Mother of missing sisters, 12 and 16, pleads ‘come back, everything can be fixed’ after six days of silence
Six days after Alisya, 16, and Sarah, 12, vanished from a children’s home in the Abruzzo mountains, their mother Valentina D’Acunto issued a tearful audio message urging them to get in touch and repeating that she is not angry.
Disappearance from a children’s home
Alisya and Sarah were last seen in the night between Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2026 at the Ofh Hope community for minors in Civitella Alfedena, in the province of L’Aquila. The two sisters had been living in the facility since 2024, after spending seven years in various family homes. When staff realised they were missing, they found the girls’ mobile phones left behind in their room and a broken window-door through which they could have left unnoticed.
The children’s home sits in an isolated part of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. Road cameras in the area recorded no trace of the girls, and molecular search dogs were unable to pick up their scent. The prosecutor on the case, Stefano Iafolla of the Sulmona court, has opened a file for child abduction and ordered the phones to be analysed.
A mother’s emotional plea
Through her lawyer, Enrico Mastantuono, Valentina D’Acunto released an audio message on 13 June in which she addresses her daughters directly.
Whatever reason led you to leave, I ask you to get in contact with us. Mum is not angry and remember, everything can be fixed, but we have to do it together. Mum is waiting for you.
The 39-year-old, originally from Minturno, continues: “Sarah, Alisya, my loves, if you are listening to these words please know that the most important thing for me is to know you are well. Every day that passes is full of worry but also hope, hope to hug you again soon.”
Investigation into possible abduction
Prosecutors are pursuing every lead, from voluntary departure to kidnapping. Because the facility had no video surveillance or alarm system, and the window the girls are believed to have used had no bars, it is hard to reconstruct the exact sequence of events. A 16-year-old friend of one of the sisters was questioned but provided no useful information. The prevailing hypothesis is that the teenagers left with outside help, given the remote location and the difficulty of vanishing without a car.
Family background
The disappearance came days after the final divorce ruling, which lifted the suspension of the father’s parental authority. According to press reports, the girls had opposed that decision and refused a transfer. A week earlier, the juvenile court had also revoked the mother’s parental responsibility, though the lawyer says the girls were not informed of that ruling and had spoken to their mother on the Friday evening before they went missing, appearing calm. The father, Stefano Di Giacinto, had made an appeal of his own in the preceding days.
