Monday marks one year since the crime that gripped the Lake Geneva region and beyond
Schepp twins Alessia and Livia, photo 2010
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A new multi-language missing children hotline open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day in Switzerland, goes into service Monday 30 January: 0848 116 000.
The Missing Children Foundation, which runs the hotline, was set up in October by Irina Lucidi, the mother of twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, who disappeared one year ago today. The line is open to anyone dealing with a child who has disappeared or who may have useful information about a minor who is missing. The foundation’s site currently features five missing children, two of them the Schepp twins.
Sunday 30 January 2011 Alessia and Livia Schepp, six-year-old twins from St Sulpice, left home with their father Matthias, for the last time. He led Swiss, French and Italian police on an international hunt for five days, after their mother reported them missing, before he was found dead in Italy, having committed suicide.
The father, who was upset over the breakup of his marriage t0 Irina Lucidi, sent her several messages during his flight, finally saying in one that he had killed the children, without providing details.
GenevaLunch reported at length on the fruitless-to-date search for the children, a criminal investigation that remains open, although the active phase drew to a halt last April. Vaud Police emphasize that no evidence has been found to indicate that the children are alive, nor is there any that they are dead. The mystery remains, but the family and police are still asking the public to come forward with any information that could help the investigation.
Vaud police report, latest update, April 2011 (Eng)
Irina Lucidi with her daughters Alessia and Livia
SAINT SULPICE, SWITZERLAND – It is expected that on 7 October, Irina Lucidi, the mother of the Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp who dissappeared on 30 January, will launch a project aimed to quickly alert the public and authorities of missing children.
According to the Facebook page created by the family, the launch of the project will take place on the girls’ birthday.
“We wish to inform the FB community that on October 7th, the day of Alessia and Livia’s seventh birthday, Irina Lucidi will present a relevant new project linked to the disappearance of minors.
Such project, to which her brother Valerio, her family and close friends have dedicated all of themselves in the last three months, will be activated and developed in parallel and with a cooperative approach to all foundations and institutions already operating in the same domain and that are helped with the specific case of Alessia and Livia.
Regarding Alessia and Livia’s case, investigations are ongoing in the three countries involved, but there are no news or relevant elements at all”
Police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sautere has said that Valerio Lucidi has been “a buffer between the immediate family and the world’s media. He’s a doctor and he’s got strong shoulders – the family is very lucky to have him there.”
Matthias Schepp who kidnapped his daughters, took his own life in Italy on 3 February. Earlier that day, he sent a letter to his wife which arrived five days later in Switzerland, to say that he had killed their two six-year-old girls.
The mother has said that she believes, in her mother’s heart, that the girls are still alive and has begged for people to continue looking for them. She has also said that several riddles or mysteries remain in the case.
Related articles: GenevaLunch
Boiron beach, between St Prex and Tolochenaz, Switzerland: site of 2-day search for missing girls
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud say a large-scale two-day search for missing twins Alessia and Livia is over, with nothing found. The search, using 11 dogs from three countries, specially trained to search for dead bodies, turned up no trace of the girls or their father. “The search did not provide any new material for the investigation,” noted police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel in a statement issued late Friday.
The search for the missing children will continue in Switzerland, France and Italy.
It was prompted by new information offered by a witness 6 April, who told police he saw a man dragging a suitcase Sunday 30 January about 16:00, in the Boiron area.
Some 100 potential witnesses in the area were interviewed over the two days, says Sauterel, people who live or work in the area, including employees at dumps, fishermen and people who use the shooting range near the Boiron beach, site of the dog-tracking search.
The search involved more than 200 people, including 150 from the area’s Civil Protection unit alone, with dog handlers and their animals covering an area approximately 2.3 kilometres long and 150-400 metres wide on land.
The lake search involved Lake Brigade police from Vaud and Geneva who carried out what police call “a minutieuse search around the mouth of the Boiron river and the lake zone, an area 300 metres wide and 700 metres long, starting from the mouth of the Boiron.” They used remote-controlled robots, or vehicles, and multibeam echo lasers, multibeam swath bathymetry, a sophisticated system for underwater searches.
The entire area was blocked off, with police stationed every 100 metres along the lake road between St Prex’s eastern edge and the Tolochenaz roundabout, and red and white tape keeping out the public to allow the investigators to work in peace. Police boats kept other boats away just off the shore.
Irina Lucidi with her daughters Livia and Alessia, from her Facebook page, Missing Alessia and Livia
Mother says family took walks in searched area
Irina Lucidi, the mother of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, called a press conference Friday afternoon 15 April in Morges to thank police for undertaking a large-scale hunt for her daughters, who disappeared with their father from St Sulpice 30 January.
Matthias Schepp, the father of the girls, committed suicide five days after leaving with his daughters, driving to the south of France, Corsica and southern Italy. Police in Italy, France and Switzerland have been looking for the children since then; the father sent his wife a letter from Italy saying that he had killed them.
Irina Lucidi had told him a few days before he left with the children that their marriage was over and she wanted a divorce.
Her press conference was held at the tennis club on the west side of Morges, not far from the area where police have been carrying out an intensive dog-tracking search for the past two days, based on new information provided 6 April by a witness. Police searched the Boiron river mouth and beach area, where the witness says he saw a man dragging a suitcase Sunday 30 January, about 16:00.
Irina Lucidi told reporters Friday afternoon that she and her husband and the girls often walked in that area, just to the east of St Prex, near the lake road at Tolochenaz. The lakefront is not open to the public between St Prex and the beach, but from the beach it is possible to walk to Morges, about 3 kms.
Police say that concerning the possible death of the twins, investigators remain open to all possibilities.
Related articles: GenevaLunch
Search between Saint Prex and Morges will continue Friday
Police step up investigation into father’s presence in the area 30 January, seek new witnesses to black A6 Audi
Matthias Schepp was driving an Audi A6 Avant, similar to this one, the day the girls disappeared
Police are asking for witnesses who may have seen an Audi like this 30 January, with Matthias Schepp, near Morges
Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A massive new effort poured into the hunt for missing six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia Schepp, failed to turn up anything Thursday, despite high-tech equipment used to comb the search area and 13 specially trained dogs and their handlers from three countries, working with a team of 140 persons.
Vaud police organized the search, using 11 dogs that are trained particularly to hunt for bodies, after a man provided new, reliable information in early April that he had seen a man dragging a suitcase in the Boiron beach area about 16:00 Sunday 30 January. The information fit some of the “technical” aspects of the case already in police hands.
The beach, which straddles the boundary between Tolochenaz and Saint Prex, to the west of Morges, has long been a popular gay and nudist beach, but since police began to enforce a CHF500 fine ordinance for nudism the beach has become quieter, and in winter there are few people.
Boiron beach, roped off, with police guard: a lonely stretch of Lake Geneva shore (click on image to view larger)
The area was blocked off on land Thursday, as was the water around the beach, to allow the search to move ahead. Police used a a multibeam swath bathymetry system to sound the river and lake area where the river enters Lake Geneva, as well as an underwater remote-operated vehicle to check the area around the mouth of the river. Dog teams went over the beach area, carrying out a “ minutieuse” search after two St Hubert dogs from the Lausanne municipal police checked and failed to find any traces of Matthias Schepp, the father, in the area.
The Vaud police criminal investigation unit Thursday began new inquiries in the nearby area, looking for possible witnesses – at local dumps, professional fishermen, animal protection and fish protection authorities, rifle practice stands, etc. – who are often in the area or in areas close to the one being searched.
They are asking that anyone who might have information of interest contact the criminal investigation team at +41 21 644 8888. In particular, they would like to talk to anyone who might have seen the father of the twins and his car, a black Audi A6 Avant, in or near Morges, Sunday 30 January.
The police press release notes that:
“The team involved in roping off the area and in the search itself comprised: 55 men from the police in canton Vaud (gendarmes, inspectors and Lake Brigade specialists), 70 colleagues from the Vaud Civil Protection unit, 2 Canton Geneva Police Lake Brigade specialists, 11 dog handlers with 13 dogs from: the Austrian Police Dog unit with 6 men and 6 dogs (Diensthundewesen der Bundespolizei Oesterreich), the national dog tracking investigation unit from the French Gendarmerie in Gramat (2 men, 3 dogs), the Bern police (1 man with his dog) and Canton Zurich Police (1 man with his dog), as well as the Lausanne municipal police (1 man and 2 dogs), in addition to 2 police officers from the Morges commune police and 2 firefighters from the SPSL with a boat.”
Police boat guards the water near spot where Boiron empties into Lake Geneva, with Morges and west Lausanne in the background; St Sulpice, where the girls lived, is off to the right,further along the lake
Update 13:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud, with 140 people involved directly, are conducting a new search for six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, between Morges and Saint Prex. The search is focusing on the Boiron area, a wooded stretch with a small river that feeds into Lake Geneva.
The search is being undertaken after a new witness came forward 6 April to say a man was seen in the area, carrying a suitcase, Sunday 30 January around 16:00. The information, combined with other elements in the investigation, has prompted police to carry out the search.
The Boiron stretch of beach is about a 20-minute drive from the home of the girls’ father, in St Sulpice, where the girls were last seen by people who knew them, earlier that Sunday afternoon. The beach was until recently popular with nudists, but since nudism was banned in the area, which can be reached only on foot, it has been less frequented.
Police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel says that the new search involves 11 sniffer dogs from several cantons, trained to search for bodies. A two-day search has been scheduled; when pressed by journalists as to whether or not this means police are now looking for a body, Sauterel said that they remain open to all possibilities.
Missing St Sulpice twins, Alessia and Livia Schepp
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - SwissMissing, with help from Canton Vaud Police, carried out an 8km2 search in the Geneva countryside Saturday 9 April to Monday morning, looking for the bodies of the two missing six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia Schepp. Twelve people including a police officer and three dogs that are trained to look for bodies, teamed up and worked out of Confignon et à Chancy, Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for Vaud Police, told GenevaLunch.
He confirmed that the search turned up no results.
The search was undertaken after a sniffer dog confirmed the presence of the father, Matthias Schepp, in the area: a Geneva woman earlier reported that he had been seen with his daughters in the area Sunday 30 January.
SwissMissing has published a short report, in English, on the search, to thank donors who covered the CHF34,000 cost of the weekend search. The organization has also posted a YouTube video showing the search (in Italian). The family was not directly involved in the search.
The first photos released by police and the family in early February, shortly after the twins were declared missing
Update 18:55 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some 20 Swiss, French and Italian police met in Lausanne Wednesday afternoon 30 March with Swiss public prosecutor Pascal Gillerion to share their investigations into the disappearance of twins Alessia and Livia Schepp 30 January.
Despite intensive searches and knowing more details about the trail left by the father, police are still far from establishing the presence of the girls in several areas where the father is now known to have been.
One observer close to the investigations echoed the mood of the public in saying that “whether he did this intentionally or not, the scarcity of clues he left behind is astonishing.”
New details confirm father’s presence in many areas, but not that of his daughters
New details that have emerged, or been confirmed:
Alessia, Irina and Livia Schepp
Update 28 March Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The maternal grandfather of missing twins Alessia and Livia has posted a letter on the family’s Facebook page, harshly criticizing the chief Swiss investigator for raising the possibility the children might have been murdered by their father.
He also takes Vaud police to task for not responding quickly enough Sunday night 30 January, the evening Matthias Schepp and his six-year-old daughters disappeared.
Pascal Gilléron, chief investigator in canton Vaud in the case of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, told a Fribourg newspaper in an interview 25 February that officials are now considering more closely the possibility that the six-year-old girls’ father killed them.
Vaud police investigators have scheduled a press conference Wednesday late afternoon, following a meeting with their French and Italian counterparts.
Open letter from twins' maternal grandfather (click on image to enlarge)
The children disappeared, with their father, 30 January from their village of St Sulpice near Lausanne, and while many of his steps have been traced, the thread for the girls’ movements was lost.
The three-country investigation will move back to Switzerland next week, he told La Liberté, to confirm information already gathered by police in Switzerland.
He added that it appears nearly certain the children were not killed in Switzerland. The chief investigator in France some weeks ago suggested the possibility that the father threw the girls overboard, off the ferry, between mainland France and Corsica.
The twins’ mother, Irina Lucidi Schepp, still holds out hope that her children are alive. She thanked supporters and volunteers in a new video Wednesday 23 March.
Alessia, Livia and their father in 2010
Update 10 March: video added Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp has posted a video asking the public for help, after two new witnesses came forward. Vaud police said 7 March that the witnesses provided precise information about the presence in canton Geneva of a father and two little girls, one of them wearing glasses, who may well have been Mathis Schepp and his six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia. The trio were seen between 16:00 and 17:00 Sunday 30 January, and there is also evidence that his car, a black Audi A6, was seen in Geneva.
(story continued below)
Video from Missing Alessia and Livia Facebook page
Police are now seeking other witnesses in canton Geneva Sunday 30 January to help them pinpoint more precisely the father’s movements. Anyone with information is asked to please telephone the police at +41 21 644 4444 or to contact the nearest police station.
In Italy, police reportedly found a microchip Saturday 5 March from Schepp’s Audi navigation system, which will be sent to the US for the manufacturer to try to determine if data can be recovered from it. Police are hoping to obtain clues about the path the father took once he picked up the girls in Saint Sulpice, in Switzerland, Sunday 30 January.
The chip is reported to have been about 15 metres from the place where Schepp threw himself in front of a train in Cerignola, near Bari in southern Italy.
Background, GenevaLunch
Missing Alessia & Livia on Facebook
Click on image to view larger
These are among the most recent photos of the twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, taken in December 2010. The girls have been missing since 30 January 2010.
Update 20:00 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The family of the two missing six-year-old girls, Alessia and Livia, is seeking volunteers to help in the search for the children. The Lucidi family has decided to centralize all research efforts in addition to police work through the Swiss Missing network.
The group, which actively gathers and shares information on missing persons in Switzerland, asks anyone who can offer volunteer help to register online. The form is in French, German and Italian, but it is not complicated.
The Lucidi family, on its Facebook page for the missing twins, is now pointing volunteers to the Swiss Missing site and asking those who signed up as volunteers to do so again on Facebook.
Swiss Missing told the Tribune de Geneve Thursday afternoon 3 March that it already has between 100 and 200 volunteers and it is in the process of verifying the registrations. Once this task is done the group will work with the family and the police to use the volunteers. The girls’ mother, Irina, told a Swiss magazine, Illustre, that some 200 students from Geneva have volunteered and that the group includes dog handlers and speleologists.
Click on image to view larger
Scientific investigations rule out link to missing woman, sleeping tablets in home
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss police, in an update on the case of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia Schepp Friday 25, say scientific investigations have now ruled out two possible trails.
The father taking the girls to Corsica remains the strongest hypothesis, but investigators are now also focusing on the father’s whereabouts and actions between the time he left Switzerland and the time he arrived in Marseille. They renewed their appeal Friday to anyone who was in Corsica the first week of February driving a dark station wagon with Swiss plates, to let them know. Witnesses on Corsica may have confused the two cars, they underscore, complicating inquiries there.
No link to Katia Iritano’s disappearance
Police in cantons Vaud and Fribourg say scientific investigations ordered by public prosecutor Eric Gilliéron show that there was never any telephone contact between father of the twins and Katia Iritano, who went missing from Montbovon in Fribourg 25 January, nor does there appear to have been any communication between the two. This possible thread in the case has now been thrown out.
Police research the disappearance from father’s house of suitcases, bags
Scientific examinations of objects taken from the father’s residence have not turned up any evidence of sleeping tables or other potentially toxic drugs, they say, reducing the likelihood that the girls may have been killed there, by their father.
Police are trying to determine what happened to suitcases and bags that are missing from the father’s house.
Police officer Jean-Christophe Sauterel reminds, in a press release, that a credible witness early in the case gave evidence that the father and his daughters were in his car on the beach at Préverenges, near Morges, Sunday 30 January about 15:30.
Préverenges sits between St Sulpice, where the family lived, and Morges.
Some 15 minutes later his car was located in Morges, thanks to his cell phone. There is no evidence one way or the other about the girls’ presence in the car at this point.
Paucity of information on father’s movements between Switzerland and Marseille, France
There remain large gaps in the information about where the father was and what he was doing between the time he left Switzerland and his arrival in Marseille, and police are pursuing this.
Sauterel notes that “Investigators continue to count on information provided by any possible witnesses, in Toulon, Marseille, Corsica and Switzerland. Anyone who can provide any information about the presence in Corsica of another dark vehicle with Swiss license plates is asked to contact the police commissariat or the nearest police station, or to telephone the Swiss hotline +41 21 644 8231 or the French numéro vert 08 05 01 0707.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Update 16:05 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Family, friends and those who have been involved in the search for missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp gathered at the Pierrette beach in Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, at 15:00 Wednesday 23 February for an hour-long solidarity walk.
The missing girls’ mother, Irina, met briefly with the 100 or so people who gathered, to thank them for their support and to accept white flowers from two little girls, before she returned to her apartment in tears (photos: 20 Minutes).
Mother describes the girls’ contrasting personalities
She granted an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della sera, which appeared Tuesday evening. She told the journalist that she “absolutely must find” the girls, that this has now become her life. She talked about sleeping little and waking up to the pain every day, taking painkillers and sleeping pills.
“Where are my children? There is such wickedness, such cruelty in what Matthias did that I still cannot believe it, Irina says.
Possible links to two women not confirmed
Twins reportedly did not arrive in Italy with father
Missing Swiss twins, Alessia and Livia Schwepp, age 6, 115 cm tall, blond hair
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The paucity of confirmed information continues in the search for missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, as Italian police in the Foggia district tell Italian media that the father’s GPS car navigation system has provided no new clues. The GPS was found in pieces around the train tracks in Cerignola, southern Italy, some 150 metres from where the girls’ father, Matthias Schepp,committed suicide.
Italian news agency Ansa reports that Italian prosecutor Vincenzo Russo confirmed that initial research to piece together information from the GPS has turned up nothing, but the bits and pieces have now been sent to the manufacturer in the hope of discovering more about the father’s travels.
Russo also told Ansa that he can now confirm the children did not accompany their father when he arrived in Italy. He provided no details but says that despite the mother’s conviction the girls are alive, hope is fading.
Swiss police say no link to rumoured connections with missing woman
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Irina Lucidi Schepp, the mother of missing six-year-old twins Alessia and Livia, appeared on the Italian television programme “Domenica cinque” Sunday, on channel 5, saying that she cannot believe a man who loved his daughters could kill them, and until she sees them she will find it hard to accept that possibility.
She also told her Italian interviewers that several riddles or mysteries remain. She saw a woman’s coat at the home where the husband from whom she was separated lived, but she has no idea who it belongs to, and the woman has not returned to claim it. She has asked those who knew her husband if he was having an affair and the answer appears to be no.
Swiss police said several days ago they have no evidence Matthias Schepp was involved with another woman.
Italian media have been suggesting the Schepp may have in some way been involved with a 27-year-old woman who has been missing from canton Fribourg since 25 January, five days before the father and his twin daughters disappeared. Eric Cottier, Swiss magistrate for the case, who was also interviewed for the Italian TV programme, says he doesn’t believe so.
Italian police are also reportedly checking a pen that may have been acquired by the father on his return from Corsica, found near the place where he died, to see if there is evidence the children handled it. They continue to try to glean information from the shattered GPS navigation system from Schepp’s car.
Cottier and police in canton Vaud continue to insist that all possibilities remain open, however, including the possibility that the twins never left Switzerland.
Matthias Schepp committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train in Cerignola, southern Italy, 3 February.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fre), Il gironale (Ita)
Correction: father’s tape recorder not yet found
Click on images to view larger
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The search for missing twins Alessia and Livia continues on the ground in Corsica, but Swiss, French and Italian police have issued an alert for anyone who may have had or seen a black car, probably similar to the Audi A6 driven by the girls’ father, Matthias Schepp, on Corsica in February.
Swiss, French and Italian police met in Marseille Wednesday 16 February to compare notes. They say there is now a good probability that a second car was involved in Corsica, possibly driven by Swiss tourists, but that may have confused witnesses:
“Based on the testimony of several witnesses who have come forward to French police and the gendarmerie in Corsica, it now appears likely that another vehicle, a large car, probably a station wagon, dark in colour and with Swiss license plates, was driven in Corsica in early February 2011. This vehicle resembled the Audi A6 station wagon driven by the father of the twins. Anyone who was in Corsica during this time and who had a vehicle corresponding to that of the twins’ father is asked to get in contact with Canton Vaud Police or French police.”
Swiss media 20 Minuten reported early Wednesday that the father’s tape recorder, rarely out of his sight, had been found, but according to police commissioner Jean-Christophe Sauterel in Lausanne, the machine has not yet been found.
Police are asking anyone with information about a car similar to an Audi A6, seen on Corsica in early February to contact French or Swiss authorities
“Some 20 police officers, including those directing the investigations and representatives from Interpol, took part in the operational meeting organized by the Inter-regional office of the justice police (Direction interrégionale de la police judiciaire) in Marseille Wednesday 16 February 2011.
The investigators, working closely with Swiss and French public prosecutors, formalized the daily exchanges they have had for the past 15 days.
They also assessed the operations carried out and those which are still in the planning stages.
Italian police announced that they have found fragments of the GPS navigation system on the railroad tracks, 150 metres from the area of impact. The tape recorder belonging to the father of the twins has not, for now, been found.”
Press conferences took place in all three countries where the investigation continues, with police saying that they are not excluding any options, including the possibility that a third party was involved, possibly from Lyons, where the father’s cell phone was last picked up.
Marseille prosecutor Jacques Dallest told media Wednesday morning outside the joint investigators’ conference that police can’t rule out anything. Pascal Gilliéron, the Swiss prosecutor who participated in the meeting, also speaking outside the morning Marseille conference, told reporters that “the twins might never have left Switzerland. This is clearly one of the hypotheses that we can’t brush aside.” The same remark was made to media at a press conference Wednesday evening in Lausanne.
Italian police say no trace of dead bodies found on father’s car
The Italian mobile police chief, Alfonso Fabbrocini, speaking in Foggia, says that the mud and vegetation found on Matthias Schepp’s car, parked near the train tracks where he committed suicide, are being analyzed. The one “comforting” point, he says, is that no trace of dead bodies was found on the car.
A car similar to Matthias Schepp's Audi A6 may be involved; police are seeking witnesses
Police continue to investigate the family and Matthieu Schepp’s work environment to provide details that might be of use to French police.
The two Swiss Public Safety investigators remain in Corsica where they are taking part in investigations and searches for the twins, working with French police.
Vaud police have issued this alert: “Anyone who can provide any information about the presence in Corsica of another dark vehicle with Swiss licence plates is asked to contact the police commissariat or the nearest police station, or to telephone the Swiss hotline +41 21 644 82 31 or the French numéro vert +33 8 05 01 07 07.
A second car, similar to the Audi A6, dark in colour, may have been involved on Corsica in early February in the twins' disappearance
Matthias Schepp’s treasured tape recorder may have been found in Italy
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in three countries have issued no new reports Wednesday morning 16 February on their progress searching for missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp. The mother, Irina Ludici, in an interview with 20 Minuten in German, mentions questions that have been raised, notably about the father’s presence in Lyons.
Matthias Schepp, was close to the airport in Lyons, France, not the logical route to take to Marseille or the one most likely proposed by his GPS navigation system. This is also the end of the trail of his cell phone. The girls’ mother is quoted by 20 Minutes as asking “We’re wondering if Matthias met an accomplice at the airport”.
The online daily notes that this might explain who was watching the girls while the father went into a travel agency in Marseille alone to buy three tickets for the ferry to Corsica.
20 Minuten also reports that a tape recorder, an older model that the father always kept with him, was found by Italian police, but this has not been confirmed officially.
Police from the three countries investigating the disappearance of the two six year olds are meeting today in Marseille to compare notes.
In other reported developments, none of them confirmed by investigators:
- French television TF1 reports that French police continue to search beaches in Corsica and spent Tuesday 15 February combing the area at the northern end of the island
- Macinaggio is reported by several media to have piqued police searchers’ interest, based on reports by a man in his 60s who claims to have seen Matthias Schepp with a blond woman in the passenger seat, in a parked, muddy car with Swiss license plates, near the harbour
- Police in Corsica are also checking wells and ancient furnaces among the ruins in Macinaggio, according to 20 Minutes.
- Ansa, the Italian news agency which has been closely following the story, reports that there have been no new elements.
GPS destroyed, unlikely to provide hoped-for information
Police continue to seek information on Matthias Schepp's final 3 days in hopes of finding the twins Alessia and Livia
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in southern Italy have found the GPS navigation system of Matthias Schepp, the father of the missing twins Alessia and Livia, age 6. Italian news agency Ansa reported the news Tuesday 15 February, citing Foggia region police chief Alfredo Fabbrocini.
The agency also reports that traces of blood were found on rocks on the Corsican beaches searched over the weekend by police, but it hasn’t yet been determined if the blood is human, or if so, if there is any link to the missing girls.
The father’s GPS was found, torn apart, scattered along the railroad tracks near where the father committed suicide. Police fear they will not be able to piece it together to obtain useful information about the last movements of the father, in the hope of knowing more about where he left the twins.
Police from Italy, Switzerland and France are meeting Wednesday 16 February in Marseille to better pool their information and decide on the next step. The meeting was originally scheduled for today, Tuesday, but was postponed for logistical reasons, according to French police.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Mother flies over Corsican coast with police
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp flew to Corsica in a private plane Saturday 13 February to help with the investigation there. Shortly after her arrival she flew over several of the island’s beach areas with two Swiss police inspectors and a French police team, reports TF1, French television.
She gave a press conference, looking exhausted, at the end of the flight, saying that the day had been long and fatiguing but that she still hopes her daughters are alive, and given that they were seen on Corsica, she appealed again to the public to provide police with leads.
TF1 ran a lengthy report Saturday morning on the French police investigation.
The two Swiss investigators sent to Corsica, with their French counterparts, used helicopters to check two beaches in the Porto Vecchio area Saturday, for three hours: Santa Giulia and Palombaggia, reports TF1. The request to check the beaches came from Swiss police.
Girls may have been seen with father and 45-yr-old woman on Corsica
Several French media report Saturday that, according to “a person close to the investigation”, which generally signifies a police leak in France, a witness who identified the father and two daughters 1 February in Propriano, Corsica, is being taken seriously by police there.
The woman, Olga Omeck, says she saw the twins eating croissants or pains au chocolat, then walking ahead of the pair, who were discussing something, as if they knew each other.
The woman appeared to be about age 45, with chestnut coloured hair with light streaks.
Search based in northern Corsica
Italian news agency Ansa said Saturday morning that police are basing their activities in Macinaggio, at the northern tip of Corsica, as they try to reconstruct the father’s flight.
French police provided no further details except to say that they are trying to locate all the places on the island that may have been known to the father, Matthias, from previous professional trips but also visits there with his wife.
Italian police hunt for GPS
Italian police said Saturday they have stepped up the search for the GPS used by the father, Matthias Schepp, given the possibility that he may have thrown it away shortly before committing suicide in the south of Italy, throwing himself in front of a train.
The GPS navigation system could provide valuable clues about where he drove, in Corsica and/or in Italy.
Matthias Schepp took his own life in Italy 3 February and sent a letter to his wife, Irina Lucidi Schepp that day, which arrived five days later in Switzerland, to say that he had killed their two six-year-old twins.
The mother was interviewed by news agency Ansa Friday and she said that she believes, in her mother’s heart, that the girls are still alive. She begged for people to continue looking for them.
Related articles, GenevaLunch
French police confirm he left Corsica for Toulon alone
Missing twins: father announced he killed them, planned to take his own life
Update 12:00 Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The chances of finding Alessia and Livia Schepp alive appear to have sharply diminished, with the announcement Friday morning that the father sent a letter to the mother saying he had killed them.
The letter was one of eight addressed to her that arrived Tuesday of this week, 8 February, but the family and police in France and Switzerland agreed to keep the information private in order to encourage witnesses to come forward.
Girls location a mystery, but search focuses on Corsica
The mystery continues, of where the two missing children are located, Swiss police in canton Vaud told journalists Friday morning 11 February at a news conference, but French police have now confirmed that the “after arriving in Propriano with his daughters Tuesday 1 February, the father left alone on a ferry from Bastia to Toulon, in France, at 21:00. It appears likely that after this he drove to Italy by car, stopping in Naples before driving on to Cerignola, where he took his own life 3 February 2011.”
Letter sent from Cerignola, saying he intended to kill himself
The father’s letter indicated that he was in Cerignola, following the death of his daughters, and that he intended to commit suicide.
Police continue to ask for help in tracking the father’s movements from noon Tuesday 1 February to Thursday noon 3 February, in Corsica, Toulon and around Naples.
A statement issued by Vaud police Friday morning notes:
“Investigations in Switzerland are now focusing on the family’s environment and the private and professional life of the father, in order to support and provide new elements to French investigators. The search to find the twins is currently centred on Corsica. Canton Vaud Police are sending two criminal investigators this weekend to Corsica to work with French investigators. At the same time, Swiss police are working with the French national police to organize an international meeting next week to establish the current status of the investigation.”
The mother and her immediate family left Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, Thursday, to get away from the media crowds that have stayed outside her home all week.
Italian newspaper says mother received new letters, with message
French media report father bought one ferry ticket, Corsica to Toulon
Aunt: Zurich medical specialist says letters show father mentally ill
Update Friday 11 February Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – La Republicca, in Italy, reports that the mother of the twins, Irina Ludici Schepp, has received two new letters from the father by post, one of which reportedly tells her not to worry, that the girls are as peace and didn’t suffer. Vaud police in Switzerland said Thursday, after the latest post was delivered, that they had no new elements in the investigation, however, and the Italian story has not been confirmed.
Swiss television TSR was told by the sister of the girls’ mother that the family had asked a Zurich specialist to analyze the letters from the father, Matthias Schepp, and that his assessment was that they showed signs of mental illness but that he had a “neutral” face that would have made it difficult if not impossible for those around him to be aware that he was ill (video link for Swiss residents).
A day earlier, Wednesday 9 February, the brother, sister and parents of the 43-year-old engineer from canton Basel issued a statement, via Swiss news agency ATS, that they were all in agreement he could only have committed the “terrible acts” attributed to him if he were suffering from “a terrible mental illness and the loss of his normal personality.” Both families have said he was an attentive father.
French media were reporting widely late Thursday that Matthias Schepp, the father of the missing twins, bought a single ticket on a boat from Corsica to Toulon 1 February. They all cite an unnamed “judicial source close to the investigation”, but the information has not been confirmed officially, and until now, virtually no information has been leaked to media in France by authorities close to the investigation.
Several new elements surfaced Thursday 10 February linked to the investigation into the missing Swiss twin girls, Alessia and Livia, who have not been seen since 31 January or possibly 1 February. Their father killed himself 3 February in the south of Italy (previous GenevaLunch reports).
- Canton Vaud Police have completed their analysis of the father’s work computer, used in his office at Philip Morris in Lausanne. They now confirm that 27 January he was searching for information on firearms. During the next two days he was searching for information on poisoning and suicide techniques as well as ferry timetable information. The files had been erased from the computer, the girls’ uncle told reporters.
- Vaud Police have suspended their search operations for the girls while French authorities step up their search, particularly around Corsica.
- The girls’ uncle told reporters in Saint Sulpice Thursday 10 February that French police appear to be closing in on the details of how the father returned from Corsica to the continent, to Italy, but that details and dates remain vague.
- The mother and members of her family will be leaving Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, to retreat somewhere away from the constant presence of journalists, with the mother suffering from nervous exhaustion, according to her brother, Valerio Lucidi.
Irina Lucidi Schepp, was interviewed by TSR 9 February outside her home n Saint Sulpice, her first public appearance since the girls went missing
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The mother of the missing Swiss twins, Alessia and livia, appealed directly to people in Switzerland, France and Italy Wednesday evening 9 February to give police even the smallest scraps of possible information they might have about the two blond six year olds.
Irina Lucidi Schepp appeared first on TSR in Switzerland, live on the evening news, then on a nightly news bulletin in France and a longer programme in Italy.
The family has added the appearances to the Facebook page created to help the search, which is mainly in Italian.
French TV appearance, Irina Lucidi
More money found in Italian mailboxes as searches continue in three countries
Mother appeals on Swiss television to thank the public
Click on images to view larger
Alessia and Livia Schepp, photos taken last summer - the twins turned 6 in October
Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were last seen for certain on the ferry that took them to Corsica from Marseille, police in canton Vaud said at an evening press conference Wednesday 9 February.
French police have now confirmed to their Swiss colleagues that several people saw the children in a play area on the boat and the woman in the adjoining cabin heard children crying during the night. A man who saw the father leave the boat with two small girls was able to positively identify the father, but not the children.
Reports that the girls were later sighted in Italy have not been confirmed, however, they insist, referring in particular to the owner of a bar in Italy who has come forward as a witness. Interviews with witnesses are taped and reviewed by police involved in the investigation. The police have received a large number of calls from potential witnesses, they say, all of which are being followed up.
Two more envelopes containing money, mailed by the girls’ father to his wife, have been found in mailboxes near the Cerignola train station, one containing €950 and the other €550.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Three Italian police officers from a mobile unit in Bari, Italy, visited the Vaud police headquarters in Lausanne Wednesday to exchange information “useful to our investigations” said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of Vaud police communications, but they declined to provide further information in order not to prejudice the investigation.
New photos of the girls were also distributed to the media.
Searches, including the use of bloodhounds continues in three countries: Switzerland, Italy and France.
The mother of the girls, Irina Lucidi, has agreed to appear, live, on Swiss public television TSR Wednesday evening at 19:30.
Police at the Vaud head office were surprised to hear she would be appearing live, shortly before the TSR programme, but Sauterel told GenevaLunch that the family is free to talk to media and others: it’s important to remember that this is not a criminal investigation.
The relations between the family and Vaud police are excellent, “and in an extremely difficult context. And in an emotionally charged situation,” says Sauterel. Nothing happens fast enough for them, of course, he points out, and yet they understand, but it means continual highs and lows as information comes in.
“The family has been very lucky to have Irina’s brother, Valerio Lucidi, as a buffer between the immediate family” and the world’s media, who have followed the story closely, he notes. “He’s a doctor and he’s got strong shoulders – they are very lucky to have him there.”
Related stories on GenevaLunch
Livia and Livia Schepp, not identical twins
Witness makes unconfirmed report girls seen in Italy day father died
Update 13:25 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French authorities say Wednesday morning 9 February that missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were seen on the ferry to Corsica 31 January. The information has not yet been confirmed by Vaud police, who are leading the three-country investigation, but it appears the search for the girls may now intensify in and around Corsica.
An Italian witness has come forward to say she saw the father and his daughters in Cerignola, the town where the father committed suicide, the day of his death. Italian newspapers carry an interview with a bar/cafe owner in the town who says the father asked her if his daughters could use the toilets. Video camera footage reportedly shows him, but not the girls, although she says they, too, were there. If police accept her as a credible witness, it would be the first time they were seen in Italy.
French public defender Jacques Dallest told a Wednesday morning press conference in Marseille that witnesses have now come forth who say they heard and saw the girls: the woman with the cabin next door to the trio heard them in their room and later saw the girls in the ferry’s play area. She has positively identified one of them.
The person who saw them Tuesday morning, getting off the ferry, has been identified as an elderly man who couldn’t see the girls clearly, but who saw a man and two children.
Vaud police, at a Tuesday evening press conference, stated that the father has never been been violent, correcting information that has appeared in some media reports. “There wasn’t any reason to think the lives of his daughters were at risk,” before the girls disappeared, said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for the Vaud Cantonal Police.
The girls’ uncle, who has been talking to media from outside the mother’s home in St Sulpice, has said he will no longer be available to the press.
Reminder, girls’ appearance: when last seen in St Sulpice the two blond six-year-olds, who wear titanium-rimmed glasses, orange and bordeaux were dressed as follows: Alessia was in blue jeans, with a striped T-shirt and white jacket, Livia had a purple ski jacket and was wearing pink and white sports shoes.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police canton Vaud have set up two hotlines for anyone with information that might help them find the missing six-year-old Schepp twins, Alessia and Livia.
Swiss hotline +41 21 644 82 31
Numéro vert in France 08 05 01 07 07.
Italian news reports say no child seats, no clothing for girls found in car
Update 15:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A new aspect in the investigation into the disappearance of twins Livia and Alessia Schepp has surfaced Tuesday 8 February: the father mailed some €5,000 to the mother, in bills of €50, the money he took out of several bank machines in Marseille, France 31 January.
“There wasn’t any letter with the money. This has us worried because the theory that he might have paid someone to take care of the children no longer holds,” Valerio Lucidi, the girls’ uncle, told journalists in front of the mother’s home in Saint Sulpice.
Lucidi is the brother of the girls’ mother.
The money was mailed in several packages from Cerignola, Italy, the town where Matthias Schepp died 3 February, throwing himself in front of a train.
The six-year-old twins were last seen 30 January in Saint Sulpice, with their father.
No clothes, no child seats
Italian news agency Ansa reports police in southern Italy as saying Monday that they found no child seats, no clothes for the girls in the car. There is media speculation as a result that either the girls never left Switzerland or the father erased evidence they were with him.
European law calls for child seats up to the age of 12.
click on image to view larger: father and daughters were last seen together Monday 31 January and police are seeking more recent sightings: police number +41 21 644 8231
Update 15:15 Geneva / Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud who are leading the investigation into the disappearance of two six-year-olds, missing for a week, Tuesday provided details of the massive manhunt that is on in Switzerland as well as France and Italy, to find the children.
They issued a correction to their Monday report, saying it is now known that the father himself stamped a ticket to take a ferry to Corsica from Marseille Monday evening 31 January, but there is no confirmation that the girls, Alessia and Livia Schepp, were seen together at a travel agency in Marseille one week ago. It is not known if the father actually took the ferry.
The last time the girls were seen alive, with certainty, was Sunday 30 January at 13:00, when they were seen near their father’s place in St Sulpice.
The father, Matthias Schepp, committed suicide Thursday 3 February.
Swiss boats, lake, rivers, roads, gas stations have provided no leads
Canton Vaud police now have 40 officers investigating the girls’ disappearance. They have searched the homes, inside and out, three times, of both parents, who were living apart in Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne. Eighty households in 60 buildings in the area have been interviewed. Four boats docked in Morges and Vidy, which belong to Philip Morris, Matthias Schepp’s employer and to which he could have had access, have been searched with a finetooth comb, as have been ports in the area.
All service stations between St Sulpice and Geneva have been contacted.
Father, daughters had tickets for ferry to Corsica last Monday; €5,500 missing
Missing Swiss twins, Alessia and Livia Schwepp, age 6, 115 cm tall, blond hair
Lyons, France and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Update 3 19:15 Interpol late Saturday issued a Yellow Notice missing persons alert to its 188 member countries for the two six-year-old Schepp twins, Alessia and Livia, who have been reported missing since 30 January from St Sulpice, near Lausanne. The girls’ father, who failed to return them after a weekend of visitation rights, committed suicide Thursday 3 February near Bari, Italy.
An Interpol Yellow Notice is designed to help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves, the organization notes on its web site.
Matthias Schepp’s will, written 27 January, was found last week, a fact confirmed by Vaud police, who have not released information about the contents. Italian media report that he left his possessions to his wife, those close to him and especially to his two daughters.
French police confirm the three were seen Monday evening in Marseille
Police in France have now confirmed an Italian news agency report that the father was seen with his two daughters Monday 31 January, when he bought tickets for a ferry that evening to Propriano, Corsica at a travel agency in Marseille. He is believed to have been on board the ferry, say police, but they cannot be absolutely certain at this point. It is also from Marseille that he sent a postcard to his estranged wife, Irina saying he could not live without her. She had served notice the week before that she wanted a divorce.
Large sum missing, Italian media report
He took €7,500 from five different bank machines Monday according to Italian media, but when his body was found Thursday, in Italy, shortly after he threw himself in front of a Milan-Bari train, he had only €100 left on him they report. This has not been confirmed by police.
Vaud police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel is quoted by TSR as saying credible witnesses in Naples say the father was seen dining alone Thursday evening. And an uncle of the girls told Italian television Rai2 that a woman was seen walking with the twins in Monza, Italy Friday evening, but this trail has turned up nothing.
Earlier related reports, GenevaLunch:
Police number if you have information +41 21 644 82 31, or go to the nearest police station
Update 5, 12:00 6 February / Lausanne and Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two six-year-olds, Alessia and Livia, remain missing Saturday morning 5 February, and police are asking the public for any news that might help find them, following their father’s suicide shortly before midnight Thursday 3 February. The girls are perfectly trilingual in French, Italian and Swiss-German, Vaud police told GenevaLunch. The family is Swiss: correction – police now say that although the father was born in Canada he did not hold Canadian citizenship.
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