talya, who went missing during Eid with the family’s new maid, is back with her family.
Apparently the maid, Devi Kateriga, had taken little Talya for a walk while her parents were shopping in the Jamjoom Commercial Center. But Devi, who had been in Saudi Arabia for only 20 days and does not speak Arabic, lost her way.
She encountered Tarek Abdullah, 25, who offered to help her find the family, and they looked for them for eight hours, Okaz newspaper said.
When all attempts failed, he took the maid and child back to his house in the Al-Salama neighborhood, where they remained for three days until he notified the police.
Meanwhile, Abdullah has told investigating officers he had no intention of hiding the maid and child and had searched for the family in parks in the Obhur area before contacting police.
It was unclear why he looked for them there.
The maid told police through a translator that Abdullah had not harmed her or Talya, giving her food and buying milk for the child.
Talya’s father said the family were delighted the little girl had finally come home and had decided not to press charges against Abdullah “since his intentions were good.”
