Denise Pipitone would have turned 26 as her mother renews plea for answers

A birthday message online

Denise Pipitone would have turned 26 on 26 October. Her mother, Piera Maggio, marked the day with a social media message expressing the hope that the two will be reunited soon:

“Wherever you are, Denise, may the day come soon when we can finally embrace you again.”

The post also voiced the family's hope that Denise will one day celebrate her next birthday at home, with her mother, her father and relatives. Denise was almost four when she vanished on 1 September 2004 in Mazara del Vallo, in the Trapani province. Mayor Salvatore Quinci also wrote about her, saying the town has come to regard her as a daughter to everyone and that the wound her absence left has never closed. He ended with a line promising that the town will not forget her:

“Mazara del Vallo does not forget Denise.”

A Verissimo interview

On 25 October, Maggio appeared as a guest on Verissimo, the Canale 5 programme hosted by Silvia Toffanin, where she tied the outcome of the case to how the first investigation was carried out. She said:

“If certain things had been done in a certain way, today I would not be here looking for Denise, but I would have her in my arms.”

She added that some key elements needed to identify those responsible can no longer be recovered, while others are still being brought to light. Maggio said the family receives many reports and assesses each one, and that they never lower their guard. She described her days as uneven, with some when she feels she could climb mountains and others when she does not want to get out of bed.

Threats and the trial

Maggio said that before the abduction the family received threats and retaliation, which she says are documented and were reported to investigators. She said her car's tyres were slashed, that she was followed, and that people passed under her home 20 or 30 times a day. She said she did not file a complaint out of love for Denise's biological father, and that this is the one thing she regrets.

Denise's half-sister, who was 17 at the time, was tried for the abduction and acquitted for insufficient evidence. The case was sent to trial by a Marsala preliminary judge on 18 January 2010, and the acquittal became final at the Court of Cassation. Maggio said the court recognised a motive of jealousy directed at her. The case against Anna Corona, the mother of the half-sister, was archived by a Marsala judge in December 2013.

The docu-series and a Milan sighting

The four-part docu-series Troviamo Denise, produced by Sky and Hearst with OnePodcast Studios and led by journalist Marco Maisano, premieres on 26 October at 21:15 on Sky Crime and Sky Documentaries, and is streaming on Now. Maisano told ANSA he finds it improbable, if not impossible, that nobody saw anything on the day, and he described Mazara del Vallo as a town of about 50,000 people where Denise disappeared on a peripheral street in a market area.

The series includes testimony and an interview with Anna Corona, which Maisano calls a real confrontation. He also points to a sighting in Milan of a girl who may have been Denise, reported by a security guard a few weeks after the disappearance, and says some aspects of the case were not investigated enough.

The search continues

Renewed media interest led to the investigation being reopened in 2021. On 12 May 2021, lawyer Giacomo Frazzitta told Chi l'ha visto? that he had received an anonymous letter containing important information, and he asked its author to come forward, promising protection.

Maggio also described a theft in early September, shortly after the anniversary of the abduction. Recycling bins were taken from outside the family home, and surveillance footage showed a car with two men stopping to collect them. The bins were later found where Denise was seized, and Maggio said the family knows who the car is registered to and has filed a complaint. She fears the theft may have aimed to take sensitive material belonging to the family.