Denise Pipitone disappeared 17 years ago from Mazara del Vallo, in the Trapani area. The girl was only 4 years old and she disappeared while she was playing in front of her grandmother’s house. Since then, there have been many false alarms, including reports and sightings, which have given Denise’s family hope. Here are the updates on the story.
A girl in Russia looking for her family
DNA was taken today from the girl who went to Russian TV to look for her mother. And that could be Denise Pipitone, the little girl who disappeared 17 years ago from Mazara del Vallo, in the Trapani area. The announcement comes during the broadcast of Raitre’s “Who has seen it?” that she handled the case. Piera Maggio, Denise’s mom, wasn’t on the show. But she sent an audio message. “We want to stay with our feet on the ground, cautiously hopeful – says mother Piera – also because past reports have shown us that the illusion leads to nothing. We want to know the truth and await the outcome of the DNA”.
Then the video appeal. A girl with no name, no documents, a girl who remembers nothing of her family, a girl who looks like Piera Maggio. Little Denise could be her but as a mother, Piera repeats “we are cautiously hopeful”. Olesya Rostova, this is the name (given in the orphanage) of the twenty-year-old who said she was kidnapped and later found in a Roma camp in Russia.
Hopes arise in the story of Denise Pipitone
She is the same age as the little girl from Mazara del Vallo. Denise was 4 when she was kidnapped. Olesya was about 5 years old when she was found, taken from a nomad, and placed in an orphanage. Olesya today in her twenties tells of her memories of her as a child, a Roma who she believed was her mother who leads her to beg, then the police will discover that she was not her mother. And that little girl goes to the orphanage. She grows up and now she makes an appeal on TV: “Mommy my-she says on Russian TV in tears-I have never forgotten you. I would like to meet you and find you”.
Her appeal arrives in Italy through a Russian viewer, a nurse who lives in Moscow, at one point on Russian TV she sees the face of that twenty-year-old girl who was looking for her mother, who made an appeal because she said she was kidnapped as a child and has no recollection of her family. She was too young when she was kidnapped. The nurse remembers the story of Denise Pipitone, she searches on Google for the photos of Piera Maggio, compares them with those of Olesya, and notices her resemblance.
Updates and DNA test
In the broadcast, the photos of Olesya as a teenager are shown and compared with those of Piera Maggio. And then the photos of Olesya with those of Denise. “The similarity I must say is quite incredible – says the lawyer Giacomo Frazzitta, he is the one who goes on TV on behalf of Denise’s family – it is clear that in these 17 years there have been many and many disappointments that Piera has had. However, this is a story that coincides with what happened in 2004-2005 with the investigation. I refer to that child taken by the security guard in 2005, the resemblance to Denise was shocking “. He remembers the story of October 2005 when hope comes from a small film shot by a security guard in front of a bank in Milan. A little girl, Danas, in the company of a nomadic woman. The mother, Piera was certain: “She is my Denise”. But that child was never found.
“That child also had a Sicilian accent – the lawyer now says – can be heard in the video when she asks the woman who is with her:” Where are you taking me? “Is it possible that it was Denise and that from Milan she ended up in Russia? We lost hope. We are cautious. Today this strong resemblance and the story of this girl who knows nothing of her past blows us up. It is clear that we are waiting for the outcome of the DNA. We now learn that it has been taken. I’ll go to Russia otherwise. In this way, we will wait for them to send it to Italy. Among other things, that little girl, as reported by the security guard, had a small sign under her eye like Denise’s “.
“We have lived these years with great pain – says Piera’s lawyer – with great anger, the hope is in the stroke of luck. Someone who stumbles on Denise Pipitone”. As could have happened with the nurse from Russia who contacted the broadcast. Now the outcome of the DNA is expected.
Update of April the 7th
Olesya is not Denise: the blood group does not match! The announcement of Piera Maggio's lawyer extinguishes all hope: "The news was revealed on Tuesday during the Russian TV show "Let them talk", where it was revealed how the blood type of Olesya, who went on TV in search of her parents, is different.
Piera’s lawyer receiving the cooperation agreement from Olesya’s lawyer
The updates in Denise Pipitone’s case evolve. Here are the news of the case from the mother, Piera’s lawyer.
He said: “I have just received the communication, via e-mail, from Olesya’s lawyer, at this point I will participate in the Russian program. But I cannot say anything about it”. This was announced by the lawyer Giacono Frazzitta.
So, the lawyer will participate via Skype in the broadcast of the TV First Channel of Russia in which the content of the communication on the blood test of the young Olesya, the Russian girl who could be Denise, will be known.
“I have an embargo on the content – explains Frazzitta – I can only say that we will transmit everything to the Prosecutor’s Office in Marsala and the magistrates know what to do from there”. “We will acquire the data after the Russian TV broadcast,” he explains.
And he reiterates: “We have received from the lawyer an email of cooperation and collaboration, what we expected and therefore I will participate. I cannot say anything else”. The television program is called “Let them talk” and airs on the Russian channel Primo Canale, for the first face-to-face with the girl in search of her mother.
