News / International
Woman tells of her childhood living with monkeys
31 Mar 2013 at 10:56hrs | Views
Mrs Chapman, who as a toddler was kidnapped and left to fend for herself in the Columbian rainforest, said she was "mesmerised" by the small carablanca monkeys which became her companions.
"There was something about the way they seemed to enjoy one another's company that made them feel like a family," she says in a new book, extracts of which have been published in the Mail on Sunday.
Mrs Chapman, who now lives in Yorkshire and is married to a church organist, describes being abducted as a four-year-old while playing near her family's home in Columbia in 1954.
Later finding herself among a colony of monkeys, she mimicked their eating habits and the noises they made, even learning to climb trees.
In her memoirs, The Girl With No Name, Mrs Chapman claims one monkey even cured her of severe stomach pain by "herding" her towards a river and prompting her to drink muddy water until she vomited.
Last year The Telegraph tracked down Mrs Chapman's relatives in Columbia, visited her childhood homes in Cúcuta and Bogotá, and travelled to the Catatumbo jungle, a rebel stronghold where her family believe she probably spent her time in the wild.
"It was such a curious thing," recalls Miss Nancy Forero Eusse, who was about five when she first saw the little girl, perched on top of a mango tree
"She would hang out in that tree. Not just in the branches, but high up, right at the top."
The new arrival, who said she was a street child, was adopted by the Eusse family having been taken in by another family only to be forced to work all day and sleep on the kitchen floor.
Mrs Chapman, who is unsure about her date of birth but believes she is around 63, now has two children and three grandchildren
She lives with her husband in a suburb of Bradford, where she is better known for once cooking a quiche at a local fair for the Duke of Kent, who apparently declared it the best he had ever had.
"There was something about the way they seemed to enjoy one another's company that made them feel like a family," she says in a new book, extracts of which have been published in the Mail on Sunday.
Mrs Chapman, who now lives in Yorkshire and is married to a church organist, describes being abducted as a four-year-old while playing near her family's home in Columbia in 1954.
Later finding herself among a colony of monkeys, she mimicked their eating habits and the noises they made, even learning to climb trees.
In her memoirs, The Girl With No Name, Mrs Chapman claims one monkey even cured her of severe stomach pain by "herding" her towards a river and prompting her to drink muddy water until she vomited.
"It was such a curious thing," recalls Miss Nancy Forero Eusse, who was about five when she first saw the little girl, perched on top of a mango tree
"She would hang out in that tree. Not just in the branches, but high up, right at the top."
The new arrival, who said she was a street child, was adopted by the Eusse family having been taken in by another family only to be forced to work all day and sleep on the kitchen floor.
Mrs Chapman, who is unsure about her date of birth but believes she is around 63, now has two children and three grandchildren
She lives with her husband in a suburb of Bradford, where she is better known for once cooking a quiche at a local fair for the Duke of Kent, who apparently declared it the best he had ever had.
Source - Telegraph
