Missing sisters found safe and sound

The mystery of the "disappearance" of two girls who went missing 11 days ago in the northeastern French town of Rheims is over.

On Thursday 11 year-old Sophie and her 13-year-old sister Valérie turned up at school. Their father and three other people, were taken in for police questioning suspected of having kept the girls hidden.

As reported here, the girls had been at the centre of a custody battle between their mother, Katia Navigante and their father, Rénaldo Gualtieri.

They were last seen on Monday October 6, when they reportedly left their father's apartment to go to school, leaving behind them a message saying they would rather die than return with the mother to Italy, where she lives.

Navigante had been given custody by Italian authorities of the two girls after the couple split - a decision that had been upheld recently by a court in France.

The sisters went "missing" the day before their mother arrived to collect them.

Now it seems that the father was behind the charade to keep the girls hidden, although when news broke that they had turned up at school, he was still maintaining his innocence in the whole affair.

He told French television that he was relieved they were safe and sound and perhaps the suspicions that he had anything to do with their disappearance would now be dropped. But shortly afterwards police took him in for questioning along with his brother and two of his friends.

They girls turned up at school on Thursday morning looking as though nothing had happened, their principal, Dany Alary, told national radio. "It was 8.10 am and they looked like two girls who were just a little late for class - that's all."

The police were immediately informed and the sisters questioned as to their whereabouts during the past 11 days.

Although of course it was good news that the girls had been found safe and sound, Navigante's lawyer, Sylvie Dumont-Dacremont, told reporters the welfare of the children had always been paramount and they had also been unwilling to implicate their father in their "disappearance" for fear that he would be sent to prison.

She also urged the authorities to "take all measures necessary to keep them safe until their mother arrived."

For almost two weeks the police remained convinced that the father was behind the "fake disappearance" of the two girls and a half hour before they turned up at school had launched an investigation of more than 15 houses of friends and family of the father of the two girls, the public prosecutor of Rheims, told a press conference.

"It seems that this has all been organised by the father," she said. "It's unacceptable to play such a game with the police and judicial authorities for such a period of time

Gualtieri's father, Guiseppe, refused to believe that his son is guilty.

"I know my son. I know he's innocent," he told reporters. "He would never have hidden his children."

In spite of that Gualtieri and his accomplices are likely to be charged and if found guilty, could face a maximum of three years in prison.

On Friday morning the girls' mother arrived in France to collect her daughters.