FFK Blog Fehmeeda Farid Khan Blog for Unsolved Miseries
Sabrina Paige Aisenberg was born on June 27, 1997 to parents Steve and Marlene Aisenberg. Sabrina had two older siblings, William (aged 8 in 1997) and Monica (aged 5 in 1997). Steve and Marlene described Sabrina as an easy baby that would generally sleep through the night. The family resided in Florida.
Sometime during the night of November 23-24, Marlene checked on Sabrina in her crib and the baby was fine. Marlene woke up around 6:25am, and according to a news article, woke up “possibly as a result of a noisy fish tank in the home or because an alarm she had set up on the television.” As Marlene walked through the house, she noticed that the laundry room door that lead into the garage was open. This made Marlene want to check on her children, and while both William and Monica were still asleep, Sabrina was not in her crib. Sabrina’s baby blanket was also gone, and Marlene began screaming for Steve.
The couple called the police at around 6:45am, the police arrived at the Aisenberg house quickly. The police soon determined that there wasn’t a ransom note or any sign of forced entry into the Aisenberg home. But the garage door had been left open and another door left unlocked could’ve been an entry and/or exit point. According to the Charley Project: “Investigators found an unidentified blonde hair and a shoe print near the baby’s crib, as well as seven unidentified fingerprints inside the house.” However, the Aisenberg’s did have a habit of leaving windows and doors open. And although they lived in a relatively safe area, neighbors did report attempted break-ins in houses that had small children.
On the night Sabrina vanished, one of the Aisenberg’s neighbors reported that his dog began barking at around 1:00am. After the neighbor let his dog outside, he said that he believed he heard a baby crying in the distance. The man said that none of his closest neighbors had a baby at the time.
The police began to question Steve and Marlene Aisenberg about why they hadn’t heard anything that night and why the family dog didn’t bark. Steve and Marlene’s bedroom was on the other side of the house and they said they probably wouldn’t have heard any noise. Steve and Marlene made the first of many pleas to the public on TV. Meanwhile, the police dragged local rivers and other small bodies of water–Sabrina wasn’t found. Many investigative agencies were involved in case, including the FBI and the Florida Department of Justice.
In December of 1997, police got permission to place a listening device in the Aisenberg home. Police got this permission based on their belief that Steve and Marlene Aisenberg either killed or sold Sabrina. An extension was granted in early 1998 based on a photo of Sabrina that was showed to a pediatrician (but this didn’t seem to be Sabrina’s doctor) who said they saw a bruise near one of her eyes.
By 1999, Steve and Marlene were arrested on several charges which included lying to police and providing false information. This was based on a conversation the police claimed they heard over the listening device/wire tap. This apparent conversation apparently went as follows:
“The baby’s dead and buried!”
“It was found dead because you did it. The baby’s dead no matter what you say — you just did it!”
“I wish I hadn’t harmed her.” and “They don’t know the truth, right?”
Steve and Marlene’s charges wound their way through court until 2001, when a judge dismissed the charges because the prosecution misrepresented the strength of their case. The judge also couldn’t actually hear these incriminating statements because the tape was too garbled and “largely inaudible.” The statements from the pediatrician who saw Sabrina’s photo with the “bruise,” were taken out of context. In 2003, Steve and Marlene filed a lawsuit against the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department for malicious prosecution.
Also in 2003, police in Florida began to think that a young girl named “Paloma Unknown,” may be Sabrina. Paloma was a young girl who’d been abandoned in May 1998. The girl had been taken into Texas from Mexico by a young woman who said she was the girl’s mother. The young woman gave Paloma to someone in a migrant clinic, who in turn put Paloma up for adoption. A couple in Illinois tried to legally adopt Paloma but couldn’t because there was nothing to trace–no birth certificate, no background on parentage. A woman who knew the Aisenberg family saw a photo of Paloma and said it looked like Sabrina, but a DNA test between Paloma and the Aisenberg family weren’t a match. Paloma remains unidentified.
Steve and Marlene moved with the two other children to Maryland. They believe that Sabrina is still alive, while police believe Sabrina met with foul play.
Sabrina Paige Aisenberg was five months old when she vanished. At the time, she had brown hair and blue eyes. She weighed about 20 pounds and was around 2’6 inches tall and is a white female. Sabrina has a birthmark on the back of one of her shoulders in the shape of the letter Y. She vanished with a handmade yellow and blue blanket with animals and yellow piping. It’s unclear what Sabrina was wearing at the time. Sabrina’s birthday is June 27, 1997 and today would be 26 years old.
