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Narrator/Host
Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault where you'll hear our Most gripping stories.
911 Operator
911. I gave you some kidnapped. All right, ma', am, calm down.
Marlene Eisenberg
I didn't know what to think. I'm just screaming.
Elizabeth Vargas
Tonight on 20 20, a breakthrough in the story that transfixed the nation. The disappearance of baby Sabrina, A five
Reporter/News Anchor
month old girl who disappeared from her
Neighbor or Investigator
home in the middle of the night.
Neighbor or Witness
This is where he heard the baby crying.
Elizabeth Vargas
Grieving parents who some thought didn't quite look the part.
Legal Expert or Commentator
Perception was that they were cold, seen
Reporter/Journalist
by some as being unemot.
Elizabeth Vargas
Before long, police are zeroing in on them.
Marlene Eisenberg
They said, we believe you know where your daughter is.
Elizabeth Vargas
But the Eisenbergs say they know nothing. They hire a lawyer and stop cooperating.
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
They're doing a half assed job of
Elizabeth Vargas
trying to find Sabrina after a massive search. On the ground, in the air, in the water.
Steve Eisenberg
They were looking for a body and not a baby.
Elizabeth Vargas
The parents arrested.
Steve Eisenberg
They busted in my front door pull.
Reporter/News Anchor
Pointing a gun at me, charging Steven and Marlene Eisenberg.
Marlene Eisenberg
Either one of you have anything you want to say?
Elizabeth Vargas
They had plenty to say. According to police who had secretly bugged their house.
Interviewer/Investigator
The baby's dead because you did it.
Steve Eisenberg
We did not. We did not.
Interviewer/Investigator
Did you start to believe that they were being framed?
Lawyer or Legal Representative
Yes.
Elizabeth Vargas
But now the new story begins. Technology that can turn an infant into an adult. And a Facebook message from a 20 year old woman who could be Sabrina.
Steve Eisenberg
I wake up and look at my phone. My heart's racing.
Elizabeth Vargas
Tonight, closer than ever to finding the answer. I'm Elizabeth Vargas and this is 2020.
Marlene Eisenberg
Sabrina, come crawl to mommy. Come here. Come here, gorgeous.
Narrator/Host
It's the classic family home video. A five month old baby girl learning to crawl.
Marlene Eisenberg
And there she is, crawling. This is Sabrina's first video. And here she's crawling.
Narrator/Host
Sabrina Eisenberg, captured for the very first time by adoring Mom Mart in November 1997. But this tape wouldn't become just another family memory. It would become the last precious image ever captured of Sabrina. The next day, she would vanish. I first met Steve and Marlene Eisenberg just months after their daughter disappeared. Today, 20 years later, they say their pain is as raw as ever.
Interviewer/Investigator
How much do you think about her?
Steve Eisenberg
We think about her every day. Sabrina has a room in our home. So this is Sabrina's room. This is the room that you know when Sabrina comes home, this is her room.
Interviewer/Investigator
Are these really her baby clothes?
Steve Eisenberg
These are her baby clothes. And I've said from the very beginning, and I still say it when she comes home, we're going to donate them together. We changed the room a few years ago from taking out all the Beanie Babies and toys because she's 20 years old now.
Interviewer/Investigator
She is 20 years old now. Is 20 years old. So you feel confident that she's still alive?
Marlene Eisenberg
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Steve Eisenberg
Because who would take a baby to hurt them?
Interviewer/Investigator
Do you play that back in your mind going into her crib, finding her missing, running to the neighbor, calling 911. How much do you remember all of that?
Steve Eisenberg
I don't play it back. It hurts too much. It's. It's painful.
Narrator/Host
It was November 23rd, 1997. A Sunday night. The family watching a movie. Later, Marlene and Steve Tuck their three kids, 8 year old William, 4 year old Monica, and baby Sabrina, into bed for the night. The next morning, Marlene recalls waking up and getting her son out of bed first.
Marlene Eisenberg
And as I turn around and I look and notice my laundry room door out to my garage is opened. And then as I get closer, I'm looking now out to the street and seeing that my garage door is up. So now I'm just looking straight out to the street and I ran into the first bedroom, which is Sabrina's room. And I look in the crib and Sabrina's gone. And I scream, scream.
Narrator/Host
Her new baby and her favorite yellow blanket, both gone without a trace.
911 Operator
911. Emma, I need them to leave. My baby's been kidnapped. All right, ma', am, calm down, okay? Deep breath. What do you mean your baby's been here? I just got up to wait for. Shut up. My garage door was wide open. My thing, my house to my floor was wide open and my baby's gone out of the crib. How old is your baby? My baby is five months old. Oh God help me.
Narrator/Host
Marlene says she frantically runs to her next door neighbor's house.
Neighbor or Witness
And I opened the door and she said, my baby's gone, my baby's gone. And I said, what do you mean your baby's gone? And I put my arm around her shoulder and she said, somebody came in and took my baby.
Narrator/Host
The Eisenbergs say they'd accidentally left their garage door up all night.
Interviewer/Investigator
Was there any sign that someone had been in Your house, other than the
Marlene Eisenberg
door being open, the door being open,
her and her blanket missing, the laundry
Interviewer/Investigator
door, was it closed when you went to bed?
Marlene Eisenberg
Yes.
Interviewer/Investigator
Was it locked?
Marlene Eisenberg
No, it wasn't locked. It's something that we never locked because during the day when the children are playing, that's where they go in and out with their bikes and basketball out front.
Interviewer/Investigator
But we're not talking about the middle of the day, we're talking the middle of the night.
Marlene Eisenberg
We felt that we were living in an area that was safer. We were on a cul de sac. There's one way in and one way out. We had a sense of security, a false sense of security.
Narrator/Host
Their four bedroom home nestled in the suburban sprawl of Valrico, Florida, a middle class neighborhood outside Tampa, where each house resembles the other. Some know Valrica for the flooding brought by last year's Hurricane Irma and the deluge of media that descended after baby Sabrina vanished.
Neighbor or Witness
It's heart wrenching, it really is. I mean, just for them to have to go through what they're going through.
Narrator/Host
The community was stunned. How could a baby go missing in the night without anyone hearing a thing? Even the Eisenberg's family dog, Brownie, didn't make a sound.
Interviewer/Investigator
But how can you explain how someone could get in here and you don't hear them and you don't find any sign that they've been in here.
Marlene Eisenberg
Well, how do people get robbed all the time and they're sleeping and somebody goes in and steals a TV or their china. This is the same thing, except they took our baby instead of china or tv.
Reporter/Journalist
What stood out was just how bizarre this abduction was.
Narrator/Host
Graham Brink, an editor at the Tampa Bay Times, has covered the story for years.
Reporter/Journalist
The idea that someone could have walked into a suburban home in the middle of the night, plucked a five month old child out of her crib, obviously raised a lot of suspicion around the Eisenbergs.
Law Enforcement Official
It's unusual for a true kidnapping. A lot of times they find out that it's someone the family knew or, or had knowledge of and that that's
Marlene Eisenberg
part of the leads.
Law Enforcement Official
We're looking at
Narrator/Host
this video from that morning showing a distraught Marlene led from her home by lead detectives Linda Burton and William Blake. While investigators begin sweeping it for clues, they dust the garage for prints, confiscate the family cars, and bring the Eisenbergs to the police station for questioning.
Marlene Eisenberg
They interviewed us separately, doing a polygraph for Marlene and then one for me.
Interviewer/Investigator
Did you have any concerns, any objections to doing a polygraph?
Lawyer or Legal Representative
Test?
Forensic Artist or Age Progression Expert
No.
Marlene Eisenberg
We even at that time, offered to give them blood and fingerprints.
Anything they needed.
Anything they needed.
Narrator/Host
Hours later, the couple says police coached them in this televised plea.
Marlene Eisenberg
Please bring our baby back to us. She needs her mother and her father, and we all miss her and love her very much, and we need her to come home to us. Please.
Legal Expert or Commentator
It backfired because the perception was that they were cold.
Reporter/Journalist
Marlene was seen by some as being not authentic. Unemotional. Law enforcement seemed to focus in on that display.
Steve Eisenberg
It took all the strength that I had to say what I said. And then the minute I was done, I broke down in tears. Okay, hysterical. But of course, the cameras were not put on me then.
Narrator/Host
Yet the criticism would only grow, especially when the day after their daughter's disappearance, the couple was caught on camera appearing to laugh with detectives.
Marlene Eisenberg
He said something funny on the way to the car. So that's where they got the film of me smiling.
Neighbor or Witness
It.
Legal Expert or Commentator
It was like gas on a flame. When they were pictured smiling so soon after Sabrina had gone missing. Then there were the polygraphs.
Narrator/Host
Steve passes his, but Marlene's comes back inconclusive. So police bring her in for another. Once again, the same results.
Interviewer/Investigator
What did the police say to you? What did they ask you?
Marlene Eisenberg
They sat across from me and leaned forward and they said, marlene, statistics show it's the parents that do these things. We believe you know where your daughter is. We believe you know what happened. And I have no idea. So here I am. My daughter's gone, and now I have the police sitting across from me who I think are going to help me, tell me that they think I know something about my baby.
Narrator/Host
When we come back. With police zeroing in, I'd like to
Steve Eisenberg
talk to an attorney.
Narrator/Host
The Eisenbergs shut down law enforcement.
Neighbor or Investigator
Look at that as well. They must be trying to hide something.
Narrator/Host
If you're innocent, why do you need a lawyer? Stay with us.
Steve Eisenberg
Stand by to go live.
Elizabeth Vargas
Bob.
Reporter/News Anchor
I would like to say to whoever has my children, please bring them home.
Narrator/Host
In 1995, just two years before Baby Sabrina vanished, all eyes were on this woman, Susan Smith.
Reporter/News Anchor
State intense to seek the death penalty.
Narrator/Host
The tearful young South Carolina mom told police her young sons were abducted during a carjacking.
Legal Expert or Commentator
We have to remember the timing of Sybrina's disappearance. They were functioning under the cloud of
Narrator/Host
Susan Smith in a gruesome turn. Smith would later confess that she drove her own children into a lake, letting them drown, hoping to win the affection of a boyfriend who said he didn't want children.
Legal Expert or Commentator
They did not want to follow in those steps. They wanted to solve the case and not be upheld to public ridicule because of their investigation.
Narrator/Host
Now here in Florida, the public and police are wondering if Marlene Eisenberg is just the latest mom turned murderer.
Marlene Eisenberg
We love her very much and need her to come home.
Steve Eisenberg
But like we say, when I first
Narrator/Host
met the couple 20 years ago, suspicion had already engulfed their lives.
Interviewer/Investigator
Does it get any easier?
Steve Eisenberg
No, Never.
Narrator/Host
All these years later and still no answers.
Interviewer/Investigator
What really happened in this Tampa suburb in the middle of the night? Was it a kidnapping, as the Eisenbergs say? Or do they know more than they're letting on?
Reporter/News Anchor
Now there's a very serious story out of Florida that's making national headlines.
Narrator/Host
The investigation into that question transfixes the national media.
Reporter/Journalist
It created a media frenzy in Florida.
Reporter/News Anchor
The FBI is now involved with in the search for a missing baby.
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Deputies expanded their search for Sabrina.
Reporter/News Anchor
Today, the frantic mother cried out in grief.
Legal Expert or Commentator
When they come to the home, there are a lot of suspicious circumstances. It struck fear into the hearts and the minds of families all over the country to think that while you're asleep and your child is one room away, that they could be taken.
Narrator/Host
When Marlene's polygraphs come back inconclusive, police turn up the heat.
Steve Eisenberg
I couldn't believe it.
Marlene Eisenberg
I just was answering everything they said. You know, they would throw, you know, oh, you're under stress. And I would, no, I'm not under stress.
Steve Eisenberg
You know, I have three beautiful children.
Marlene Eisenberg
that time, I said, are you charging us with anything? Did we do anything? He said, no to those questions. And then I said, then I'd like to see talk to an attorney.
Legal Expert or Commentator
That didn't sit well with the public or the police.
Narrator/Host
And they don't hire just any lawyer. They take on famed Florida attorney Barry Cohen.
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
They're doing a half assed job of trying to find Sabrina.
Narrator/Host
I first spoke to Cohen back in 1998.
Interviewer/Investigator
These are parents of a kidnapped child. Why do they need a lawyer?
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
They were being accused of a crime that they didn't commit. And anybody that's accused of a crime that they didn't commit sure needs a lawyer pretty badly.
Narrator/Host
Today, Cohen is waging a more personal battle. Fighting cancer.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
We're at the cul de sac where the Eisenbergs live.
Narrator/Host
So we caught up with his old team who helped defend the Eisenbergs. Lawyers Todd Foster and Steve Romine and private investigator Kevin Kalwary.
Interviewer/Investigator
Did you all make a conscious decision to cut them off from police and cooperation?
Lawyer or Legal Representative
Yes, we sensed that the sheriff's office wasn't as interested in solving the case as they were making a case against the Eisenberg law enforcement.
Neighbor or Investigator
Look at that as that, well, they must be trying to hide something. If you're not guilty of anything, just being honest is going to help the cops find your child.
Narrator/Host
In the days following Sybrina's disappearance, police mount a massive search on the ground, in the air, and in the water surrounding the family home.
Reporter/News Anchor
Detectives say the bloodhounds were onto something at the time.
Reporter/Journalist
It was the largest land and water search in Florida history.
Narrator/Host
And with the couple refusing to talk, it sets up a standoff between the parents and the police.
Law Enforcement Official
As far as the questions that we would like to ask them, they need to come in and sit down with us to have a formal interview.
Narrator/Host
Lt. Greg Brown was the sheriff's office spokesperson in 1998.
Interviewer/Investigator
Can you understand their reluctance?
Law Enforcement Official
No, I can't. Because as a parent, I would want my child back, and I would do whatever it takes to get my child back.
Interviewer/Investigator
If you have nothing to hide, why not just tell the police anything and everything and let them say anything and everything that's tried?
Marlene Eisenberg
We called the police a week ago
Steve Eisenberg
and said we would come in and
Marlene Eisenberg
talk to them as long as it could be taped and our attorney could be present.
Steve Eisenberg
And they said no, they don't want
Marlene Eisenberg
the information to find Sabrina. They want the information to close a case. They've even said to our relatives, we're not looking for a baby. We're looking for a body. How would you feel as a parent
Steve Eisenberg
when you heard that?
Marlene Eisenberg
Does that make you feel open to talking to them?
Narrator/Host
So while police continue their massive search, the Eisenbergs attend candlelight vigils surrounded by supporters and work to get Sybrina's picture out far and wide.
Reporter/News Anchor
I smile at every baby I see to see if it smiles back. And if it does, I know it might be Sabrina.
Narrator/Host
And while they aren't talking to police, they are talking to the media.
Neighbor or Investigator
We are now joined by Marlene appearing
Narrator/Host
on Good Morning America, Oprah, and 2020.
Reporter/News Anchor
Tonight, we take you inside this explosive case.
Narrator/Host
Then, two months after Sybrina vanished, the Eisenbergs find themselves in danger of losing their two other children as well, this time at the hands of Florida's Child Protective Services.
Interviewer/Investigator
How frightening was it for you? The Department of Children and Family Services showed up and started looking at your other children.
Steve Eisenberg
You know what? We left the room and let them interview our children. And after they left, they said, these kids are great. There's nothing wrong in this Household.
Narrator/Host
A week later, the couple back on the hot seat, this time with federal prosecutors asking questions in front of a grand jury.
Reporter/News Anchor
Either one of you have anything you want to say?
Narrator/Host
But if authorities think they'll finally get
Interviewer/Investigator
the Eisenberg's talking again, they are wrong.
Reporter/News Anchor
Steve and Marlene Eisenberg were silent as they walked into the federal court. And apparently they also had little to say before the federal grand jury.
Legal Expert or Commentator
You would think that naturally, parents of a child that had gone missing would spill everything they know in the hope that maybe it could help the investigation. That's not what happened. The Eisenbergs took the Fifth Amendment at grand jury.
Interviewer/Investigator
Why?
Steve Eisenberg
Well, that's what we were advised to do from our attorney because it was
Lawyer or Legal Representative
a stacked deck, in our view, against them.
Interviewer/Investigator
But you understand that to a lot of people, it didn't look good for them to take the Fifth.
Reporter/Journalist
Plenty of people that are innocent take the Fifth. There's somebody on the other side that has an intent to try and hurt you. You can tell the truth, but they take your words and they spin it to fit what they want.
Interviewer/Investigator
How did this ordeal affect this family?
Lawyer or Legal Representative
It ran them out of town. They had to leave Tampa. It was just untenable for them to remain in this community.
Narrator/Host
Nearly two years after Sybrina vanished, the family moves to Maryland, back into Steve's childhood home.
Steve Eisenberg
One of the biggest reasons we were moving was because we couldn't raise our children to respect the authorities there.
Narrator/Host
But the eisenbergs discovered that 1,000 miles cannot protect them from determined Florida authorities.
Steve Eisenberg
They busted in my front door.
Narrator/Host
Who will reveal that they have secret tapes.
Interviewer/Investigator
So you never heard the baby's dead and buried was found dead because you did it.
Narrator/Host
Stay with us.
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Narrator/Host
The couple flees Florida for the refuge of Steve's childhood home in Bethesda, Maryland. But on September 9, 1999, a knock on the door sends their new lives spinning.
Steve Eisenberg
I noticed a bunch of cars coming up and a lot of men getting out of the cars and they busted in my front door and they are pointing a gun at me and they're like, marlene, put down the phone. And I said, put down the gun and I'll put down the phone.
Narrator/Host
Steve Eisenberg is at his real estate office. When police arrive for him, they said,
Steve Eisenberg
we've got a break in the case. I go, great. Did you find our daughter? Was my first question. They said, we're here to arrest you.
Narrator/Host
Arrested not for the death of their daughter, but charged with lying to law enforcement about what happened to her.
Reporter/News Anchor
There was a dramatic break in the case.
Stephen and Marlene Eisenberg have been charged with lying to authorities.
Narrator/Host
The indictment includes jaw dropping quotes implicating the Eisenbergs in the death of their infant daughter.
Reporter/News Anchor
The Eisenbergs discussed on several occasions that the baby was actually dead. Is there anything at all that you guys have to say to the people?
Narrator/Host
And just how did prosecutors know what they discussed? Police had secretly been bugging their Florida home for nearly three months, recording more than 2,600 private conversations.
Reporter/Journalist
A chilling twist in the story of a missing child in Florida.
Legal Expert or Commentator
One was in the bedroom, one was in the kitchen area.
Lawyer or Legal Representative
I had never heard before or since about putting a wiretap in a marital bedroom.
Narrator/Host
Yet prosecutors insisted they'd found a smoking gun. In those private comments leading to salacious headlines. Marlene quoted as saying to Steve, the baby's dead and buried. It was found dead because you did it. And this damning comment attributed to Steve, I wish I hadn't harmed her. It was the cocaine.
Legal Expert or Commentator
That's all they needed. Case closed.
Reporter/News Anchor
How do you feel about the Eisenbergs?
Neighbor or Witness
I hope they convict them. If it's true, I hope they convict them, period.
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
We hope that the people will remember that accusations are just accusations. They are presumed innocent, and we will meet these accusations head on.
Narrator/Host
Though defense lawyer Barry Cohen publicly comes out swinging today, the rest of his team admits they were privately worried.
Reporter/Journalist
I mean, it sounded bad. I made some kind of comment of like, we've got our work cut out for us. And I'll never forget, he looked me straight in the eye, and he's like, they didn't do this.
Interviewer/Investigator
And when you learned that your house had been bugged, I couldn't believe that they bugged us.
Steve Eisenberg
Our kitchen, our bedroom. You know, we thought it was a little ridiculous that they would do that, but you know, they did it.
Interviewer/Investigator
Some of what the investigators say that you two said was pretty damning.
Steve Eisenberg
All things that were never said.
Narrator/Host
Proclaiming their innocence and steadfast in the belief that their daughter's out there somewhere alive, the Eisenbergs and their defense team start doing the work they say police are not.
Interviewer/Investigator
You felt that the police made mistakes very early on?
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
Absolutely.
Interviewer/Investigator
What kind of mistakes?
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
Not following up on certain leads and targeting the Eisenbergs from the minute they got there.
Narrator/Host
PI Kevin Kalwary takes us back to the family's Valrico subdivision, where he initially interviewed dozens of neighbors.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
What we found is within the recent year, there had been a number of attempted break inside. One being just three houses away from the Eisenbergs, and there happened to be an infant living there.
Narrator/Host
And further down the block, another tip from a neighbor named Pete McDonald. Pete has since died, but his wife Mary meets with Kevin in the same house.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
Hello.
Neighbor or Witness
Hello.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
I remember you.
Reporter/News Anchor
I remember you, too.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
How are you?
Neighbor or Witness
Good.
Good to see you. Back then, we had a basset hound named Murphy, and he would get Pete up every single night to go out. Pete let him out the back door, and as he's opening up the door, he hears a baby crying. And he said, well, that's odd. And he didn't think anything of it until I call him at work. The next day and tell him baby Sabrina's missing.
Narrator/Host
She says her husband called police to report what he heard. They took down the information, but she says no one bothered to follow up.
Neighbor or Witness
This is the door that the dog went out, and this is where he heard the baby crying.
911 Operator
Go ahead.
Neighbor or Witness
There's no fence in between our house and the neighbor's house, so anybody could walk back here, Right? The Eisenbergs live in the cul de sac, which is down and around, and it isn't far, and you can see the cars going by how close it is. So you could walk right through there.
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
It's possible to have left the getaway car there. It's possible to have come in there. Anything's possible.
Steve Eisenberg
Go outside.
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
Come on.
Narrator/Host
The Eisenbergs insist police weren't interested in other leads because they were too focused on them feeding years of whispers and wild stories.
Interviewer/Investigator
There were a lot of theories circulating over the years. Theories that maybe you had had an affair and that you weren't the father of the baby. Theories that maybe you had abused them. What did you make of all of these theories?
Steve Eisenberg
We think they're ridiculous, so we kind of ignore them because we know they're not true.
I didn't have an affair ever.
Narrator/Host
But what about those damning statements prosecutors insist they recorded? When we come back after the sensational headlines, the public finally hears those secret tapes.
Reporter/Journalist
When I first heard the tapes, my position was they're screwing with us.
Interviewer/Investigator
Did you see start to believe that they were being framed?
Lawyer or Legal Representative
Yes.
Narrator/Host
Plus the first glimmer of hope that baby Sabrina is alive.
Legal Expert or Commentator
A gorgeous little baby pops up from Illinois. Baby Paloma.
Narrator/Host
Next.
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Narrator/Host
Tampa, Florida, US District Court, where prosecutors are about to reveal those secret tapes which they say prove Marlene and Steve Eisenberg know what happened to their five month old baby Sabrina, their smoking gun. The only problem, there is no smoke.
Legal Expert or Commentator
You know, when you look at that indictment and you read all the damning quotes, even one should have sealed their fate until you actually hear the audio.
Reporter/Journalist
I remember sitting in the gallery of the courtroom with other reporters and when they were played, looking at each other and wondering, I can't hear anything. Can you hear anything? It sounded like chickens squawking in a hurricane.
Narrator/Host
At first, even the Eisenberg's own attorneys can't believe what they're hearing.
Reporter/Journalist
My position was they're screwing with us. They're giving us bad tapes because when
Interviewer/Investigator
you began listening to this, because there's
Reporter/Journalist
no way they could be hearing what they're saying. So we'd cue it up and play it and it.
Reporter/News Anchor
Shh, shh.
Reporter/Journalist
These noises, nothing.
Interviewer/Investigator
So you never heard anything that resembled the babies dead and buried. It was found dead because you did it. You never heard anything like that.
Reporter/Journalist
So this came from somebody's head listening to static.
Narrator/Host
You take a listen. This is that supposedly incriminating statement made by Marlene. And now here's what the indictment alleges. She's saying.
Legal Expert or Commentator
Every time there would be a damning statement, you couldn't make it out. I've never in my life and all the wiretaps and all the bugging cases that I have handled heard anything as bad as this bugging attempt.
Neighbor or Investigator
You have to be crystal clear that what a person, what you're alleging in an indictment is actually you have it on tape. You can either hear it or you can't hear it.
Narrator/Host
Did you hear those tapes?
Steve Eisenberg
We listened to those tapes.
Marlene Eisenberg
We tried to.
Steve Eisenberg
There was nothing on them.
Narrator/Host
When Hillsborough county lead detectives Linda Burton and William Blake take the stand in court, the Eisenberg's attorneys pounce.
Reporter/Journalist
The hardest part about dealing with them was marshaling. All of the errors, inconsistencies, things they didn't follow up on, lies. There was so much to go after her with that. I mean, truly, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Narrator/Host
Eventually, the court rules that four of the 12 tapes it reviewed are unintelligible and the rest contain statements where Detectives distorted the context. No bombshell at all.
Lawyer or Legal Representative
One of the prosecutors said, I understand there's nothing worse than somebody losing a child. And the judge says, I can think of something worse. And the something worse is being falsely accused of being responsible.
Narrator/Host
A judge recommends those tapes be thrown out and blast the lead detectives for their investigation, saying they acted at times with a reckless disregard for the truth. The charges quickly dropped.
Legal Expert or Commentator
Those wiretaps were a total self inflicted wound the state performed on its own case. It really obscured the rest of the investigation. It overshadowed the question as to whether Steve and Marlene Eisenberg had anything to do with their daughter's disappearance.
Marlene Eisenberg
Come on. Oh, she's getting up here she goes,
Steve Eisenberg
I would say, you know, all the truth is going to come out. And then finally it did. You know, the judge threw everything out, all the tapes, everything was lies. And the government paid a lot of money to your legal team, to our legal team.
Marlene Eisenberg
It's another extraordinary twist.
Narrator/Host
Outraged, their legal team goes after the government for millions of dollars for a prosecution undertaken in bad faith.
Lawyer or Legal Representative
For the first time in our government's history since or before that, the government conceded that a federal prosecution was done vexatiously and in bad faith.
Steve Eisenberg
It was empowering because they said, we did things that we never have done.
Reporter/Journalist
But there was still some suspicion. If you believe what the Eisenberg said happened, you have to believe that someone walked into the house in the middle of the night, picked the baby up out of a crib and no one ever saw her ever again. That's difficult for, for a lot of people to believe.
Narrator/Host
But Marlene and Steve Eisenberg once again brush aside suspicion and try to regain a normal life.
Steve Eisenberg
You know, people said to us in the beginning, how could you not have a nervous breakdown? How could you not? And I'm like, well, I have a 4 year old and an 8 year old.
Interviewer/Investigator
How were you able to shield them from the ordeal?
Steve Eisenberg
When things would come out and people would be staring and talking, we just marched on and we just lived life with the kids.
Narrator/Host
Then in 2003, a possible prayer answered when an abandoned child surfaces in Illinois.
Reporter/Journalist
A woman in Illinois is looking through a missing child database and she sees a child who looks a little like Sabrina.
Legal Expert or Commentator
No one could pinpoint where she came from. She didn't come from an adoption agency. There wasn't a young mom who gave her up. She just seemingly appeared. And she looked amazingly like baby Sabrina. The fuzzy dark hair, the big brown eyes, the same skin tone.
Steve Eisenberg
We were shown a picture. We said that there was a lead that was called in.
Narrator/Host
How much did your hopes?
Steve Eisenberg
Oh, a ton.
Quite a bit.
I mean, this is. It's an emotional roller coaster for us.
Narrator/Host
But the mystery baby's identity would ultimately remain a mystery.
Steve Eisenberg
They said they did the DNA and it wasn't her.
Narrator/Host
Their hopes are dashed. Meanwhile, Florida police won't give up on their deep suspicions about the eisenbergs. And in 2008, they think they've got another shot at arresting them. This time, police record inmate Scott Overbeck at this Tampa jail talking about his supposed involvement in baby Sabrina's disappearance. And once again, it implicates the Eisenbergs. Overbeck is said to have been asked to dispose of the infants body, which he says was inside a boat he had retrieved from the Eisenberg's home.
Defense Attorney or Legal Analyst
They're desperate. We love to solve these cold cases, but when you have the answer being from some guy who's been sitting in jail, I mean, why didn't he come forward before? That's always the big question.
Reporter/Journalist
Eventually, Barry Cohen and his other attorneys went and got statements.
Interviewer/Investigator
What did you find out from him?
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary
He was all over the place. I mean, he was just a junkie and he was. We knew he was lying.
Steve Eisenberg
I mean, all you have do to check public records for boat ownership and see that we never owned a boat. So I mean, the whole story was another one of these fabricated stories to try and disparage Marlene and myself.
Narrator/Host
Did you know Overbeck or did you know.
Steve Eisenberg
Never heard the name.
Narrator/Host
And like so many jailhouse confessions, this one turns out to be bogus. The sheriff's office admits it's a dead end. Overbeck recants his story.
Legal Expert or Commentator
It was very surprising the Hillsborough law enforcement would put any credence in a jailhouse snitch. But you know the old saying, sometimes you gotta go to hell to get your witnesses to put the devil in jail. And that's just what they did.
Narrator/Host
Still, the Eisenbergs can't seem to shake suspicion.
Steve Eisenberg
I know there are always gonna be people that think Marlene and I had something to do with it. It was Sabrina's disappearance. We did not. We did not.
Narrator/Host
When we come back, a Facebook message from a 20 year old woman who says she thinks she's Sabrina.
Steve Eisenberg
She has no pictures, no baby pictures,
and she had to check her Social Security number. And she found out another woman in
California has her Social Security number.
Narrator/Host
Stay with us.
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Steve Eisenberg
When she comes home, this will be her room.
Interviewer/Investigator
She's never been in this house.
Steve Eisenberg
She's never been here. But we have mementos that we've gone on travels and things from when she was born. Her stool, her piggy bank.
Interviewer/Investigator
You've got pictures in here of Sabrina.
Marlene Eisenberg
We do.
Steve Eisenberg
William, Monica and Sabrina.
Interviewer/Investigator
So you store your memories of your daughter here?
Steve Eisenberg
Yeah. Until she comes home.
Narrator/Host
Twenty years after she last saw her youngest child, Marlene Eisenberg is still waiting, hoping Sybrina will soon join her siblings, William and Monica.
Reporter/News Anchor
This is why he was so he
Narrator/Host
was winning adults now who still come home for family game night.
Reporter/News Anchor
You got it. Oh, my God.
Narrator/Host
Back in Florida, a lot has changed too. The original detectives on the case have since retired. Sergeant Samuel Bailey now heads up the investigation. He declined to discuss those early days, but says the sheriff's office remains committed to the case.
Reporter/Journalist
All the speculation about what occurred in the early part of the investigation is just speculation today. We are still currently focused on trying to find Sabrina Eisenberg and bring this case to a resolution. The sheriff's department doesn't have any reason to come out and say, yeah, we colossally screwed up here and we're sorry for doing it because the screw up is so bad. You have two parents that lost their child and then on top of it somebody goes, you did it and they didn't.
Narrator/Host
Have you been formally cleared as suspects
Interviewer/Investigator
or do you think you're still under suspicion?
Steve Eisenberg
We don't know. We don't really talk to the authorities. We talk to the center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Representative from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
We have a full time case manager that is working with the Eisenbergs.
Narrator/Host
Robert Lowery, a vice president at the national center for Missing and Exploited Children, offers this startling fact the Eisenbergs cling to out of the 325 infant abductions they've studied dating back more than 50 years, most remain alive and well cared for and only 12 are still missing today.
Representative from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
An infant abduction is typically going to be by a woman of childbearing age who either had lost a child or was unable to get pregnant. And the motivation is really to take the child and raised the child as their own.
Narrator/Host
Like the case of Kamiyah Mobley, who was snatched from a Florida hospital just eight months after Sybrina disappeared.
Reporter/News Anchor
In South Carolina, we found an 18 year old young woman.
Reporter/Journalist
So further investigation revealed that fraudulent documents had been used to establish that young woman's identity.
Legal Expert or Commentator
She was taken by a woman who wanted a baby of her own, who has now been prosecuted for kidnap. That gives us a glimmer of hope, and it proves that miracles do happen.
Narrator/Host
Which is why the Eisenbergs have worked with the center for years, releasing eight age progression photos of what Sabrina might look like.
Forensic Artist or Age Progression Expert
When doing an age progression, we use the family members as reference points for what we think the missing child would look like.
Narrator/Host
For the latest image, the couple provided the center with teenage photos of their children. Monica and William.
Forensic Artist or Age Progression Expert
When I line them up side by side, start to see things like the shape of their eyes. Very unique to this family in the length and shape of the nose and the angle of their mouth when they smile and just the overall shape of the face. A lot of similarities there. I'm gonna just do an overall trace of the face. I'm gonna line up the facial features and then I'm gonna start to add in those features that I'm actually gonna be borrowing from the siblings faces.
Steve Eisenberg
Sabrina and Monica's baby pictures were identical. They were so hard to tell apart that we really believed that the three of our kids are going to look so much alike. And a young girl sitting at home watching TV is going to see William and Monica and go, I look like those kids.
Narrator/Host
But miracle homecomings aren't always perfect. Listen to Kamiyah Mobley talk about the woman who stole her. I still do call her mom. She will always be mom.
Steve Eisenberg
She wasn't sure that she wanted to know her parents. I could never imagine that. Like, to me, it's like when Sabrina's found, she's going to want to come home. And all of a sudden I'm listening to the news say that this young woman might not want to meet her parents.
Narrator/Host
Even if that happens to her. Marlene says she's ready for a miracle. And is it about to happen? Just months ago, a startling Facebook message From a woman 3,000 miles away Sparks new hope.
Steve Eisenberg
I wake up and look at my phone. There was a note from a young lady who believes that she may be Sabrina. My heart's racing. She basically was like, I don't want to give False hope. But she hasn't felt like she belonged where she was.
Interviewer/Investigator
Why does she think she could be Sabrina?
Steve Eisenberg
She's about the same age, 20 years old.
She has no pictures, no baby pictures from the time she was five months. Her pictures start after that.
Her grandparents tried to adopt her and
Marlene Eisenberg
the adoption took about four years.
Steve Eisenberg
Four years. And she doesn't necessarily believe that.
And then she had to check her Social Security number and she found out another woman in California as her Social Security number.
Interviewer/Investigator
So she has reason to believe that something is amiss.
Neighbor or Witness
Correct.
Narrator/Host
She even sent along pictures of herself, which Marlene declines to share to protect the young woman's privacy.
Steve Eisenberg
So I ran around the house and grabbed pictures that, you know, of Monica, of Sabrina, of Will, and started looking at their, you know, one side that were matching what she sent me. I think there's some resemblances that you could see, but it's so hard to know.
Narrator/Host
And it's not just her. Another 20 year old woman has now surfaced saying she too could be Sabrina. How much do you allow yourself to hope?
Marlene Eisenberg
We hope every day. I mean, hope is what keeps us going and moving forward.
Narrator/Host
When we come back after all that hope, will a DNA test solve this mystery? After two decades of heartache and suspicion, still no answers about what happened to baby Sabrina. But parents Steve and Marlene Eisenberg are holding out for a happy ending.
Reporter/Journalist
There's always that suspicion that maybe she's still alive, maybe she's still out there. I think it's still just as much a mystery today as it was back in 1997.
Interviewer/Investigator
Do you have regrets when you look back? What would you have done differently?
Steve Eisenberg
I wouldn't have done anything differently because we didn't do anything wrong. I mean, leaving our garage door open was not done on purpose.
Narrator/Host
Are you angry?
Interviewer/Investigator
What do you feel when you look back over what you've gone through?
Steve Eisenberg
Probably more frustration over anything that, you know, a lot of time was wasted when they could have been looking for our daughter.
Neighbor or Investigator
All it takes is one phone call or one piece of information to solve this case.
Narrator/Host
Tonight, they anxiously await that phone call. And though they haven't gone public, both young women who reached out suspecting they could be Sabrina have had their DNA collected for testing. The results may take an exclusive, excruciatingly long three to six months.
Steve Eisenberg
I don't understand it. It's just waiting, more waiting. And here we're so hopeful. We just want to know.
Representative from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The fact is that while we want to believe DNA, it can be done in minutes. In fact, it's just not the way that DNA works. It takes a lot longer than that. But either it's going to be their child or not.
Steve Eisenberg
I hope it's one of these two girls. But if it's not, our hope is that other people that are thinking that they're not in the right space and not in the right place will reach out to us so that we can get DNA for them taken. Because it's time.
Interviewer/Investigator
What do you most want people to know about Marlene and Steve Eisenberg?
Steve Eisenberg
That we love our family and that
we and we love each other and
love each other and we want our daughters to come home to make our family whole again.
Elizabeth Vargas
And if you think you've seen Sabrina, you can call the national center for Missing and exploited children at 1-800-THE LOST.
Narrator/Host
You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault Friday nights at 9 on ABC. You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 20 20. Thanks for listening.
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Original Air Date: June 23, 2026
Host: Elizabeth Vargas / ABC News
Duration: ~44 minutes (ads and outros omitted in summary)
This episode of 20/20’s True Crime Vault revisits the infamous 1997 disappearance of five-month-old Sabrina Eisenberg from her Florida home—a mystery that transfixed the US and led to years of suspicion, failed police investigations, and devastating accusations against Sabrina’s parents, Steve and Marlene Eisenberg. Nearly three decades later, the episode explores whether modern forensics and a new lead—a young woman reaching out on Facebook—could finally provide closure.
Secret Tapes and Arrest
Private investigation exposes ignored leads
Recent contact from women suspecting they are Sabrina
Role of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Marlene Eisenberg (on her faith Sabrina is alive):
“Oh, yeah, absolutely...Because who would take a baby to hurt them?” (03:36-03:37)
Steve Eisenberg (on not reliving the moment):
“I don't play it back. It hurts too much. It’s painful.” (03:47-03:51)
Private Investigator Kevin Kalwary (on missed opportunities):
"Not following up on certain leads and targeting the Eisenbergs from the minute they got there." (22:43)
Steve Eisenberg (on the wiretap tapes):
"There was nothing on them." (28:43-28:46)
Legal Expert/Commentator (on state investigation):
“Those wiretaps were a total self-inflicted wound the state performed on its own case.” (29:46)
Steve Eisenberg (on waiting for DNA results):
“I don't understand it. It's just waiting, more waiting. And here we're so hopeful. We just want to know.” (42:34)
Steve Eisenberg (on the family):
"We love our family and...we want our daughters to come home to make our family whole again." (43:16-43:20)
[End of Summary]