abc's alex perez went to the neighborhood where they lived, to maria's house, to try to ask who is this child. >> reporter: they've taken her dna sample, rocketed her picture around the world, and now been flooded with more than ten thousand calls and leads. but little maria's true identity is still a mystery. investigators are sifting through scores of missing children cases, searching for a match, like missing baby lisa irwin in kansas city. the fbi is investigating but doesn't believe there are any links. today, we took a trip to the roma or gypsy neighborhood where maria was living. as you arrive, the first thing you see, children. many, dirty. on the street where maria lived emotions were running high. we finally tracked down maria's house here and came to the family members that are in the house but they are extremely upset with us. they say what's being said about them is nothing but lies. authorities are investigating whether maria was a victim of human trafficking. today 30 million people worldwide are trafficked, 80 percent women and children. >> the fact that maria has been i

alex perez, abc news, chicago. >>> now we turn to that scare at a theme park in florida. 12 passengers on a huge roller costar trapped in midair for more than two terrifying hours. we have news tonight on what went wrong and here is matt gutman. >> reporter: clink upwards on this roller coaster and it seems you're threading a needle to the top of the world. just as you're about to plunge on the other side, right then you stop. that's what happened to 12 passengers, 3 of them children wednesday night. leaving them suspended, faces skyward in midair at universal studios. nearly 167 feet up. that's as high as a 17 story building. stuck there for nearly 3 hours. you see this person waiving an arm. help did come, first park officials climbed up and handed out water then the fire department. >> not knowing you're in that position, you're going to be a little bit upset. once we got up there, the guys were able to talk to them, calm everybody down. >> reporter: more than two hours later they were helped into harnesses and delivered back to earth one by one. universal studios blamed a mechanica

abc's alex perez in greece tonight looking for answers. >> reporter: it's her distinctive blonde hair and blue eyes that may have saved her, her young face being seen around the world. it all began when police here in greece looking for drugs and guns raided a camp of a band of roma, otherwise known as gypsies coming across the girl believed to be five or six years old, known simply as little maria. here she is in a haunting home video, a little dancing girl as she looks out of step in her own world. police thought she looked nothing like the couple who claimed to be her parents. a dna test proved she was not theirs. today they charged this gypsy couple with abducting her, accusing them of falsifying the paperwork for several of their 14 children. authorities are also trying to figure out who their parents may be. the couple argue the child's mother gave the young girl to them and that they adopted her. as word of little maria's story spread, authorities here in in greece tonight say they were inundated with calls from around the world including the united states many from desperate f

alex perez back on the story. >> reporter: when aerial cast troe was innocenced to life in prison last august, one of his victims, michele knight confronted his abductor. >> i spent 11 years in hell. now, aerial thinks it's a game. >> reporter: a month and a day after he began serving his sentence, he was found hanging in his cell, now ohio state investigators say the guards assigned to castro lied how they handled him prior to his death. they were to check on him every 30 minutes. the report finds they missed at least eight required checks and falsified logs on the day he died. the report raises questions why it took 34 minutes from an balance to arrive at the prison. the medical examinered ruled it a suicide but still since his death, his attorney questioned why he wasn't watched more closely. >> he should have been on suicide watch. >> reporter: authorities are now launching a criminal investigate and the two guards at the center of it all are on administrative leave. alex perez, abc news, chicago. >>> now we turn to that scare at a theme park in florida. 12 passengers on a huge rol

alex perez, abc news, greece. >>> after weeks on the run, a violent sex offender, who slipped across the border from canada is behind bars. michael sean stanley cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and surfaced in washington earlier this month. police here couldn't touch him, they say, because he hadn't committed a crime in the u.s. that is until yesterday. a teenager told them that stanley lured him in to an alley, gave him alcohol and sexually assaulted him. >> a 16-year-old male walks over to the officer and basically tells him that he was sexually assaulted by the guy that they had in handcuffs. >> stanley served nine years in prison for assaulting an 82-year-old woman in a wheelchair. he was later convicted of assaulting two young boys. >>> two human rights groups are out with scathing reports about u.s. drone strikes overseas them groups claim more civilians have been killed in pakistan and yemen. the white house has claimed the civilian deaths are rare. >>> new jobs numbers have finally been released 18 days late because of the government shutdown. the report was hardly

alex perez went to the neighborhood where they lived to maria's house to try to ask who is this child. >> reporter: they've taken her dna sample, rocketed her picture around the world, and now been flooded with more than ten thousand calls and leads. but little maria's true identity is still a mystery. investigators are sifting through scores of missing children cases, searching for a match, like missing baby lisa irwin in kansas city. the fbi is investigating but doesn't believe there are any links. today, we took a trip to the roma or gypsy neighborhood where maria was living. as you arrive, the first thing you see, children. many, dirty. on the street where maria lived emotions were running high. we came to the family members that are in the house. they're extremely up said saying what's been said are nothing but lies. authors are investigating whether maria was a victim of human trafficking. 30 million people worldwide are trafficked, 80 percent women and children. >> the fact that maria has been identified and rescued is a miracle in and of itself with statistics stating one to t

for "good morning america," alex perez, abc news. >> a stunning lapse and the most exciting day of thatng man's life. >>> meanwhile authorities say the driver of a monster truck that crashed into a crowd had alcohol on his breath. it is unclear whether the driver was drunk. eight people were killed. >>> and a wildfire threatening the camp pendleton marine base in california is said to be 20% contained. heavy winds have died down. hundreds of evacuees have been able to return home. the fire spread to some four square miles, burning several billings and cars in the process. >>> meanwhile, oversea, new unrest in egypt. at least 51 people killed in clashes between police and supporters of mohamed morsi. today, a massive explosion struck government security headquarters in the normally peaceful town in the sinai peninsula. >>> a zoo worker in oklahoma is recovering after nearly losing her arm after being attacked by a tiger. the zoo says the 20-year-old worker broke a key safety rule, sticking her hand through a small opening in the cat's cage and then getting stuck. because the attack was t

alex perez has the story. >> reporter: this morning, a battle of modern medicine versus amish values is back in court. a 10-year-old sara hershberger's parents took her off chemotherapy in june. choosing to treat her leukemia with herbal remedies instead. and the hearing will give an attorney temporary custody of the girl, so she can resume chemo, a move her family opposes. hershberger's father spoke to us by phone in washington. >> our belief is, the natural stuff will do just as much as what that does. if it's god's will. >> reporter: but the court ruled on october 1st, the child's parents' beliefs can't outweigh the state's right to protect the girl. while we respect the wishes of the parents and believe them to be honest and sincere, we're unwilling to adhere to the wishes of the parents. the hershbergers' daughter had been in chemotherapy for months. but her father abruptly stopped the treatment. >> if we did chemotherapy, and he would die, she would suffer more. >> reporter: doctors say without dreemt, the girl could die within a year. but with chemotherapy, she has an 85% chan

for "good morning america," alex perez, abc news, chicago. >> we know how blessed he is. that's right. >>> time, now, again for the weather. you're going to talk again about the tropical system. >> i'm going to go backwards to what we did at the top of the show. i want you to see what we're talking about. between the yucatan and cuba, this big lump of clouds right now is what might become what the hurricane center is thinking will become tropical storm karen. it has the gulf right there. there's the coast -- the gulf coast. and here's what the spaghetti models are doing with this storm. this is somewhere around the weekend. by saturday, this is early into next week. drag making this a big rainmaker. there isn't a real opportunity to develop this into a monster storm. but we think it will get to a tropical storm at least. we're going to watch it. from here on it is a rainmaker. but soaking rain up the east coast. this is the short-term rainfall out of this. it's a big rainfall number. look at five to seven inches of rain. we showed you the pictures at the top of the show,

alex perez, abc news, athens, greece. >> what a mystery. big thing is to find out who the girl belongs to. and the other thing, the parents will be in trouble regardless of the little girl. they have registered 14 kids for welfare and ten of them are unaccounted for. they registered all 14 of these kids in three different cities, getting multiple checks. >> they were getting more than $3,000 a month for these kids and the mom claims she had six kids in ten months. >> yes. that would be a guinness book of world records. you would be an alien if you could pull that off. >> maria is in the hospital, eating well, talking to psychologists, playing with toys, communicating. hopefully we can resolve this. >> and the couple said they loved her like a daughter. and treated her well. hope so. >>> coming up, how to look like a princess on a shoestring budget. >> how to get your hands on fancy fashion even if it is just one evening. >>> ahead, they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. what is it about this woman's hair that got her fired from hoot

alex perez has the latest. >> reporter: when ariel castro was sentenced to life in prison last august hell. now your hell is just beginning. >> reporter: a month and a day after castro was sentenced, he was found hanging in his cell. the guards assigned to castro they say lied about how they handled the prisoner prior to his death. the two guards were supposed to check on castro every 30 minutes but the report finds they missed eight required checks and falsified logs on the day he died. the report raises questions about why it took 34 minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the prison. the medical examiner has ruled it a suicide, but still, since his death, castro's attorney has questioned why he wasn't watched more closely. >> i think he should have been on suicide watch. >> reporter: authorities are launching a criminal investigation. the two guards at the center of it all are on administrative leave. alex perez, abc news, chicago. >> the officer reported that castro was safe in his cell at 8:45 p.m. and they checked on him at 9:15 where they found him hanging by the bed sheet wrappe

alex perez, abc news, greece. >>> after weeks on the run, a violent sex offender, who slipped acrossn stanley cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and surfaced in washington earlier this month. police here couldn't touch him, they say, because he hadn't committed a crime in the u.s. that is until yesterday. a teenager told them that stanley lured him into an alley, gave him alcohol, and sexually assaulted him. >> a 16-year-old male walks over to the officer and basically tells him that he was sexually assaulted by the guy that they had in handcuffs. >> stanley served nine years in prison for assaulting an 82-year-old woman in a wheelchair. he was later convicted of assaulting two young boys. >>> two human rights groups are out with scathing reports about u.s. drone strikes overseas. the groups claim more civilians have been killed in pakistan and yemen than the u.s. has acknowledged. dozens more including women and children. the white house has claimed the civilian deaths are rare. >>> new jobs numbers have finally been released 18 days late because of the government shutdown.

alex perez in greece tonight looking for answers. >> reporter: it's her distinctive blonde hair and blue eyes that may have saved her, her young face being seen around the world. it all began when police here in greece looking for drugs and guns raided a camp of gypsies coming across the girl believed to be five or six years old known simply as little maria. here she is in a haunting home video, a little dancing girl as she looks out of step in her own world. police thought she looked nothing like the couple who blamed to be her parents. a dna test proved she was not theirs. today they charged this gypsy couple with abducting her, accusing them of falsifying the paperwork for several of their 14 children. authorities are also trying to figure out who their parents may be. the couple argue the child's mother gave the young girl to them and that they adopted her. as word spread, authorities here in greece tonight say they were inundated with calls from around the world including the united states many from desperate family members searching for their little children. maria was in this home

alex perez is in greece and has the latest for us. od morning, alex. >> reporter: good morning, robin. the irwins are 1 of 8,000 calls and leads that greek authorities have received from around the world. now, the roma couple appeared at the courthouse behind me. they are both headed to jail. while police continue hunting for maria's real parents. the roma couple maria was with when police discovered her in last week's raid is now behind bars. awaiting charges on abduction and forgery charges. back in kansas city, the family of baby lisa irwin, who vanished from their home in 2011, when she was nearly a year old is watching. they have contacted authorities. baby lisa would be 3 years old next month. the family's attorney tells "the daily telegraph" that the irwins are 1 of 4 american inquiries about maria. the couple told the judge they adopted maria after her mother gave her to them. >> our clients are claiming we never abduct this child. we just adopted. with a way nonlegal, that's where we can confess. >> reporter: but investigators

abc's alex perez has the story. >> reporter: investigators are scratching their heads this morning, wondering how a 9-year-old runaway beat the security system at one of the nation's largest airports. >> he must know something about the system or simply good luck. >> reporter: the 9-year-old arrived at security. without a ticket or boarding pass, he is screened and boards the plane to vegas. >> they assume a 9-year-old doesn't have the audacity to do it. they're treated as innocents. >> reporter: not until mid flight that flight attendants realize the boy's name is not on the passenger list. police met the flight in sin city. surveillance cameras captured him taking someone else's luggage and sitting down the eat. zbri thing he's a con artist. people beware. beware of him. >> reporter: how did one smart kid outsmart an entire system? >> a stunning lapse and the most exciting day of that young man's life. >>> a monster struck driver had alcohol on his breath. it is unclear whether the driver was drunk. eight people were killed. >>> and a wildfire 24re9. ing the camp pendleton marine base in ca

mexicana maÑana amistoso contra finlandia en california y desde san diego estÁ jorge pÉrez navarro. >> que tal alexericanista se tiene que ganar tambiÉn y la mentalidad dicha por el propio rafa mÁrquez esta a tope, otra de las cosas que llamÓ atencion fue que ricardo pelÁez dijo que lo de rubens omar s no serÁ llamado. >> finlandia entrenarÁ y me despido saludos alex. >> gracias jorge fuerte abrazo, maÑana el Único y ultimo partido amistoso previo al repechaje contra nueva zelanda. >> me despido y regresamos con ustedes. >> gracias, alejo. >> gracias alex. >> hoy tenemos otra conmovedoras historia de niÑos que desafÍan las heladas aguas de lago titicaca, tienen una voluntad de hierro, aquÍ se las presentamos. >> (♪). >> todos los dÍas, salen de sus casas en medio del lago titicaca para ir a la escuela remando en pequeÑas e inestables tinas de lavar la ropa, cualquier madre se espantarÍa al ver a sus niÑos en este lago, pero aquÍ la necesidad se impone y hace que estos pequeÑos dominen el miedo. >> no tengo bote. >> no tienes bote?. >> mi papÁ.... >> para pescar. >> ¿cuÁnto tiempo te demoras de tu c