- Country of Origin: Italy
- Trigger Warning: Unsolved kidnapping
Three-year-old Denise Pipitone was abducted from Mazara del Vallo, Italy on September 1, 2004, and has never been found. At the time, I was a prosecutor in Marsala, Sicily.
I was on holiday and could only follow the case on television. I did not know at the time that this very sad case would transform my life, forcing me to never give up, and to have much more courage, inventiveness, and patience than I ever thought possible.
The story of Denise’s disappearance also helped me rarely to accept any compromise, never to go down paths that would have led me to betray myself, and to seek my own happiness and that of my family members beyond all ties and conventions.
Because any hypocrisy and any surrender to my dreams as a child would have made my battle impossible: the battle for the truth, always, and at any cost,. But especially for finding the tangled path to Denise.
Tragically, so many children go missing every day all over the world. Sometimes it is their families who are responsible for these crimes. Sometimes it is someone with mental illness or a serial killer that must be found. Sometimes it is chance and misfortune that takes them away.
Denise’s case is a symbol; my commitment and that of all those who are looking for her and will always continue to look for her want it to also be a warning so that such crimes are not repeated, and so that all missing persons are searched for until a trace is found.
Just as the Good Shepherd searched for his lost sheep, we must not give up and must continue to put in place every useful initiative to reach the goal.
The only suspect in the kidnapping to date, Jessica Pulizzi — Denise’s half sister — has been definitively acquitted by the Italian courts.
On the other hand, serious procedural errors were also committed during the investigation. Jessica was heard several times in summary information without a lawyer, before being entered in the register of suspects. It was already clear that she was suspected of having taken the child. That trial went cold.
In 2024 — thanks to the work of private investigator Giuseppe Asaro and criminologists Antonella Delfino Pesce and Katia Sartori — Denise’s father, Tony Pipitone, filed an application with the Marsala Public Prosecutor’s Office to reopen the investigation into his daughter’s abduction.
Tony, together with some friends, founded a nonprofit association last year, The Missing Children in the Heart L’associazione I bimbi scomparsi nel cuore — to help all families who are looking and longing.
I, too, am a member of this association, which for one thing is supporting a constitutional petition for the establishment of a parliamentary commission of enquiry into the case of Denise Pipitone’s kidnapping. The petition has already garnered more than 3,000 signatures.
Our association and the one founded by Piera Maggio, the little girl’s mother, are constantly sharing posters of Denise, with age progressions and useful information and contacts, all over the world. We are very confident that we will all manage together to break through the fog and find the thread that will lead us to Denise.
You readers, too, can help us by sharing this story. For more information or if you have any leads about Denise’s disappearance or on other missing children, please get in touch with our association.
Thank you to Molly Corso for her inspired edits on the piece.
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Maria Angioni
Maria Angioni is an Italian blogger, writer, and jurist who has long been involved in supporting families who have suffered the disappearance or abduction of a child.
A professional magistrate until 2022, she has dealt with criminal, labor, and family law cases.
