Between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6:42 a.m. on November 14, 1997, 4-month-old Sabrina Aisenberg disappeared from her crib in her parents home in Valrico, Florida. Marlene Aisenberg, Sabrina’s mother, stated that she last saw her daughter at midnight. When she looked into her crib at 6:42 a.m. the next morning, the baby was missing, along with a blue and yellow blanket with imprinted animals on it. Sabrina has not been seen since.
Authorities discovered an unlocked garage, an identified blond hair and shoe print in the garage along with other non-identified fingerprints in the house. During the evening the Aisenburg’s dog did not bark.
A neighbor said his dog barked around 1 a.m. and when he let the dog out he thought he heard a baby crying in the distance. Searches in the area did not uncover the child or any relevant clues.
Authorities suspected that Sabrina’s parents, Steve and Marlene Aisenberg, were involved with her disappearance. For a period of three weeks after her disappearance, authorities placed listening devices in the Aisenberg’s home in order to gather further evidence on the case.
In September 1999, both parents were indicted on conspiracy and other charges. In February 2001, a judge determined that authorities misled a judge into granting the court order, allowing the listening devices to be placed in the Aisenberg’s home, and in turn, dismissed the charges against the parents. Furthermore, the judge said there was nothing incriminating in the recordings.
The Aisenberg couple sued after in 2001 to have the Government pay for their legal fees and were awarded close to $3 million which was later reduced to approximately $1.5 million.
In April 2003, Sabrina was thought to be the “Paloma Unknown” child that had been abandoned close to the Mexican border. Sabrina’s parents were contacted and DNA compared but is determined not to be Sabrina.
Steve and Marlene Aisenberg and their two other children, currently live in the Maryland area. They continue to maintain their innocence and believe that Sabrina is alive and living somewhere else, while authorities believe Sabrina may have been the victim of foul play.
Anyone with information on this missing child case should contact the Hillsborough County Sheriffs office at 813-247-8200.
[Feature Photo: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children]
