Alisya and Sarah Di Giacinto, aged 16 and 12, were located in a Formia apartment after a two-week search. Three people have been detained in relation to their disappearance.Two sisters who had been missing for two weeks from a residential care home in Italy's central Abruzzo region were found alive and well on Sunday evening in an apartment near their mother's home, bringing an end to a case that gripped the nation.Alisya and Sarah Di Giacinto, aged 16 and 12 and originally from Minturno in Lazio, were located by Carabinieri police in Formia, a coastal town about 130 km south of Rome. On Monday at dawn, police detained three people for questioning in relation to the girls' disappearance -their mother Valentina Dacunto, her partner Vincenzo Esposito, and her father Marco Dacunto - according to state broadcaster RAI News. The apartment in which the sisters were hiding is the home of a woman in her 80s (initially identified by Italian media as an aunt), described by news agency ANSA on Monday as a distant relation of the girls' mother. The rescue operation, which began on Sunday evening, involved around 30 Carabinieri officers in uniform and plainclothes, supported by special forces, with the entire area cordoned off. The girls are reported to be in good health and will be placed in a protected facility in southern Lazio. Background The two sisters, who disappeared on the night of 6 June, had been living in a care home at Civitella Alfedena, in the province of L'Aquila, since being removed from their parents two years ago by court order. Their father had been accused of mistreatment and their mother of manipulative behaviour towards the children, Il Post reports. A few days before their disappearance, the court in Cassino had restored parental responsibility for the two girls to their father. Whether there is any connection between that ruling and the girls' disappearance remains unclear. It was reported that both sisters had been distressed by their separation from their mother. Investigators had been examining the theory that the girls had not left alone. Alessia Natali, the Abruzzo representative of the Penelope association - which supports families of missing persons - had suggested that the sisters were likely assisted at every stage of their disappearance, including leaving through a broken window and travelling by car. During the two-week search, the Carabinieri questioned Youssef, the boyfriend of Alisya, for more than six hours on Saturday, although the prosecutor confirmed that he was not under investigation. Prosecutors had also ordered searches across southern Lazio earlier in the week. Reactions The girls' father, Stefano Di Giacinto, was reportedly taken to hospital after learning the news, having suffered a collapse brought on by emotion. Earlier on Sunday, their mother had told her lawyer that she feared the girls might be dead, saying it was impossible that if they were still alive they had not found a way to return to her. Their father, by contrast, had said on Saturday that his heart told him they were still well. Further details about the circumstances of the girls' disappearance are expected to emerge during a press conference at the Sulmona public prosecutor's office at around midday on Monday.

Two sisters who had been missing for two weeks from a residential care home in Italy's central Abruzzo region were found alive and well on Sunday evening in an apartment near their mother's home, bringing an end to a case that gripped the nation. Alisya and Sarah Di Giacinto, aged 16 and 12 and originally from Minturno in Lazio, were located by Carabinieri police in Formia, a coastal town about 130 km south of Rome. On Monday at dawn, police detained three people for questioning in relation to the girls' disappearance -their mother Valentina Dacunto, her partner Vincenzo Esposito, and her father Marco Dacunto - according to state broadcaster RAI News. The apartment in which the sisters were hiding is the home of a woman in her 80s (initially identified by Italian media as an aunt), described by news agency ANSA on Monday as a distant relation of the girls' mother. The rescue operation, which began on Sunday evening, involved around 30 Carabinieri officers in uniform and plainclothes, supported by special forces, with the entire area cordoned off. The girls are reported to be in good health and will be placed in a protected facility in southern Lazio. The two sisters, who disappeared on the night of 6 June, had been living in a care home at Civitella Alfedena, in the province of L'Aquila, since being removed from their parents two years ago by court order. Their father had been accused of mistreatment and their mother of manipulative behaviour towards the children, Il Post reports. A few days before their disappearance, the court in Cassino had restored parental responsibility for the two girls to their father. Whether there is any connection between that ruling and the girls' disappearance remains unclear. It was reported that both sisters had been distressed by their separation from their mother. Investigators had been examining the theory that the girls had not left alone. Alessia Natali, the Abruzzo representative of the Penelope association - which supports families of missing persons - had suggested that the sisters were likely assisted at every stage of their disappearance, including leaving through a broken window and travelling by car. During the two-week search, the Carabinieri questioned Youssef, the boyfriend of Alisya, for more than six hours on Saturday, although the prosecutor confirmed that he was not under investigation. Prosecutors had also ordered searches across southern Lazio earlier in the week. The girls' father, Stefano Di Giacinto, was reportedly taken to hospital after learning the news, having suffered a collapse brought on by emotion. Earlier on Sunday, their mother had told her lawyer that she feared the girls might be dead, saying it was impossible that if they were still alive they had not found a way to return to her. Their father, by contrast, had said on Saturday that his heart told him they were still well. Further details about the circumstances of the girls' disappearance are expected to emerge during a press conference at the Sulmona public prosecutor's office at around midday on Monday.