(ABC7 Image)
By Chuck Goudie

May 1, 2003 (Pontiac, IL) — A five-year-old missing child case could be a DNA test away from being solved. The search for Sabrina Eisenberg has lead authorities from Florida to Illinois.

Sabrina Eisenberg's parents say she was kidnapped from her crib in the middle of the night six years ago in northwest central Florida. At the time authorities were suspicious of her parents. Thursday afternoon a lawyer for the parents says the little girl may be in Pontiac, Illinois with a migrant worker.

Sabrina Eisenberg was kidnapped from her Land O'Lakes home in Flordia in 1997. She was 5-months-old at the time and taken in the middle of the night from her crib. At the time, baby Sabrina's parents were under heavy suspicious for possibly being involved in the disappearance. Police went as far as putting secret wire taps in the Florida home and when they tried to use that evidence in court a judge tossed it out.

The parents eventually moved away from the Tampa area to escape the media frenzy and settled outside of Washington D.C.

The attorney for the parents contacted news media Thursday in Tampa and said the baby had been found in Pontiac, Illinois with some migrant workers. He says DNA testing will be needed to confirm the child's identity.

"There is something very unusual about the way this woman in Illinois acquired the baby and the resemblance, when you factor that in, it gave us some optimism that maybe this is a promising lead," said the parents' attorney.

Just months after Sabrina vanished, a young girl in McAllen, Texas turned over a young girl to a friend claiming she was too young to care for the infant. That friend was deported a few months later. The baby was turned over to a nurse at a migrant clinic. The nurse gave the baby to her sister in Pontiac, Illinois who as unable to have children. That child is now six-years-old -- the same age as Sabrina would be.

A woman browsing a website of missing children spotted a picture of the missing girl. The woman thought the picture was Sabrina and contacted the family.

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NOTE: Video clips will only be available for 10-days from the date they were created. Link to video:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/050103_ns_missingsabrina.html
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NOTE: The aboved article from abclocal has a different spelling for Sabrina's surname. We know Sabrina by Aisenberg.

PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) - An Illinois family is cooperating willingly with an
investigation into whether the child they've been raising is a girl who
disappeared from Florida years ago, police said Friday.

A DNA sample has been taken from the 6-year-old known as Paloma, and
results are expected within two weeks, Pontiac Police Chief Donald Schlosser
said.

If the test results match with Steven and Marlene Aisenberg, the Illinois family
will surrender the girl, Schlosser said. He declined to identify the family.

The Aisenbergs' 5-month-old daughter Sabrina disappeared from their suburban
Tampa home in November 1997.

The couple was once considered suspects in their daughter's disappearance.

Pictures of the Pontiac girl resemble photos of Sabrina, said Todd Foster, one of
their attorneys.

Sabrina was taken as a 5-month-old from the Aisenbergs' suburban Tampa
home. They now live in Bethesda, Md.

Police in Pontiac told the Aisenbergs' lawyers that the child came to a family
there through a woman in McAllen, Texas, who was being deported. A nurse
then took the child and gave her to a sister in Pontiac, Foster said.

Schlosser said such an off-the-books adoption is not unheard of.

"Mothers from Mexico simply bring their children across the border in hopes of
a better life in the United States," Schlosser said.

"There is no sinister intent on the part of any of the parties that we have been
able to determine," he said. "The child is simply being cared for by a loving
family."

The Illinois family has raised the child since about late 1998, but a judge would
not allow her adoption because she didn't have a birth certificate. The judge
ordered a search for the child's parents, and her picture was posted on a missing
children's Web site.

Foster said a woman called the Aisenbergs in mid-March to tell them a picture
of the little girl on the Web site resembled Sabrina's baby photos.

After Sabrina's disappearance, Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators
suspected the Aisenbergs and got a judge's permission to put listening devices in
the couple's kitchen and bathroom. Two years later, a grand jury indicted the
couple on federal charges of conspiracy and making false statements.

But a federal judge found the tapes mostly inaudible, and they were thrown out
as evidence when it was determined that detectives lied to get permission to bug
the home.

The federal government was ordered in January to pay $2.8 million in legal fees
to the Aisenbergs.

Infant Sabrina Aisenberg was reported missing from the family’s Valrico home in November of 1997. Soon after, the Aisenbergs were considered suspects in the case.

They eventually sued and were awarded almost $3 million in legal fees in February. Judge Steven Merryday ordered the documents unsealed last month, but their release is still on hold because federal prosecutors in Tampa say the Aisenberg case is still an ongoing investigation.

Now, the judge must decide if the Aisenberg case is still active or not. The lawyer for the Aisenbergs says the public has the right to read about the botched investigation for themselves.

"The public has a right to know that the government has acted in bad faith by filing this indictment, causing the Aisenbergs this tremendous grief, heartache they've gone through," said Aisenberg attorney Todd Foster. "As far as I’m concerned, they're still acting in bad faith by hiding the truth from the public."

Merryday is expected to make a ruling Monday around 5 p.m.

http://www.baynews9.com/NewsStory.cfm?storyid=17613

Is this Sabrina?

DNA PROVES PALOMA NOT Sabrina:

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030506_1816.html