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'Maddy McCann lookalike' reunited with father, but refuses to go home

The homeless woman mistaken in Italy for missing English girl Madeleine McCann has been reunited with her father, but in a sad twist she is refusing to go home.

The mystery of the nameless girl who spoke English and slept rough on the streets of Rome gathered pace worldwide this week amid suggestions she may be the missing child.

However, it was soon revealed she was Embla Jauhojärvi, a 21-year-old who had run away from her home in Sweden.

The Madeline McCan look-alike has been living rough on the streets of Rome. Photo: Supplied
The Madeline McCan look-alike has been living rough on the streets of Rome. Photo: Supplied

She has since been re-united with her Finnish father, Tahvo Jauhojärvi at the Swedish Embassy in Rome, however, she has told her dad she wishes to stay where she is.

He told the Daily Mail she had gone missing six months ago.


“She wants to go back to living on the street,” Mr Jauhojärvi said.

Initially she was thought to be a teenager, but the mystery girl was quickly identified as 21-year-old Stockholm runaway Embla Jauhojärvi. Photo: Supplied
Initially she was thought to be a teenager, but the mystery girl was quickly identified as 21-year-old Stockholm runaway Embla Jauhojärvi. Photo: Supplied

“She doesn't want to come home.

“We want to take her back to Sweden but it is so difficult. If she were in Sweden it would be so much better.”

Mr Jauhojärvi earlier took to his Facebook page to tell of his anguish at seeing photos of his daughter on news sites.

“She had been missing for six months, at least, now. I knew she went to Italy to study the Italian language several months ago,” he told The Sun on Tuesday.

Police searching for missing toddler Madeleine McCann are still hopeful that she may yet be found alive. Source: Supplied.
Police searching for missing toddler Madeleine McCann are still hopeful that she may yet be found alive. Source: Supplied.

“She stopped contacting everyone, any family, she just wanted to break away and start her own life because she has Asperger’s [syndrome].”

The Embla’s polite manner and young age began gathering attention in Rome, leading to speculation she could be a grown up Maddy McCann.

Others wondered if she could be missing Australian Leela McDougall or American Ali Lowitzer.

If she is still alive, Maddy McCann would now be in her early teens. She vanished in Spain in 2007, just days before her fourth birthday.