How Two Missing Minnesota Sisters Hid in Plain Sight for 2 Years

is a strange and extraordinary story of two

sisters

who disappeared from their home in Minnesota one night when their parents were caught in a hostile divorce, the mother and girls alleged abuse, but the courts were not convinced where these

sisters

went. Did her mother have anything to do with it? on ABC's The Disappearance Elizabeth Vargas Has This Twisted Tail It's 7 p.m. On an afternoon on April 30 in the suburbs of Minneapolis and while most families are preparing for dinner, a family is about to fracture forever when two children who live in this house disappear without shoes, without coats, without backpacks, nothing poof, they've been gone for 13

years

. -Giana and Samantha Rucky, 14

years

old, the only footprints disappear in the snow.

Their parents are embroiled in an ugly divorce and custody dispute, but they insist they are united in their desperation for the girls. Where did they go? Who are they with? Why does our journey begin by asking her mother questions inside the Ramsey County Jail? Did you have anything to do with the escape of your two daughters? No, you sit here and think how this happened. A clean record never had a problem. A clean record and here you are. in jail on a million dollar bail what's going on I have no idea this shouldn't be what happens in a divorce this divorce is more like a guerrilla war than a legal proceeding but for every grievance documented in This heartbreaking story there is documentation of two of the Good Times, get this, he got 20 years of home movies featuring the ruckies in starring roles as a loving and feisty couple.

Now you are discovering it and loving and caring parents with their five children. It's my birthday. Not even Samantha Giana, Nia and Gino sound. like a busy household, they were wonderful, it was my dream, he says, despite those smiling faces, there was an ugly and shocking secret in the family years of emotional and physical abuse by David, what would he do, throw things at me with hammers if he got angry? black eyes there were broken ribs we had to lock ourselves in the bedroom because we were afraid, we just didn't know what her behavior was going to be like from one day to the next and she claims that David not only targeted her but that he would do it after the children also how often it happened that once is more than enough it happened many times after 20 years of marriage Sandra says she reaches her breaking point and finally files for divorce, she says she fears for her life, she also gets a protective order against David and then she she calls the police at least 20 times alleging that he continually rapes her, broke into the house, ran up the stairs, jumped on the bed I was on, started choking me and then grabbed a pillow and started suffocating me.

The children are now between 8 and 8 years old. 14 remain in Sandra's custody and refuse to even see David, rejecting all of his attempts to connect. I am your father. Call me. I would like you to call me back. Call me. The family court judge. David Canson appoints a children's advocate and several therapists who try to facilitate a relationship with their father but the children say they don't want that Giana and Samantha make audio recordings to support what their mother says this is Giana's voice ru be in the same house as my dad things were very bad he was abusive he had anger issues which obviously would be yelling and screaming but in a surprising twist the judge determines that there has been no evidence of abuse and based on the findings of a psychologist who named, it is Sandra who was the real problem here where the children are. showing signs of parental alienation syndrome, meaning that the reason the children are adamantly opposed to seeing David is not because he has abused them or their mother, but because Sandra has brainwashed them.

I have never done anything but be there for my children, my children are my life this time. It is where the judge takes a drastic and devastating measure for Sandra, ordering Sandra to leave the house and her five children removed from her custody. David's sister Tammy becomes the children's temporary guardian. She moves into the rookie house to take care of them, but the two older ruckie girls, Samantha and Giana, are having none of it and that day the sisters disappear without a trace. What was your reaction? What would your mother's reaction be? It worries me I worry that everything was going through my mind when Sandra's ex husband David discovers that his daughters have disappeared.

He is terrified. What was your biggest fear? I mean, these are young girls, you don't want them hitchhiking. We live next to a truck stop. Don't you think about all these terrible scenarios you've ever come up with? a hand against Sandra or your children, have you ever hit them? Have you ever physically abused them in any way? David begins to suspect that Sandra knows more than she is letting on about her

missing

daughters. Did you think she might have something to do with this? Yes, oh. Yes, a month after the girl's disappearance, there is a strange twist to the story.

They appear, but in a place that no one expects. The rcky girls say they want to be heard on local television. They met us at a hotel, we don't know who. I brought them here, the local station Fox9 is airing this story and there, sitting in front of the reporter, are the two

missing

rookie sisters. I'm very afraid that it will end very badly. I'm glad to see my daughters, but you know what I was hearing. getting out of his mouth was difficult and as fast as you can change the channel the girls are gone again Disappearing into the night again the search continues for the rookie girls their parents' epic divorce drags on until the judge finally makes his decision In a thorough 60-page order, he drops a bombshell by granting full custody of the five children to David, writing about Sandra's abuse allegations that the court has not received any evidence to support his very serious allegations for David, It's a total vindication, but Sandra's legal problems were about to end.

Beginning the search for the two missing girls turns to one of Sandra's staunchest supporters, Dee Evavold, an activist who is outspoken about what she says is corruption in the family courts, detectives search her home and find a photo of a cell phone from one of the girls on a farm that traces that photo to White Horse Ranch. Gina and Doug Doan own the ranch that offers 90-minute therapy sessions with their animals. Our mission is to reach children and families and provide healing and healing to animals. The dolls say it was Sandra. with Deee who left the girls at the ranch one night with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, then Sandra left and never returned the days turned into months and then surprisingly years it was a secret that the girls were here no, no, They weren't all He knew they were here, but it all came to an end last November when authorities arrived at Doug's front door simply following the trail of DD Evavold's cell phone without realizing the girls were there when David finally sees to the girls for the first time, it's not the meeting you imagined you were nervous I ran out of the room I started to cry I didn't recognize him because you know you know your children you remember what they sound you remember what they looked like I didn't recognize my daughters Sandra is that you? making any comments today Sandra is already out of jail she was released in February after 130 days behind bars.

I appreciate the air and the sun. I'll say that, but she says there was no cause for celebration. I'm in a prison without the bars um that's what I'm in now because as part of her release, Sandra is not allowed to have any contact with Samantha and Giana, she is allowed to see her other children with conditions, while the girls , David says they're happy to be home and I'm doing well and you might be surprised to learn how David sees his family's future. Will you fight his ability to see the children? This is the mother of my children.

It's important that they have a mother for Nightline. I'm Elizabeth Vargas in New York.