Missing 13-Yr.-Old Boy Turns Out To Be 33-Yr.-Old Woman

His name was Adam and he was just 13 years old when his disappearance from a children’s home in mid-December prompted an all-out search him in Oslo, Norway (top left). No one could have predicted it would end with authorities discovering the stunning truth about the boy.

“He” was actually a “she” – and she was really 33 years of age. Barbora Skrlova had somehow managed to fool teachers, bureaucrats and child care workers for nearly four months, before she pulled her disappearing act. Her story goes back to September when a woman using a Czech passport enrolled “Adam” at an Oslo school.

That student turned out to be the 5’2″ Skrlova herself, who bound her breasts and shaved her head to take on the identity of the youngster. In a scene out of the movie  “Boys Don’t Cry”, the fully grown adult continued the charade and no one caught on.

It turns out she’s experienced in this sort of thing, having done it once before in the Czech Republic city of Brno. Cops there say Skrlova was taken in by a woman who allegedly abused her two biological sons and she’s wanted as a witness in that case.

But the story gets even stranger. Skrlova is also due to testify in another child abuse trial, this one involving an obscure religious cult.

She fled the country with the help of friends to avoid having to take the stand and wound up in that school in Norway, enjoying free food and shelter using her deceptive disguise. Incredibly, no one caught on to her ruse, despite her advanced age and sometimes bizarre actions.

“We did react to Adam’s behavior. But it’s not easy to know,” school principal Ingjerd Eriksen told an Oslo newspaper. “Children at that age can be so different.” Especially when they’re not really children of that age.

So what blew “Adam’s” cover? Authorities reveal it was her need to pull a vanishing act. When the ‘child’ suddenly went missing last month, a massive publicity campaign was raised to find ‘him’.

His picture was splashed on posters and newspapers across Norway until the inevitable happened in early January – someone recognized Skrlova and tipped off police to who she really was.

Officials finally found her in the Arctic city of Tromsoe and she’s been deported back to the Czech Republic, where she could be charged with identity theft and misleading authorities.

For the cops who’ve been trying to get their heads around this gender bending mystery, it’s been a strange interlude. “Not even we have been able to figure out what is up and down in this case,” admits Norwegian police attorney Sven T. Roer.

Skrlova is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation while legal experts try to decide what to do with her.

Photo credit: © 2005 J. P. Fagerback