Yesterday, Oprah Winfrey spoke to the parents of Sabrina Aisenberg (John and Marlene Aisenberg), as part of a feature regarding missing children. John and Marlene Aisenberg were living in Valrico, Florida when their daughter, Sabrina, vanished from their home.

The date was November 24, 1997 and Sabrina was only 5 months old. From the beginning, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office placed the focus of their investigation on John and Marlene. An Amber Alert was never issued and no clues in the case have surfaced. The Aisenbergs appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show shortly after Sabrina’s disappearance as well.

Judging their initial reaction to the kidnapping, detectives felt that the Aisenbergs failed to show an appropriate amount of grief. This was evidenced by their concerns that the Aisenbergs were not expressing enough emotion over Sabrina’s disappearance. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office planted bugs in their home and recorded approximately 60 of their private conversations. Using information gathered from the recordings, the Aisenbergs were eventually arrested and charged. The charges did not last, however, and the Aisenbergs were cleared. Though great controversy surfaced regarding the case one thing is certain: Sabrina Paige Aisenberg is still missing, 12 years later.

The community did not believe the Aisenbergs and today, there are many who continue to believe that the parents had some involvement with Sabrina’s disappearance. In 2001, Marlene and Steve Aisenberg spoke with Larry King and described the events of that fateful night. Steve stated that they woke up in the morning and Marlene had discovered that Sabrina was gone. They were panicked, screaming, and called 911. Steve Aisenberg said that shortly after the police arrived they began to accuse Marlene of having done something to Sabrina. When asked by Larry King how long before deputies began to accuse her, Marlene said within hours of their arrival. The Aisenbergs had two additional children home at the time of Sabrina’s disappearance: William who was eight and Monica who was four.

Some believe that the Aisenberg case is an example of botched detective work and liken it to that of the Jon Benet Ramsey case. In the midst of the state’s case against the Aisenbergs, a judge ruled out the prosecutors evidence as junk and went so far as to say that investigators acted with reckless disregard for truth to obtain search warrants to place bugs in the Aisenberg home. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo stated that lead detectives in the case deliberately omitted facts in the case and misled the judge who signed the warrants. Those who have heard the tapes state that they were garbled, unintelligible, and many experts state that there is nothing incriminating on the tapes or information that would indicate the Aisenbergs were guilty of any crime towards Sabrina.

Here is a listing of YouTube videos regarding the Sabrina Aisenberg case.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children listing of missing children from Florida

Click here for a complete listing of Florida's missing children.

These are the latest YouTube videos from the Oprah Winfrey show

 News Sources

St. Petersburg Times

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office

Oprah Winfrey

Tampa Crime News

Sabrina Aisenberg featured on Oprah show discussing missing children (videos, photos)