Possible news in the Sabrina Aisenberg case

One story that's been a staple of popular true crime documentaries (i.e. "American Justice", "The New Detectives" and "MSNBC Investigates, among others) in the last few years has been the case of little Sabrina Aisenberg. She was taken from her home in 1997 and disappeared without a trace. Sadly, the investigation into her disappearance has been muddled at best, and, resulted in the federal government being ordered to pay $2.8 million to cover the legal fees the Aisenbergs incurred while they were being investigated on the theory that they had killed her. In fact, a good deal of the interest in the story hasn't been because it's a "missing child" case, but because of the way the police mishandled the investigation into her parents and whether they were involved in her disapperance or not. One of the key elements in the case against them, which had led to a grand jury indictment against them, were tapes that had been made via listening devices placed in the Aisenberg's home. The tapes were eventually thrown out, however, when it turned out that most of them were inaudible, and that the police had lied when applying for permission to bug the Aisenbergs.

Now, finally, there may be a break in the case, and it's a doozy.

An Illinois family is cooperating willingly with an investigation into whether the child they've been raising is a girl who disappeared from Florida years ago, police said Friday.

A DNA sample has been taken from the 6-year-old known as Paloma, and results are expected within two weeks, Pontiac Police Chief Donald Schlosser said.

If the test results match with Steven and Marlene Aisenberg, the Illinois family will surrender the girl, Schlosser said. He declined to identify the family.

Apparently, a woman in Texas was being deported and gave the child to a nurse there, who then gave her to her sister in Pontiac, Illinois. The family wanted to adopt the child, but because there were no papers identifying her nor did she have a birth certificate, the court would not allow it. Instead, the court ordered a search for the girl's parents, and, as part of the search, her photo was posted to a "missing children" website. A woman who saw the picture thought she resembled Sabrina, and contacted the Aisenbergs. The next step will be to do DNA tests to see if the girl is their daughter.

With everything the family has been through, I can only hope that the child turns out to be theirs. To have their hopes raised at this point only to find another dead end would be devestating. I also think is great that the Illinois couple is cooperating and have agreed to give up the girl if it turns out she is Sabrina. Too often in cases like this, even if there should be little question about whether the people who have had custody of a child have any actual right to that custody, they will try to fight to retain custody of the child in court, only adding to the trauma of everyone involved.

Posted by thorswitch at May 2, 2003 01:18 PM | TrackBack