Every parent can surely agree on one thing – having your child kidnapped would be an unimaginable nightmare to live through. Unfortunately though, it does happen, and the only thing that a mother and father can do is pray for the safe return of their child.
When Marina Chapman was just four years old, she suddenly disappeared one day from her parents’ home in Columbia. She found herself alone in the middle of the dense Colombian jungle, and with absolutely nobody to turn to. However, a helping hand came along to assist her in the most unusual form…
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Marina Chapman doesn’t really know much about her life before she was taken. She believes that she was born sometime in the 1950’s, and raised by a family in Columbia. This was where disaster eventually struck…Marina doesn’t know what her given name was, as she chose the name “Marina” later in life, but she does remember being kidnapped…
According to Marina, not long before her fifth birthday, she was playing in her parents’ vegetable garden. She was sitting down to harvest peas when a strong arm suddenly jerked her backward and a rag full of chloroform was placed over her mouth.
The last thing she remembered before passing out was two people placing her into the back of a van, slamming the doors, and then speeding away. She had no idea if she’d ever see her parents again.
Marina could do nothing but think about her mother and father. Why was she kidnapped? Did their family have enemies? She even briefly thought her parents might be behind it all as a punishment for picking through their garden.When
Marina finally woke up, she found herself crammed into the back of a van with a group of whimpering children. Whoever her captors were, they had been busy scooping up other kids, too. Marina soon fell into unconsciousness once again…
Later on, the young girl woke up to the feeling of slaps on her face. She thought they were human hands at first, but quickly realized that they were actually massive leaves. Her captors had hoisted her over their shoulders, and they were carrying her deep into the thick Colombian jungle.
Marina was groggy and couldn’t make out the details of the people she was with, but out of nowhere, they started to run. It seemed like they were afraid of something, and after running for a few minutes, they simply dropped her on the ground and fled the area.
Scared, hungry, and alone, Marina looked for a place to sleep. She dug out a small trench by a tree stump and curled up into a ball. The sun woke her up the next morning, and when she opened her eyes, she was completely surrounded…by monkeys.
Marina had no idea what to do, until suddenly, one of the animals dropped a piece of fruit close to her. She scampered over to it and ate. Were the monkeys actually trying to feed her?
Weeks turned into months, months into years, and Marina claims she grew incredibly close with the primates over that time – they were like family to her. To this day, Marina credits her incredible story of survival in the jungle to the kind group of monkeys. However, she would eventually be stripped, yet again, from her family…
One afternoon, a group of poachers entered into the forest. The now 10-year-old Marina hid behind a thick tree and watched as they used their machetes to carve a path through the vegetation. One of the poachers was a woman who appeared to be kind and gentle, so Marina came out of hiding and approached the group…
The group was in complete disbelief when they saw her. The young girl’s skin was covered in dirt, she was walking on all fours, and her hair was nearly as long as her entire body. The poachers brought Marina out of the jungle to the Colombian city of Cucuta, but unfortunately, she was far from safe…
The group brought Marina to a run-down brothel on the outskirts of the city where she was sold to a woman named Ana-Karmen. Marina doesn’t know how long she was there for, but she does know that life there was miserable. Then, one day while Ana-Karmen was occupied, Marina managed to escape…
Now Marina was homeless and lost in a big city. Luckily, she banded together with some other homeless children, and they were able to scavenge for food and shelter when needed. It wasn’t ideal, but it was far better than life at the brothel. Marina eventually landed a job as a maid, but not everything was as it seemed…
