This is Deborah Roberts. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Each week, we reach back into our archives and bring you a story we found Unforgettable. Only a true psychopath could do this. A pool of blood coming from his head. Somebody had been paid to kill me. Why would you want your husband killed? Take a listen.

Coming up.

I'm on one.

I gave you some kidnap.

All right, Sam, need to calm down.

A story that transfixed the nation.

I didn't know what to think. I'm just screaming.

The disappearance of baby Sabrina.

A five-month-old girl who disappeared from her home in the middle of the night. This is where he heard the baby crying.

A massive search on the ground, in the air, in the water. Grieving parents who some thought didn't quite look the part.

Perception was that they were cold.

Seen by some as being unemotional.

Before long, police are zeroing in on them.

They said, We believe you know where your daughter is.

But the couple says they know nothing. They hire a lawyer and stop cooperating.

They're doing a half-ass job of trying to find Sabrina.

They were looking for a body and not a baby.

The parents arrested.

They busted in my front door, pointing a gun at me.

Charging Steven and Marlene Eisenberg. Either one of you have anything you want to say.

They had plenty to say, according to police who had secretly bugged their house.

One was in the bedroom, one was in the kitchen area.

But was it the smoking gun they claimed it to be?

So we'd queue it up and play it, and it's... Nothing.

Now the news 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.

I wake up and look at my phone My heart's racing.

Closer than ever to finding the answer? I'm John Quignones. A Monday morning, a mother wakes up to find a door left wide open and her five-month-old baby gone. There was no forced entry, no fingerprints left behind, and the parents say they didn't hear a thing. But police think those parents know more than they're letting on. That secret recordings in a jailhouse confession mission, point to them as involved in baby Sabrina's disappearance. But was any of it true? As Deborah Roberts first reported in 2018, Steve and Marlene Eisenberg would spend years fighting to clear their names. But will they ever be able to cast off the shadow of what happened that night so many years ago? And will they ever find their long lost daughter?

Sabrina, come call the mommy. Come here.

Come here, gorgeous. It's the classic family home video, a five-month-old baby girl learning to crawl.

And there she is crawling. This is Sabrina's first video, and here she's crawling.

Sabrina Eisenberg captured for the very first time by adoring Mom Marlene 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. 20 years later, they say their pain is as raw as ever. How much do you think about her?

We think about her every day. Sabrina has a room in our home. So this is Sabrina's room. This is the room that So when Sabrina comes home, this is her room.

Is these really her baby clothes?

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.

She is 20 years old now. Is 20 years old. So you feel confident that she's still alive? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Because who would take a baby to hurt them?

Do you play that back in your mind, going in to her crib finding her missing, running to the neighbor, calling 911. How much do you remember all of that?

I don't play it back. It hurts too much. It's painful.

It was November 23, 1997, a Sunday night, the family watching a movie. Later, Marlene and Steve tuck their three kids, eight-year-old William, four-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.

And as I turn around, and I look and notice my laundry room door to 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.

Her new baby and her favorite yellow blanket, both gone without a trace.

911.

I need to believe my baby's been taken up.

All right, Sam, need to calm down. Okay. All right, take a deep breath. What do you mean your baby's been doing now? I just got up to wait for my son up. My garage door was wide open.

My house to my door was wide open. My baby's gone out of the car.

How old is your baby? My baby is five months old. Oh, God, help me.

Marlene says she frantically runs to her next door neighbor's house. So I open 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. The Eisenbergs say they'd accidentally left their garage door up all night. Was there any sign that someone had been in your house?

Other than the door The laundry door being opened.

Other than the door being opened, her and her blanket missing.

The laundry door, was it closed when you went to bed? Yes. Was it locked?

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.

But we're not talking about the middle of the day. We're talking the middle of the night.

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.

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 the hurricanes. Jane Irma and the deluge of media that descended after baby Sabrina vanished. It's heart-wrenching. It really is. I mean, just for them to have to go through what they're going through. 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. 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?

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.

What stood out was just how bizarre this abduction was.

Graham Brink, an editor at the Tampa Bay Times, has covered the story for years.

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. That's unusual for a true kidnapping. A lot of times, they find out that it's someone the family knew or had knowledge of, and That's part of the leads we're looking at.

This video from that morning showing a distraught Marlene, led from her home by lead detectives Linda Burton and William Blake, while investigators began sweeping it for clues. They dust the garage for prints, confiscate the family cars, and bring the Eisenbergs to the police station for questioning.

They interviewed her separately, doing a polygraph for Marlene and then one for me.

Did you have any concerns, any objections to doing a polygraph test? No.

We even at that time offered to give them blood and fingerprints. Anything they needed.

Hours later, the couple says police coach them in this televised plea.

Please bring our baby back to us. She needs her mother and her father her, and we all miss her, and love her very much, and we need her to come home to us, please.

It backfired because the perception was that they were cold.

Marlene was seen by some as being not authentic, unemotional. Law enforcement seemed to focus in on that display.

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.

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.

He said something funny on the way to the car, so that's where they got the film of me smiling.

It was like gas on a flame when they were pictured smiling so soon after Sabrina had gone missing. Then there were the polygraphs.

Steve passes his, but Marlene's comes back inconclusive, so police bring her in for another. Once again, the same results. What did the police say to you? What did they ask you?

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.

When we come back with police zeroing in.

I'd like to talk to an attorney.

The Eisenbergs shut down. Law enforcement look at that as, Well, they must be trying to hide something. If you're innocent, why do you need a lawyer? Stay with us.

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Hey, I'm Andy Mitchell, a New York Times best author. I'm Sabrina Kohlberg, a morning television producer. We're moms of toddlers and best friends of 20 years. And we both love to talk about being parents, yes, but also pop culture. So we're combining our two interests by talking to celebrities, writers, and fellow scholars of TV and movies. Cinema, really. About what we all can learn from the fictional moms we love to watch. From ABC Audio in Good Morning, America, pop Culture Moms is out now wherever you live. Listen to podcasts.

Steve and Marlene Eisenberg have been under suspicion since the disappearance of their five-month-old baby, Sabrina. Steve has passed a lie detector test, but police say Marlene's was inconclusive. While it may seem improbable that a mother would murder her own child, it has happened before. Once Once again, here's Deborah Roberts.

Standby to go live, Bob.

I would like to say to whoever has my children, please bring them home.

In 1995, just two years before baby Sabrina vanished, All eyes were on this woman, Susan Smith. Stay intense to seek the death penalty. The tearful young South Carolina mom told police her young sons were abducted during a car jacking.

We have to remember the timing of Sabrina's parents. They were functioning under the cloud of 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.

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.

Here in Florida, the public and police are wondering if Marlene Eisenberg is just the latest mom turned murderer.

We love her very much and need her to come home. But like we say-When I met the couple in 1998, suspicion had already engulfed their lives.

Does it get any easier?

No.

Never.

All these years later, and still no answers. 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? Now, there's a very serious story out of Florida that's making national headlines. The investigation into that question transfixes the national media.

It created a media frenzy. In Florida, the FBI is now involved in the search for a missing.

Deputies expanded their search for Sabrina. Today, the frantic mother cried out in grief.

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.

When Marlene's polygraphs come back inconclusive, police turn up the heat.

I couldn't believe it. I just was answering everything they said. They would throw, Oh, you're under stress? And I would, No, I'm not under stress. I have three beautiful children.

At that time, I said, Are you charging us with anything? Did we do anything? He said no to those questions. Then I said, I'd like to see, talk to an attorney.

That didn't set well with the public or the police.

And they don't hire just any lawyer. They take on famed Florida attorney, Barry Cohen. They're doing a half-ass job of trying to find Sabrina. I first spoke to Cohen back in 1998. These are parents of a kidnapped child. Why do they need a lawyer? 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. In 2018, Cohen is waging a more personal battle, fighting cancer. We're at the cul-de-sac where the Eisenbergs live. So we caught up with his old team who helped defend the Eisenbergs. Lawyers Todd Foster and Steve Romine, and private investigator Kevin Calwary. Did you all make a conscious decision to cut them off from police and cooperation? Yes, we sensed that the Sheriff's office wasn't as interested in solving the case as they were making a case against the Heisenbergs. Law enforcement 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. In the days following Sabrina's disappearance, police mount a massive search on the ground, in the air, and in the water surrounding the family home.

Detectives say the bloodhounds were onto something.

At the time, it was the largest land and water search in Florida history.

And with the couple refusing to talk, it sets up a standoff between the parents and the police.

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.

Lieutenant Greg Brown was the Sheriff's office spokesperson in 1998. Can you understand their reluctance?

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.

If you have nothing to hide, why not just tell the police anything and everything and let them say anything and everything? We tried.

We called the police a week ago and said we would come in and talk to them as long as it could be taped and our attorney could be present, and they said no.

They don't want the They want 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 when you heard that? Does that make you feel open to talking to them?

So while police continue their massive search, the Eisenbergs attend candlelight vigils surrounded by supporters and work to get Sabrina's picture out far and wide. I smile at every baby I see to see if it smiles back. And if it does, I know it might be Sabrina. And while they aren't talking to police, they are talking to the media. We are now joined by Marlene and Steve-Appearing on Good Morning, America, Oprah, and 2020. Tonight, we take you inside this explosive case. Then, two months after Sabrina 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. How frightening was it for you that the Department of Children and Family Services showed up and started looking at your other children? It was scary as hell.

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.

A week later, the couple back on the hot seat, this time with federal prosecutors asking questions in front of a grand jury.

Either one of you have anything you want to say.

But if authorities think they'll finally get the Eisenbergs talking again, they are wrong. Steve and Marlene Eisenberg were silent as they walked into the federal courthouse, and apparently, they also had little to say before the federal grand jury.

You would think that naturally the parents of a child that had gone missing would spill everything they know in the hope that maybe he could help the investigation. That's not what happened. The Eisenbergs took the Fifth Amendment in grand jury. Why?

Well, that's what we were advised to do from our attorney.

Because it was a stacked deck in our view against them. But you understand that to a lot of people, it didn't look good for them to take the Fifth. 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. How did this ordeal affect this family? It ran them out of town. They had to leave Tampa. It was just untenable for them to remain in this community. Nearly two years after Sabrina vanished, the family moves to Maryland, back into Steve's childhood home.

One of the biggest reasons we were moving was because we couldn't raise our children to respect the authorities there.

But the Eisenbergs discover that a thousand miles cannot protect protect them from determined Florida authorities.

They busted in my front door.

Who will reveal that they have secret tapes. So you never heard the baby's dead and buried. It was found dead because you did it. Stay with us. We've got the exclusive view, Behind the Table. Every day, right after the show, while the topics are still hot, the ladies go deeper into the moments that make The View, The View. The Views Behind the Table podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcast.

The first ever criminal trial of a former President is underway in Manhattan. It's one of potentially four trials facing former President Trump as he makes his third bid for the White House. What do voters think about his culpability, and would a guilty verdict make a difference in the election? I'm Galen Druk, and every Monday on the 538 Politics podcast, we break down the latest news from the campaign trail. We sort through the noise and zoom in on what really matters using data and research as we go. That's 538 Politics every Monday and Thursday, wherever You Get Your Podcasts.

Steve and Marlene Eisenberg have been under suspicion ever since the disappearance of their baby daughter, Sabrina. The couple hopes that starting a new life in a new location will give them a break from the glaring spotlight they've been under. But two years later, they're about to learn that is hardly the case. Once again, Deborah Roberts.

On September ninth, 1999, in Bethesda, Maryland, a knock on the door since Steve and Marlene Eisenberg's new life spinning.

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.

Steve Eisenberg is at his real estate office when police arrive for him.

They said, 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.

Arrested not for the death of their daughter, but charged with lying to law enforcement about what happened to her. There was a dramatic break in the case. Steven and Marlene Eisenberg have been charged with lying to authorities. The indictment includes jaw-dropping quotes implicating the Eisenbergs in the death of their infant daughter. The Eisenberg discussed on several occasions that the baby was actually did. Is there anything at all that you guys had to say to the people? 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.

A chilling twist in the story of a missing child in Florida.

One was in the bedroom, one was in the kitchen area.

I had never heard before or since about putting a wire tap in a marital bedroom. Prosecutors insisted they 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.

That's all they needed. Case closed.

How do you feel about the Eisenbergs? I hope they convict them. If it's true, I hope they convict them, period. As you think back to that, you talked about walking in those few blocks to the courthouse, and people would shout things at you? Their cars would drive by and they'd yell, Baby killers, and stuff like murderers, things like that. Absolutely. We hope that the people will remember that accusations are just accusations. They are presumed innocent, and we will meet these accusations head-on. Though defense lawyer Barry Cohen publicly comes out swinging, today, the rest of his team admits they were privately worried. I mean, it sounded bad. I made some 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. And when you learned that your house had been bugged?

Annoyed, but we were-You couldn't believe that they bugged us.

Our kitchen, our bedroom, We thought it was a little ridiculous that they would do that, but they did it.

Some of what the investigators say that you two said was pretty damning.

All things that were never said.

Proclaiming their innocence and steadfast in the belief that their daughters out there somewhere alive, the Eisenbergs and their defense team start doing the work they say police are not. You felt that the police made mistakes very early on? Absolutely. What mistakes? Not following up on certain leads and targeting the Eisenbergs from the minute they got there. Pi Kevin Calwary takes us back to the family's Valrico subdivision, where he initially interviewed dozens of neighbors. What we found is within the recent year, there had been a number of attempted break-ins, one being just three houses away from the Eisenbergs, and there happened to be an infant living there. 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.Hello.Hello.I remember you.I remember you, too.How are you?

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. 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. This is the door that the dog went out, and this is where he heard the baby crying. Going. Go ahead.

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. It's possible to have left a getaway car there. It's possible to have come in there. Anything's possible. Look. The Eisenbergs insist police weren't interested in other leads because they were too focused on them, feeding years of whispers and wild stories. 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 the baby. What did you make of all of these theories?

We think they're ridiculous, so we ignore them because we know they're not true.

I didn't have an affair, ever.

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. When I first heard the tapes, my position was, They're screwing with us. Did you start to believe that they were being framed? Yes. Plus, the first glimmer of hope that baby Sabrina is alive.

A gorgeous little baby pops up from Illinois. Baby Paloma.

Next. 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. They're smoking gun. The only problem? There is no smoke.

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.

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 chicken squawking in a hurricane.

At first, even the Eisenberg's own attorneys can't believe what they're hearing. My position was, they're screwing with us. They're giving us bad tapes. Because when you began listening to the tapes-Because there's no way they could be hearing what they're saying. So we'd cue it up and play it, and it's... These noises. Nothing. So you never heard anything that resembled the baby's dead and buried. It was found dead because you did it. You never heard anything like that. So this came from somebody's head listening to static. You take a listen. This is that supposedly incriminating statement made by Marlene. And now here's what the indictment alleges she's saying.

Every time there would be a damning statement, you couldn't make it out. I've never in my life, and all the wire tabs, and all the bugging cases that I have handled heard anything as bad as this bugging attempt.

You have to be crystal clear that 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. Did you hear those tapes?

We listened to those tapes. We tried to. There was nothing on them.

When Hillsborough County lead detectives Linda Burton and William Blake take the stand in court, the Eisenberg's attorneys pounce. The hardest part about dealing with was marshaling all of the errors, inconsistencies, things they didn't follow up on, lies. There was so much to go after her with. I mean, truly, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Eventually, the court rules that four of the twelve tapes it reviewed are unintelligible, and the rest contained statements where detectives distorted the context. No bombshell at all. One of the prosecutors said, I understand there's 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. 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.

Those wire tabs 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.

She's getting up. Here she goes. I would say, all the truth is going to come out. And then finally it did. 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.

It's another extraordinary twist. Outraged, their legal team goes after the government for millions of dollars for a prosecution undertaken in bad faith. 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.

It was empowering because they said, We did things that we never done.

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 a lot of people to believe.

But Marlene and Steve Eisenberg once again brush aside suspicion and try to regain a normal life.

People have said, us in the beginning, How could you not have a nervous breakdown? How could you not? I'm like, Well, I have a four-year-old and an eight-year-old.

How were you able to shield them from the ordeal?

When things would come out and people would be staring and talking, we just marched on. And we just lived life with the kids.

Then in 2003, a possible prayer answered when an abandoned child surfaces in Illinois.

A woman in Illinois is looking through a missing child database face, and she sees a child who looks a little like Sabrina.

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.

We were shown a picture. We said that there was a lead that was called in.

How much did your hopes?Oh.

A ton.Quite a bit. I mean, it's an emotional roller coaster for us.

But the mystery baby's identity would ultimately remain a mystery.

They said they did the DNA, and it wasn't her.

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 inmates 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 infant's body, which he says was inside a boat he had retrieved from the Eisenberg's home. They're We love to solve these cold cases. But when you have the answer being from some guy who's been sitting in jail, why didn't he come forward before? That's always the big question.

Eventually, Barry Cohen and his other attorneys went and got statements.

What did you find out from him? He was all over the place. I mean, he was just a junky, and we knew he was lying.

I mean, all you have to do is 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 stories to try and disparage Marlene and myself.

Did you know Overbeck or did you know? Never heard the name. 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.

It was very surprising the Hillsborough law enforcement would put any credence in a jail house snitch. But you know the old saying, sometimes you got to go to hell to get your witnesses to put the devil in jail. And that's just what they did.

Still, the Eisenbergs can't seem to shake suspicion.

I know there are always going to be people that think Marlene and I had something to do with it, who was Sabrina's disappearance. We did not. We did not.

When we come back, a Facebook message from a 20-year-old woman who says she thinks she's Sabrina.

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.

Her Social Security number. Stay with us.

When she comes home, this will be her room.

She's never been in this house.

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.

You've got pictures in here of Sabrina.

We do. William, Monica, and Sabrina.

So you store your memories of your daughter here?

Yeah, until she comes home.

Twenty years after she last saw her youngest child, Marlene Eisenberg is still waiting, hoping Sabrina will soon join her siblings, William and Monica. This is why he was so great. He was winning. Adults now who still come home for family game night. You got it. Oh, my God. 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.

All the speculation about what occurred in the early part of the investigation is just speculation. Today, we're 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've 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. Have you been formally cleared as suspects, or do you think you're still under suspicion?

We don't know. We don't really talk to the authorities. We talk to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

We have a full-time case manager that is working with the Eisenbergs.

Robert Lowry, a vice President at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 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. 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 raise the child as their own. Like the case of Kamaya Mowbley, who was snatched from a Florida hospital just eight months after Sabrina disappeared. In South Carolina, we found an 18-year-old young woman. Some further investigation revealed that fraudulent documents had been used to establish that young woman's identity.

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.

Which is why the Eisenbergs have worked with the center for years, releasing eight age progression photos of what Sabrina might look like.

When doing an age progression, we use the family members as reference points for what we think the missing child would look like.

For the latest image, the couple provided the center with teenage photos of their children, Monica and William.

When I line them up side by side, start to see things like the shape of their eyes, very unique to this family, and 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 going to just do an overall trace of the face. I'm going to line up the facial features, and then I'm going to start to add in those features that I'm actually going to be borrowing from the sibling's faces.

Sabrina and Monica's baby pictures were identical. They were so hard to tell apart that we really believe that the three of our kids are going to look so much alike. A young girl sitting at home watching TV is going to see William and Monica and go, I look like those kids.

But miracle homecomings aren't always perfect. Listen to Kamaya Mobile talk about the woman who stole her. I still do call her Mom. She will always be Mom.

She wasn't sure that she wanted to know her parents. I could never imagine that. 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.

Even if that happens to her, Marlene says she's ready for a miracle. And is it about to happen? In January 2018, a startling Facebook message from a woman 3,000 miles away sparks new hope.

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.

Why does she think she could be Sabrina?

She's about the same age, 20 years old.

She has no pictures, no baby pictures from the time she was five months. Her picture started after that.

Her grandparents tried to adopt her, and the adoption took about four years.

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.

Has her social security number.

So she has reason to believe that something is a miss. Correct. She even sent along pictures of herself, which Marlene declines to share to protect the young woman's privacy.

So I ran around the house and grabbed pictures of Monica, of Sabrina, of Will, and started looking at their ones that were matching what she sent me. I think there's some resemblances that you could see, but it's so hard to know.

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?

We hope every day. I mean, hope is what keeps us going and moving forward.

After two decades of heartache and suspicion, still no answers about what happened to baby Sabrina. But Steve and Marlene are holding out for a happy ending.

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.

Do you have regrets when you look back? What would you have done differently?

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.

Are you angry? What do you feel when you look back over what you've gone through?

Probably more frustration over anything that a lot of time was wasted when they could have been looking for our daughter.

All it takes is one phone call or one piece of information to solve this case. They anxiously wait 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 excruciatingly long 3-6 months.

I don't understand. It's just waiting, more waiting. And here we're so hopeful. We just want to know.

The fact is that while we want to believe in 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.

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 get DNA for them taken because it's time.

What do you most want people to know about Marlene and Steve Eisenberg?

That we love our family. And that we-And we love each other. And love each other. And we want our daughter to come home to make our family whole again.

This is Deborah Roberts, the The DNA results from both young women who thought they might have been Sabrina did come back. Neither was a match to the Eisenbergs. The family reports they're hoping genealogy DNA websites may offer new leads. Steve says he's uploaded his DNA to several in hopes that someday, Sabrina will do the same and there could be a reunion. Several more young women have contacted the family thinking they might be Sabrina, but none has been a DNA match. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a missing person's photo of Sabrina on their website. Age progressed to what she might look like as a young adult. Sabrina would be 26 now. You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9:00 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. Thanks for listening.