RedHanded - Episode 37 - Where is Sabrina Aisenberg?

Episode Date: March 15, 2018

In a frantic 911 call on the 24th of November 1997 Marlene Aisenberg reported her 5 month old baby, Sabrina, missing. The FBI launched a nationwide search and the media relentlessly covered the story. But soon the parents’ odd behaviour left onlookers wondering what they really knew about their daughter’s disappearance... Audio mastered by Conrad Hughes 48 Hours Mystery - Where's Our Baby? - Dateline NBC   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

I'm Hannah. And welcome to Roadhanded. And welcome to Road Handed. And today it's a mystery. We are covering the disappearance of five-month-old Sabrina Eisenberg. We haven't had a mystery for a while, hey? No, we haven't. That's what I was thinking. I feel like people say that they don't like mysteries and they like the ones where someone is caught. Yeah.

But then when we did the poll for the Patreon Live episode, everyone voted for Unsolved Mysteries. That's so true, actually. Make your fucking mind up. Yeah, I don't believe you guys. So we do have a mystery for you today. And it's been 21 years now since Sabrina went missing from her home, from her crib in Valrico, a suburb in Tampa, Florida. She was the youngest child in a very ordinary seeming family. Mum Marlene, Dad Steve, two other siblings,

six-year-old Monica and ten-year-old William. In all the home videos before Sabrina's disappearance, they do seem like your genuinely happy, normal family. But on the 24th of November 1997, five-month-old Sabrina disappeared. That morning, at around 6am, Marlene woke up and according to her her as she stepped into the hallway she could tell that something was wrong. The house was linked to their garage and

they had an internal door that connected the two and this door to the garage was open. Marlene said that she panicked because she sensed that something was wrong. She ran to check on Sabrina, but there was just an empty crib. Baby Sabrina was gone. Marlene screamed and woke up her husband, Steve. Okay, question. Why does she run straight to Sabrina's room? Because she does have two other kids. If the doors open, wouldn't you be more worried about the six-year-old's run outside or something? Like, Sabrina can't even get out of the crib. She's five months old. She can't even lift herself up. That's so interesting, actually actually if something happened in your house who would be the first person you'd run to check on if the doors open my dog because I think he'd run out

me too I don't know in some places I did read that Sabrina's room was the closest to the garage door and this is why maybe Marlene ran there but I couldn't find anywhere a solid floor plan of the house. So we can't 100% confirm this. It's just something interesting. She senses something wrong, but runs immediately to Sabrina's room. However, what was clear was that the garage door was open and the internal door to the Eisenberg's house, as you said, Hannah, was unlocked.

And Sabrina was gone. And Sabrina, like we said, when she was barely five months old, there was no way she could lift herself out of that crib. So Marlene calls 911 and here's a snippet of that call. As you can hear, she sounds frantic. And as you can imagine, this was an absolute dream case for the press and they flocked to it the disappearance of sabrina eisenberg was the lead story for months because as the case played out there was something new being revealed almost every day you can just imagine it can't you she's a baby it's a young family it's so classic it's like classic tabloid fodder. They fucking love that shit.

And the questions started as early as the 911 call. What was quite weird was that the 911 operator had to ask Marlene if there were any other kids in the house. Marlene said yes and the operator told her to check on them and that's when her and steve go to check that is peculiar because you would think if one of your children is gone the first thing you would think to do is look at the other ones i think that's really strange that she had to be told to and which case does that remind us of sean benet they never went to check on burke because he did it i mean yes that's a story for a whole nother day. But it is really weird.

Sabrina's missing, the door's open. Yes, okay, she can't lift herself out of the crib. What if the 10-year-olds picked her up and carried her off somewhere? Okay, maybe it's your favourite child, whatever. That's the reason that you go and check on them first. That I can not excuse, but I can get there logically. I can't understand why you wouldn't check on the other two. And it's further weirdness because the 911 operator asked Marlene

if they had searched the house for Sabrina and then they said that they hadn't. And perhaps this is less weird, but there was no way she could have done it on her own. So I can kind of see we're like, oh, she must be gone gone because she can't have got out of done it on her own so i can kind of see we're like oh she must be gone gone because she can't have got out of the crib on her own but to call the police before you've even looked in the cupboard or whatever is odd to me and it didn't stop there because as they waited for the police to arrive steve ran to a neighbor's house it was the home of scott middleton a former tampa police officer steve apparently ran ran to Scott's house and told him what had happened. At this point, Scott's wife ran out and saw Marlene standing outside her house, waving.

Scott said this made him feel immediately suspicious because he said there was no emotion on Marlene's face and her behaviour didn't match with the story he'd just heard from Steve. There was news footage from later on and it shows Marlene looking distraught. It's really confusing with this case because there are people like Scott Middleton and the police who say the family were behaving really oddly and they didn't seem emotional enough. And like we see this all the time. People have a preconceived notion of how they think people should react in a crisis

and when they don't see it it unnerves them but you can't just decide how the correct way to react to a situation like this like you're never going to know how you're going to react to a situation like this until someone actually steals your baby and then you can say how you would react on camera there are also friends who said that Marlene was an absolute mess. So you could say, on the one hand, that the police and Scott, having been a police officer, would know better than anyone how people behave at times like this, on average.

I don't even know if it means anything, though. Like, everyone has different reactions to things. I can understand why, if you're a police person and you've seen situations like this over a long period of time and this one sticks out. Yeah but I think you're right in what you were saying before it's a really dangerous game to get caught up in analysing people's reactions. It's definitely tempting though and it's human nature to pick apart someone's emotions with our own behaviours in mind but it just makes no sense to do it.

And we don't want to keep talking about their lack of emotions in this case because it's so basic and we think the story they tell is what we should really focus on. But it is, I'll admit, really hard to get away from it, so it will come up. But at all times, we will discuss it as part of the whole story rather than in isolation, which is what you constantly see with this case almost everywhere else. So's get it out of the way now yes they are slightly robotic and

unemotional yes whenever marlene started to cry on camera she was dry-eyed there are no real tears and it does seem forced and odd but the point is it doesn't prove anything it proves absolutely nothing so yes you can argue look how cold and unemotional they are, but it's irrelevant. In that case, it basically means that they really hated this child and they're so happy that she's dead. Or they're both total psychopaths. But if they were remorseless psychopaths, wouldn't they have put on a better show? If they were psychopaths, wouldn't they have tried to seem more upset?

And if they weren't psychopaths and they'd killed her then they must have really hated her they must have really wanted her gone and be like so relieved that they can't even hold back how chill they are now that this baby is dead because i really think innocent people can end up looking more guilty in these situations because they aren't concerned with looking guilty that's the key thing that's what clive stafford smith says innocent people are the most difficult to defend. Because their front of their mind isn't, I need to look innocent. Their front of their mind is,

fuck, our daughter is missing. But this is not us saying that we think that they are innocent. We're just saying that the emotions or lack thereof don't prove involvement one way or another. But actions and behaviour and words words these are things that we should definitely be paying attention to something we found odd was that they hardly seem to blame themselves and perhaps this is unfair but we are just going off interviews that we've watched but in all of the videos we've seen the only time they talk about their carelessness with leaving two doors open was

when Marlene says this every night we kick myself because we didn't use an alarm and we had one every night but I'm not gonna dwell on it maybe it's just unfortunate choice of words but kick ourselves I'll not dwell on it really you can't oh well you know what my baby is gone but i can't beat myself up forever that's such a weird it's a weird phrase and i feel like we kick ourselves every day if my baby was stolen i feel like i would be like i wouldn't be using something as casual as like i'll kick myself every day it's i want to die like and then the idea of like but i won't dwell on it it seems really casual pretty much as soon as the police arrive after the 911 call i strongly think that they already would have had two scenarios in mind

and they were totally right to do so one sabrina had been kidnapped or two sabrina was killed by someone in the house when they get to the eisenberg's house it was a mess and i don't mean because the family had torn it apart looking for Sabrina. I mean like hoarder style. I've seen this once. I was in a coffee shop and I saw a woman take a teaspoon and put it in her pocket. It's like that kind of hoarding. It looked like no one had ever cleaned and the police suspected neglect.

There's just stuff everywhere. There's just stuff everywhere. They never cleaned. But it's weird because the family always look really polished but the house is a total mess but family and friends came to the rescue telling the police oh that's just marlene that's fucked like if their house is that bad you know oh yeah and like what's steve doing that's just marlene they both worked the story the Eisenbergs tell the police is that they forgot to lock the doors before they went to bed and that someone must have snuck in and taken baby Sabrina okay so let's consider this and what we'd have to believe for this to be the case we'd have to believe that this person just so happened to find their doors unlocked or they were stalking

the family and they knew that they rarely locked their doors. This is a bit with why are you not locking your doors when you've got three kids? I guess it's small town suburbs, they felt safe. Also look at the mess in their house, they clearly just weren't very responsible people maybe. You know maybe somebody was stalking them and they knew that they didn't lock their doors and then they sneak in. Even then we're saying that they sneak into the house in the middle of the night and no they sneak in. Even then, we're saying that they sneak into the house in the middle of the night and no one heard them. Also, it's key to mention at this point

that the Eisenbergs had a dog, Brownie. And he's not like a little, you know, tiny little dog. He's a big fucking dog. And very Sherlock Holmes-esque, isn't this the classic, the dog who didn't bark? Isn't this a key point of interest? Because they said Brownie didn't bark. How is your dog not barking at someone entering your house in the middle of the night? My dog would bark. Any dog. I find it very, unless it didn't

have any vocal cords, like I find it really difficult to believe that any dog wouldn't bark at an intruder in the middle of the night. Absolutely and the argument to this could be that did the dog know the intruder? But even then I feel like a surprise visit in the middle of the night wouldn't your dog still bark? Like sometimes if I come home really late Blue will bark. As soon as he sees me he'll stop but he'll bark. Coming in late you're just like oh god don't wake the dog. Yeah exactly exactly. And when questioned about brownie the dog scott peterson the neighbor and former cop said that brownie barked at everything but their family friend the same one who said marlene had been a mess the day of the disappearance who vouched for marlene saying she was a good mom but just bad at housekeeping said the dog never barked

at anything and in the interview she's so adamant about And it's, you just get a lot of this in this case of people swearing on their life that it's one way or the other. The hugely contradictory information the neighbour gives to what the friend gives is odd. Like, who is more motivated to lie? I can't see either of them having a particularly strong motivation. Like, what do they have to gain? It seems very strange. Scott Peterson, is he lying because he's so sure that the family did it and he just wants justice done? Or is the friend lying because she wants to protect the Eisenbergs? Like, if either one of them are lying, it points to guilt in some way.

Yeah, either that or it's very innocuous and they're both just, they're innocently mistaken, their point of view. I don't really know. But the other thing is, if it was an intruder, he or she would have had to know exactly where they were going while still being totally silent and apparently doing all of this in the dark. For the intruder story to make sense, doesn't it sound like it would have had to been someone, if we're going to believe it, someone who was incredibly familiar with the house and with the family dog. So they know when they go in, they know exactly where Sabrina's bedroom is. They know the layout of the house and they know that Brownie won't bark at them. But if this was the

case and the person stole Sabrina to raise, wouldn't that person have been a friend who then suddenly vanished? Wouldn't the family have noticed? Like people don't steal babies, go through that much effort to steal a baby to kill. You steal a baby, go through that much effort to keep it. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you, I think. Or sell it because the family's theory has always been that Sabrina was stolen for adoption. And some people seem to think, this was an interesting thing I read, that perhaps someone wanted an ethnically Jewish baby and they were willing to pay. So Sabrina was stolen to be sold.

I just think if you're running an underground baby trafficking ring, isn't snatching babies from cots in suburban Florida quite high risk? Yeah. It just seems very odd that that's how you would choose to do that if you're trafficking babies. Why are you snatching them in the middle of the night? This is as high risk a crime as you can imagine and therefore point to somebody being very criminally sophisticated. This is somebody who just wandered in out of the blue on the off chance and picked up Sabrina. If it was an intruder.

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episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. And also, children being kidnapped from their homes is incredibly rare but i mean it's not impossible but it seems hard to believe that someone could break in and take sabrina leaving very few clues behind all that was found was one blonde hair in sabrina's crib everyone in the family has dark hair an unidentified boot print near the crib and some other unidentified boot print near the crib, and some other unidentified fingerprints. Outside of the house, the neighbor said he was walking his dog past the Eisenbergs at 1am and heard the dog bark and the baby crying.

So if we're going to say that someone in the house killed Sabrina, it could have been an accident or a malicious killing. I don't see a real motive. I'd say it's more likely to have been an accident. The reasons behind malicious murder of children by parents are wanting a child-free life or it's because of abuse. And there was absolutely no evidence of abuse in this case that really holds water. And there are two other kids. They have two other children. So killing Sabrina wouldn't have made them all young and carefree again. So if we say it was an accident, it could have been shaken baby syndrome or one of the siblings could have

done it potentially. She's only five months. Could it have been a cot death or do they have to be much younger for that? But if it was a cot death death why would they cover it up there hasn't been cot deaths in the family before it's like they say one cot death is a tragedy two cot deaths are suspicious and three cot deaths is murder there's no there's no they didn't lose any other children this way i find cot death so interesting though it's such a prevalent thing and we just don't know why babies just die sometimes what is it sad sudden sids sudden infant Syndrome? Even the name is terrifying. But there would be no reason to cover it up. So it must have been a known accident if it was them. But the point is, is that Sabrina was last seen alive by anyone outside of the family

48 hours before she was reported missing. So we can't even be 100% sure when she really did die because no body has ever been found. So she could have died up to 48 hours before she was reported missing and that 911 call happens. We don't know. If we're saying that the family were involved and they disposed of her body, the police did do an incredibly in-depth search of a five mile radius around the Eisenberg's house. They searched every lake, every swamp, anywhere you might dump a body and they found nothing so if the family did do it and cover it up where's sabrina's body tiny body i guess even if you're looking through swamps you might not found her and also tampa alligator country just because there's no body that doesn't really convince

me of anything like hot like florida's hot as fuck as well and it's it's humid so like that body is going to decompose so quickly it's neither here nor there that there's no body really i don't know but they're not like career criminals they're just like an ordinary family and they were able to like go out somewhere find a place like a great hiding spot to hide a body and the police looked the police almost one of the accusations of the police becomes that they only actively looked for a dead body and they didn't find her it's very difficult the police as they always do asked marlene and steve to go on tv and plead for their daughter's safe return again people tear this video apart saying that they look totally deadpan and there's no crying but again proves nothing but the analysis into the eisenberg's behavior became a real focus there were newscasters everywhere all around the house all the time they were constantly being recorded and there's a point on the day of sabrina's

disappearance when steve was caught on camera for a few seconds laughing. He said that the police officers made a joke and he laughed. Who? What? Why are they? What? Why are the police officers making a joke when your baby's just been kidnapped? And we do see this in other cases where the parent turned out to be guilty, like Diane Downs or the Shannon Matthews case. It can be seen as like duping delight like the person the architect of the deception loves the attention that the tragedy is bringing them because they love the fact that they are tricking all of these people but it just

doesn't really seem like that like I don't think I've seen enough of it to be convinced that that's what it is i think people are scrutinizing very small points and making overarching statements which i just don't really think is fair so it's weird sure but only because i can't imagine laughing in a situation like that but he could have been in denial maybe it hasn't sunk in i mean maybe it was just nervous laughter i know so many people who laugh when they're uncomfortable. It's almost like a politeness thing. These police officers are there to help you. Your child has been kidnapped.

One of them maybe says something to try to cheer you up. I feel like you would laugh maybe just out of awkwardness or out of politeness. I don't, I don't know. I don't think it proves anything. But given how young Sabrina was, it wasn't just the police in the local department that were dealing with this because the FBI were immediately involved with investigating her disappearance.

So after the TV appeal, the FBI tapped the phones at the Eisenbergs' home to ensure they could track anyone who called with potential ransoms or information. But they hear something weird instead. The very first call that the Eisenbergs receive was from Steve's brother, Dave. On this call, Steve tells Dave, the detectives are doing their job. They're following every lead they have. It's honestly so casual and laid back. He says it like, oh yeah, they're doing everything they can. What? What family would ever think that enough was being done? That's so, that's such a good point. But it's not this that the FBI finds so weird.

It's that while he's on the phone, and this is the key thing, it's not just the emotions or like, oh, he's so casual. It's the things that he's doing, the behavior. Because while he's on the phone to Dave, there's the beeping of call waiting. They're getting another call and Steve ignores it

and carries on chatting to his brother. What if it had been the kidnapper? Would a father take a risk like that? Or did he just know already what happened to Sabrina and knew there would be no kidnapper trying to call? This is what the FBI thought because in all their experiences doing cases like this with missing children, their experience was the parent always takes the call.

And so the FBI felt that the parents knew much more than they were admitting and they confronted them the family became incredibly angry at the police because they felt the police just immediately decided it was them and started looking for a body not a live baby and if this was true you could say that's weird because people who steal babies don't steal them to kill them they steal them to keep them or to sell them. But if the police thought the family had done it, then of course they were looking for a body. But the police, however, said that they were running two parallel investigations.

One focused on the intruder and one on the family. But realistically, when a baby disappears, it's one in 1,000 times that it wasn't the family i do think the police thought that their best bet was the eisenbergs and i can kind of see it's like being like oh well the husband did it and whenever i see a kid disappearance my first instinct is the parents did it at first the eisenbergs cooperated the police even had them take polygraph tests. But these threw out some interesting results. Marlene's first polygraph test was deemed inconclusive.

It was found that she had results that indicated deception. So she took another polygraph, but this time she failed altogether, according to the police. But how much, again, does this really prove? Fucking nothing. Polygraphs are a joke. They are. Like polygraphs simply infer deception through analysis of physiological responses such as your blood pressure or breathing rate. To a series of questions. The accuracy and validity of polygraph testing is undoubtedly controversial. The issue is there's no evidence that any pattern of physiological

reactions or responses is unique to deception. An honest person may be nervous when answering truthfully, and a dishonest person may be totally chill while they're lying their arses off. Marlene's response was inconclusive, but she was probably dealing with issues around guilt anyway, whether she killed Sabrina or not. So it doesn't prove anything. Actually, that's such a good point. I hadn't thought of that until just now.

Of course she's feeling guilty, whether she did it or not exactly because she left the fucking door open exactly or she killed her one or the other one or the other it doesn't prove it either way so at this point the police are more convinced than ever and dave steve's brother who is a lawyer told them to get an attorney because quote they are out to get you so the eisenbergs hired an attorney named barry cohen a man with a reputation for being one of the most aggressive and combative attorneys in the state of florida he also had a reputation at the time for never losing a case you hire a lawyer like that do you have something to hide but also if i thought i was being railroaded by the police, that's what I would do.

Get the best fucking lawyer I could. Barry Cohen is quite an interesting character in his own right. He's currently millions and millions of dollars in debt. Clients he's represented have included the likes of the family of the Boston Bombers. He was a man who wasn't shy about putting his face to the case he'd go on tv and chat to larry king and also go and yell at that woman nancy grace i have very complicated feelings about nancy grace she's problematic she's an odd one but he goes on and he fights her he yells at her and also just other things with cohen things like in his office in tampa he apparently has like a lady justice but she's

like really I saw it described as coquettish because oh for fuck's sake the slit in the statue of the lady justice he has in his office has her thigh out come on the article I read it was like a coquettish uh lady justice stands uh welcoming clients into Barry Cohen's office looking more like a starlet who's been randomly handed a sword and a scale to dole out justice. He's a very bizarre man. It's like having a hula girl. Yeah, but lady justice. And in one of the TV appearances I saw with Cohen, and there are many, he kept saying the same thing. He says there's no evidence. There is no physical evidence,

not one piece of physical evidence. If I was on trial for murdering a baby, I think I'd want my lawyer on TV to say I'm innocent. Not just that they can't prove it. At this point, they're only suspected not on trial for murder. But yes, I would want him to not be on TV just yelling, there's no physical evidence, is there? You find any physical evidence? No physical evidence. He also went on TV shows like This Morning and all the news shows and just repeatedly and brutally attacked the police. In one case, he even yelled, it's a war. A war? A war on what? It's the police against my clients. Forget Sabrina. He's totally forgotten Sabrina in all of this. In any case, after they hired Barry, the Eisenbergs, under his advice, totally stopped cooperating with the police.

Now the police got an incredible warrant. They got permission to bug the Eisenbergs' house. And apparently you can get this if the police can make a strong enough case to a judge, but there would be no other way for them to get the truth. It was their last chance with the Eisenbergs and they did whatever they needed to do. So the police, after getting this warrant, set up listening devices in the kitchen and the bedroom of the Eisenbergs' house and every day for three months from 7am to midnight the police listened in and they recorded thousands of conversations and what they found became hugely controversial in this case but let's come back to it so now sabrina has been gone for two months and a federal grand jury was convened the eisenbergs were of course called to testify but barry cohen told the family to invoke

their fifth amendment right and not to testify so they refused to testify to a grand jury looking into their daughter's disappearance. Cohen was totally ignoring the court of public opinion because honestly, how does this look? They're not even on trial at this point. Even the Ramseys testified at the grand jury. And when asked, Cohen said he stopped them testifying because of Steve Kuntz, the man who was the lead prosecutor on this case cohen said kuntz was fame hungry and just wanted a conviction at any cost and would destroy the eisenbergs to get this he's doing his fucking job and like you seem pretty fame hungry yourself we will come back to that so when

the grand jury were hearing testimony minus the eisenbergs social workers turned up at the eisenbergs home to check if the two other children were being looked after. And if they are innocent, this is awful. But if they were guilty, given the state of the house, it's the right thing to do. And I think the state of the house on its own, that's enough to send social workers round. But now, with months passing and no news of Sabrina,

the accusations just build against the family. The community, especially after they refused to testify at the grand jury hearing, were convinced that they'd done it. The family still just seemed so emotionless and robotic. But they repeatedly said in every interview, even years later, that they didn't believe that Sabrina had been killed, but been taken to be loved. That is really important. It's definitely a possibility, like we've spoken about, especially given Sabrina's age, but it does seem like they were in denial and that they just can't face the truth. But if they really believe that she was taken to be loved by another family, then maybe their emotionlessness makes sense. If they'd convinced themselves of this so much and they really think that she's okay

and one day she'll be found, maybe that's why? But given the community's feelings towards them and the fact that they were struggling financially, in May 1999 the Eisenbergs left Florida and moved to Maryland. Then on September 9th in their new home there's a surprise. Marlene was at home when suddenly all these cars pulled into the driveway. Marlene immediately called Barry. Weird. Would you call your lawyer or would you call your husband? She doesn't even know who these people are. They're just cars pulling into the driveway. Anyway, the people in the cars then broke into the house and were yelling, Marlene, come downstairs. It was the FBI. And they were there to arrest her. And simultaneously, on the other side of town, other agents were picking up Steve. Prosecutors now believed that they had an airtight case,

so it was time to bring the Eisenbergs in. This newfound confidence in their case came from the recordings the police had secretly taken from the Eisenbergs' home. The pair were being indicted for conspiracy and lying to the police. The police said that in the recordings they could hear the couple talking about killing their daughter and lying to the police. They said Marlene could be heard saying, quote, 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. And Steve was heard saying, quote, we need to discuss the way we'll beat the charge. We will do what we have to do. At the bail hearing, a federal prosecutor said that she had heard on the tapes Steve saying,

I wish I hadn't harmed her. It was the cocaine. How much cocaine do you think you have to take to kill a baby? Fucking hell. Steve said that he'd never done drugs in his life, and the pair strongly claimed that they had never said any of what was listed in the indictment against them. So two years since her disappearance, the police thought it was done. Because surely now, if the tapes say what they claim they said, it's an open and shut case. But oh dear, the tapes were played in court during the trial. And well, let's have a listen to what the courtroom heard. Did you hear anything? No, you can't hear a fucking

thing. But you can look at the documentary because yeah we'll post it when you put words under indecipherable sounds like that you think you can hear them it's like it's a phenomenon oh 100 but you you really you can't hear clear sentences like the prosecution said of them talking about murdering sab, hiding her, talking about cocaine. What did come out of somebody who analysed it much more recently with better equipment, everything, said that it sounded to him more like it picking up TV. They were watching a show and it was picking up sentences. This wasn't anybody in the house saying these things. You basically can't hear anything. But also what's the point in bugging someone's house? It must have been very difficult to get that warrant.

What's the point in bugging a house if you can't even fucking hear what they're saying? They did it badly. An analyst said afterwards that if you bug someone's house, it should be bang on. Even back then, given the technology they would have had, they should have been able to hear whispers up to 400 foot away. They botched how they'd put it into the house. And that is the fundamental thing you need to get right if it's going to work. But they didn't. It's a shit recording. And apparently, when the tapes were played in court, the judge just turned and looked at the

prosecutor and glared at him because it was such shit. Two years and this is what you bring to trial. It's absolute rubbish. But Cohen, Barry Cohen, the defense attorney, had also been able to get his hands on the tape and he had submitted them to an ex-FBI analyst who testified in court that none of the sentences the police were claiming to have heard were there. I mean, to be honest, you don't even need him to tell you that. No one in the court could hear it.

He said that the sentences and paragraphs from the indictment didn't even connect up and, quote, seemed totally made up. So combat this classic the prosecution brought in their own audio expert and pi anthony pelicona whose clients included people like michael jackson and elizabeth taylor that's such a cool job he was a scumbag though and he had a really bad reputation he was called the big sleazy gross no no he's disgusting he'd been in trouble with the police loads of times and for serious shit things like slicing people's faces beating people with baseball bats and he was indicted himself soon after this trial for possessing illegal explosives what's a pi doing with explosives? And also, what were the government doing stooping to this if their case was so solid?

Pelicona and the prosecution were apparently the only people who could hear the confessions on the tapes. Other things that came up in court was that Marlene was accused of lying to the police about the clothes she'd been wearing when she found Sabrina was missing. And the fact that she told police that Sabrina had a full head of hair but in photos and videos from just days before she went missing Sabrina had a bald patch people make an enormous deal out of this claiming that's a sign of abuse but babies that age get bald spots all the time because they're lying down so much you see that constantly their hair isn't even real hair it's like fluff and in court the tape situation really undermined the police and the prosecution's case collapsed and now the whole

case coming out it was the feds who had tough questions to answer because the bugging apparently not only was it shit it didn't conform to state or federal laws because apparently the feds had told the judge that marley's 911 call was unemotional and you heard it at the start of the episode it's emotional whether it is or not seems pretty irrelevant irrelevant in terms of guilt that is but it's important here because the defense were able to use this lie the police had told to claim police misconduct so essentially the bugging doesn't conform to state or federal law because they lied to the judge to get the warrant exactly two judges who reviewed the tapes said that it was mostly unintelligible and called the prosecution's

statements false and pure fiction so the recordings were ruled inadmissible and they were really the cornerstone of the prosecution's case against the Eisenbergs. With those gone they really had no case, it was all circumstantial, it was all conjecture and one week later all charges against the Eisenbergs were dropped. Kunz, the prosecutor on this case, well things didn't work out too well for him either. He became one of the few federal prosecutors to be disciplined for professional misconduct. He was the one who claimed the admissions by the parents in the secret recordings were there, but they weren't. His actions were called vexatious and he was punished for frivolous prosecution of the parents given a lack of evidence and the Florida bar admonished him for

misconduct. Vexatious would be a really good drag queen name. It's a great word. It's a great word. We don't say it enough. I'm going to try and use it three times next week. So some 20 years on from when she disappeared, Sabrina Eisenberg's whereabouts remain a mystery. The family are still convinced that she's alive and well and now a 21-year-old woman. They say they are determined

to find her and they've been putting together and releasing age-progressed photos of sabrina every few years in may 2003 in illinois there was a potential break in the case a couple started adoption proceedings for a five-year-old girl without a birth certificate. She was the right age and people seemed convinced that this little girl, Paloma, looked just like Sabrina. But we really don't think so. We'll post pictures. It's a stretch. They tested Paloma's DNA and it didn't match. It turned out that the mother had been a Mexican woman who had abandoned her baby on the Texas border. I'd say being called Paloma is pretty obvious that you're of Hispanic heritage. And she's brown. The baby is brown. The Eisenbergs are white. Yes, they're dark, as in they have dark hair.

They're not Mexican. At most, Paloma was at least half Mexican the mother was Mexican she doesn't look like Sabrina I mean what the fuck Sabrina is pale in all her baby pictures a nurse at the clinic gave the baby to her sister and the sister eventually adopted Paloma so things work out fine for Paloma I do love the name Paloma though me too that is a it's an adorable name. It means pigeon. Pigeon? Yeah. Or dove. No, that's nicer. I'm happy. Paloma is safe. That's all good. But Sabrina still remains missing.

And Marlene still thinks she's out there. That it's only a matter of time before she comes home. And I understand not giving up. But Marlene keeps saying, and you still see this in interviews with her years later, well, when she comes home, everyone will see. Will they? I don't know. Does hope just destroy you? Has she even properly grieved for Sabrina?

Because she still thinks that she's going to come home. And obviously, children do come home after years and years being missing. It's like that lady in Who Took Johnny. Yeah. That's the case of the disappearance of Sabrina Eisenberg. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. As usual, you can find us on the social medias at Red Handed The Pod.

You can give us some money if you would like to at patreon.com forward slash red handed. Thanks, guys. See you next week where we'll be shit chatting Nancy Grace. Bye. I don't know why i waved then bye i'm jake warren and in our first season of finding i set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life you can listen to finding natasha right now exclusively on wondondery+.

In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named

Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant.

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