I’m an American living here and thus am always privy to the latest developments in this case, though generally after hearing them I wish I weren’t.

The abusing mother gave an interview with TYDEN (THE WEEK) Magazine this week and, unless she’s an exceptional liar — rather than a woman totally messed up by the weight of the messed-up things she let herself be duped into doing — the real culprit here is very, very much Skrlova, with the mother’s sister placing a distant second.

Interestingly, the mother mentions Skrlova referring to Norway long before Skrlova’s recent disappearance to Norway:

TYDEN: “And what about the boys, where were they [in the period when Skrlova first started visiting you]?”

Klara Mauerova: “They were living with me, I was taking care of them the same as always. It was all gradual. Anicka [i.e. Skrlova] was coming over, she behaved like a little girl, she drank from a bottle, she was like a wolf-girl, I bought her rattles. Besides Czech she spoke Norse, and sometimes English. Sometime in 2005 she betrayed the fact [ahem] to me that her name was Anne Jervinen and that I should never tell her name to anyone. […]”

What wasn’t mentioned in the interview or the various sidebars was any significant unbalancedness in Skrlova except for the “evil manipulator” sort… now, having read above about the painting she did during the Adam masquerade, I’m considerably less sure.

Other fun facts:
* One of the people who (mildly) helped with the bureaucratic steps needed for the 33-year-old Skrlova disappear and become the 13-year-old “Anicka” Skrlova was the co-founder of the country’s largest non-imported environmental group (and my ex-boss, many ages ago). I think he was acting in good faith, and just another dupe among many, but the police sure were quick to snap up that opportunity (we’re talking a year ago in the original phase of the case) to harass him — tear up his house and drag everything out for a search, etc. We never got along well, but — poor guy.

– The mother states that she did what she did upon instructions from “Anicka” (who eventually moved in with her) and from the “doctor” who had originally been “healing” “Anicka”… whom she only met, or thought she met, once. Ultimately it turned out that the “doctor’s” SMSes were coming from her sister’s phone, and were apparently from Skrlova.

Erm… for a complete stranger, I’ve spent too much time on this. But it’s all so morbidly fascinating, since, as it says in the TYDEN introductory editorial for the week:

“The case from Kurim [i.e. the Skrlova case] has gradually become a psychedelic and barely comprehensible story.”

Amen.