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Rucki Sisters, Missing Since 2013, Found Alive On A Minnesota Farm

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 07:02 PST, Nov 19, 2015

The Rucki sisters went missing in 2013 and were found alive and well on a Minnesota horse farm. Gianna Rucki and Samantha Rucki, now 16- and 17-years-old, respectively, had not been seen in public since they were reported missing from the town of Lakeville.

Lakeville Police Lt. Jason Polinski said that when the Rucki sisters went missing, he assumed their mother would be eager to help assist with the investigation to locate them, but her was wrong, the Star Tribune reports. Sandra Grazzini-Rucki has consistently denied having anything to do with the disappearance of her daughters.

The mother was arrested last month in Orlando, Florida, for charges related to a failure to provide police investigators of their whereabouts and a deprivation of the parental rights of her ex-husband. The mother is now sitting in a Dakota County, Minnesota, jail, awaiting trial.

“Both Samantha and Gianna were found safe and in seemingly good health at the residence where the Search Warrant was executed,” a statement by the Lakeville Police Department said. “The sisters will return to Dakota County where the unification process can begin.”

In November 2013, David Rucki, the father of Gianna and Samantha, was granted full custody of the sisters by a Dakota County judge, MSN reports. Before their disappearing, the Rucki sisters told the judge in assigned to their parents’ divorce case that they were being abused by their father. After the Minnesota teens ran away, they appeared on a local news station and repeated the abuse claims and begged to live with their mother.

A psychologist involved in the custody case told the judge that the Minnesota sisters needed to be “deprogrammed,” because they had been brainwashed by their mother to hate their dad. David Rucki denied ever abusing his daughters, and the court could not find an “credible evidence” that any abuse had taken place.

Minnesota police feel that an “underground network of family court critics,” known as the Protective Parent Movement, was hiding the Rucki sisters. Evidence found at a St. Cloud home reportedly led to a search warrant being obtained to search the White Horse Ranch. The owner of the ranch, Gina Dahlen, is allegedly a supporter of Protective Parent, and has worked as an activist to increase awareness about what she feels is a broken family court system, which often awards custody or visitation rights to abusive parents.

The White Horse Ranch describes itself as a non-profit organization where abused children and horses come together. “Broken children and hurting horses are able to bring each other to a place of healing through God’s unconditional love,” the ranch website states. The website for Gina Dahlen’s ranch reportedly went offline on Wednesday afternoon. She lives on the ranch with her husband, Doug. When reporters from the Star Tribune called to ask for a comment about the Rucki Sisters, Gina reportedly said, “We respectfully ask you to back off,” and hung up the phone.

The attorney for the mother of the then-missing Rucki sisters said that her client did not want her daughters found because they would be forced into unwanted therapy and be forced to live with their father.

“What are they coming back to? What protection will they have?” Grazzini-Rucki attorney, Michelle MacDonald, said. “They’re free right now.”

David Rucki has not yet given a public statement about his daughters being found alive on a Minnesota horse farm. During an interview in April, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki again denied helping hide her daughters or knowing anything about their whereabouts.

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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