DNA tests show Illinois girl not missing Florida child

PONTIAC, Ill. -- An Illinois couple will turn their attention back to adoption now that DNA tests have revealed the 6-year-old girl they've been raising is not a child who disappeared in Florida five years ago, authorities said.

"They were very relieved. They're trying to shield her from the public eye and they want to get on with the adoption process, and I think that will move forward now," Police chief Don Schlosser said Wednesday.

An FBI laboratory determined Tuesday that DNA from the Pontiac girl did not match a sample from Sabrina Aisenberg, who disappeared from her suburban Tampa home in November 1997, said Lt. Harold Winsett of the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff's Department.

A DNA sample from the Pontiac girl, known as Paloma, was collected Thursday after the couple who has raised her since 1998 voluntarily agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Pontiac police had expected the tests to take about two weeks. Winsett said the FBI apparently made the tests a priority because of the public interest in the case.

The Pontiac couple, who did not return calls for comment, had said they would surrender the girl if test results matched with Sabrina, who was 5 months old when she vanished.

Sabrina's parents, Steven and Marlene Aisenberg, who now live in Bethesda, Md., did not return calls for comment.

"They retained hope throughout, as did we," said Todd Foster, the couple's attorney. "Needless to say, it's a large disappointment."

Tuesday's results marked the second time in less than a week that DNA tests involving high-profile cases have dashed the hopes of a missing child's family. Tests concluded Friday that a boy abandoned at a hospital near Chicago was not Tristen "Buddy" Myers, who wandered away from his North Carolina home 2 1/2 years ago.

The Pontiac couple has had temporary custody of the girl since 1998, when they first sought to adopt her. The adoption stalled because she has no birth certificate and a police investigation failed to locate her biological parents, according to Schlosser.

Police said their investigation into Sabrina's disappearance continues.