Week-long search for missing sisters in Abruzzo yields no clues; abduction hypothesis emerges
Alisya and Sarah Di Giacinto, 16 and 12, vanished from a protected community in Civitella Alfedena on 7 June. After seven days of intensive searches, including divers and drones, authorities now suspect possible abduction. The girls' boyfriend said Alisya had changed in the days before the disappearance.
The disappearance
Alisya Di Giacinto, 16, and her sister Sarah, 12, disappeared from the “Ofh Hope” community home in Civitella Alfedena, a remote village in Abruzzo’s national park, during the night of 6 to 7 June. The sisters, originally from the coastal town of Minturno, had been living in the facility since October 2024 under a juvenile court order following their parents’ acrimonious separation. Investigators believe the girls left between 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. through a broken door; the home had no internal CCTV and no alarm system.
Search efforts widen
Sulmona’s public prosecutor has opened a file for child abduction (“sottrazione di minori”), and all investigative hypotheses are being pursued – voluntary departure, accident, kidnapping. Divers aboard a boat scanned Lake Barrea, while drones and mantrailing dogs searched the surrounding woods. CCTV footage showing vehicles near the facility around the time of the disappearance is being analysed, along with phone messages that provided “useful elements” according to Carabinieri.
Who are Alisya and Sarah
Alisya attended a tourism-oriented high school in Castel di Sangro, dreamed of becoming a criminologist, and practised dance and athletics. Her boyfriend Joseph told investigators she had seemed burdened:
Sarah, a middle-school student in Barrea, admired her older sister and aimed to work as an aesthetician. Both were described as polite and orderly, with no prior signs of planning to run away. They had been deeply affected by separation from their two Jack Russell dogs and had asked social workers to see them, without success.It was as if she had something inside she wanted to tell me but couldn’t. They are afraid of the dark.
Family tensions surface
The parents, who divorced in 2021, remain in open conflict. The girls’ father disclosed that the mother’s parental authority had been revoked only a few days before the disappearance. The mother released a voice message pleading:
Both parents have filed separate complaints with the authorities, and the girls’ room has been sealed for examination.Please come back.
