SWITZERLAND • Alessia & Livia, 6 SCHEPP ~ Vaud canton

Father found dead - TWINS MISSING - Vaud
February 4, 2011



The body of a resident of Saint-Sulpice was found dead near Bari, Italy. Police are searching for his two daughters, twins of 6 years.

On January 30, in full marital crisis, Matthias S. left his home in Saint-Sulpice with his two daughters, Alessia and Livia, twins 6 years.

The same day, the Vaud cantonal police reported the family missing to all European police, via the Schengen Information System.

Matthias S. drove to Marseilles via Annecy. This is where the two girls were seen for the last time Jan. 31.

Thursday night, the body of Matthias S. was found in the station of Cerignola, between Foggia and Bari (Italy). According to the Italian press, he would have thrown himself under a train at high speed. Italian police have no news of the twins. Both children speak perfect French, Swiss German and Italian.

According to Giornale di Puglia, Matthias S.' was found in the station car park. Italian police launched a search throughout the surrounding area and would be in contact with the mother of two girls.

According to police spokesman, Jean-Christophe Sauterel, Matthias S. lived in the same village as the twins mother and would have exercised his right to visit during the weekend. At year end, he had gone for an extended vacation abroad with them without any problems.

Two investigators from the cantonal police were sent to Marseilles. Two others will be dispatched Saturday to Bari, said the spokesman.

The disappearance notice indicates the following:

Alessia: 6 years, 115 cm, blond hair, long, medical glasses titanium color bordeaux, wearing a white striped shirt, red and pink, a white jacket with beige interior, blue jeans and black boots.

Livia: 6 years, 115 cm, blond hair, long, wearing a green t-shirt, a purple ski jacket, blue jeans, white sneakers and pink adidas, eyeglasses medical titanium orange.

Matthias S.: Medium build, 180 cm, blond hair with frontal baldness, blue eyes, wears glasses. Was dressed in sporty-dressy attire and drove an Audi A6, registered in Switzerland.

Anyone who noticed this man and his daughters or who may have information about this case are urged to contact Police Cantonale Vaudoise at +41 21 644 82 31 or the police station nearest you.

Witnesses in Italy or France should contact the nearest police station.

http://www.tdg.ch/pere-retrouve-mort-vaudoises-portees-disparues-2011-02-04

Vaud police on alert to find missing twins
February 5, 2011

Vaud police are implementing large resources to find the missing twins, whose father lived in St-Sulpice (VD) and killed himself in Italy. Thirty employees are mobilized to investigate every element that would advance the search.

Two Vaud inspectors just arrived in Bari. They will participate in the search of the two little 6-year-old girls and bring back fragments of the father's remains for formal identification, said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, spokesman for the cantonal police, questioned Saturday by ATS.
Two other Vaud inspectors were in Marseille to uncover the slightest clue to advance the investigation, said the manager. In Switzerland, all clues are being investigated by a multiplication of contacts.

Vaud police opened the Command Post (BCP) used mainly during disasters. A total of thirty employees are mobilized to find the children. A family friend has also called for a solidarity march in Saint-Sulpice (VD) on Saturday afternoon.

Resumption of research

In Italy, the search for the twins resumed Saturday morning, say the Italian news agencies. The father had disappeared from his home in St-Sulpice on Sunday with his two daughters due to personal problems.

Read more

Missing 6-yr-old Twins - The mother is living a nightmare



Irina S. is living a nightmare. Currently in Marseille, she learned Friday afternoon via the social networking site Facebook, that her husband had committed suicide the previous evening on the railway tracks in Italy.
The horror is that this 44-year-old father formerly from Canada, had kidnapped her 6-year-old twins last Sunday at Saint-Sulpice. "I really do not know where they went. My husband was a very introverted man. He could be violent", says the mother in tears.

The cantonal police launched an alert on the disappearance. "Currently, they can be anywhere," says Jean-Christophe Sauterel, a spokesman, who works with French and Italian police.

The couple, married since 2004, were separated since last August. They were both managers in a multinational tobacco company based in Lausanne. Irina and Matthias S. lived separately. "He stayed in the family home in Saint-Sulpice. It was I who moved, but I stayed in the village", says the mom.

"Without their security blanket"
The father had weekend visitation with the small twins, Alessia and Livia. "On Sunday evening he sent me a text message to say he would return them directly to school Monday morning. I immediately called him back. He said he was with acquaintances and he could not talk very long. Then my husband could no longer be reached." The mother immediately became worried. She got in her car and went to all their mutual friends, in search of his two daughters.

"They were nowhere. I even returned to marital home in the early evening. The children's beds were still made. Their cuddly toys were still there. I called the police." The father and two girls were immediately reported to all European police, via the Schengen Information System.

The father's first known location was in Annecy. "He had a phone call," say the police. Then in Marseille, where he withdrew money. Afterwards, nothing until Thursday evening. At 22:45, the carabinieri found his lifeless body on railway tracks in Cerignola, Italy, in the province of Foggia. He had thrown himself under the Eurostar City Milano-Bari. His car, an Audi A6, was parked in the parking lot. But no trace of the twins. No letter in the car explaining his actions.

The mother had filed for divorce
What was he doing there? "We have family in Italy but not in that area," laments the mother. Canton police had been notified about (the suicide) yesterday morning. "Two police inspectors are traveling to Italy today. Others will go to Marseille. Our priority is to find the two children," said Jean-Christophe Sauterel. The mother was told the grim news on Facebook: a friend had issued a wanted notice and an article from the Italian press describing the suicide. "It was she who alerted me about the death of my husband."

Of note is that last year the father had taken a long vacation with the twins . "It went well," says the mom. She mentioned however, a matter that could have triggered their disappearance last week, is that she had filed for divorce.

Appeal for witnesses
All persons who have seen this man and his daughters, or who may have information about this case are urged to contact the Vaud cantonal police at telephone number +41 21 644 82 31 or the police station closer. Witnesses in Italy or France should contact the police station nearest you.

http://www.24heures.ch/vaud-regions/actu-vaud-regions/cavale-filles-pere-retrouve-mort-sud-italie-2011-02-04

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A Facebook page has been set up:

Missing Alessia & Livia is on Facebook

Interpol issues yellow alert for missing Swiss twins
Father, daughters had tickets for ferry to Corsica last Monday; €5,500 missing
February 6, 2011

Lyons, France and Geneva, Switzerland - 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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/06/interpol-issues-yellow-alert-for-missing-swiss-twins-update-3/

Police: latest on missing Swiss 6-yr-old twins
February 7, 2011

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.

The father’s car is being checked in databases across the country for possible speeding violations. All the customs posts in the Geneva area have been checked. A helicopter has gone to work to search Lake Geneva Monday.

The investigators have been checking out the circles in which family members moved, school, the father’s family in the Basel area, the parents’ workplace and they’ve been checking phone calls and banking activity Swiss-wide. For now, all of these checks have failed to provide any leads to the whereabouts of the girls, says Vaud police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel.

Italy and France manhunts continue
A massive search continues in the area where the father threw himself in front of a train, near Cerignola in the south of Italy, as well as in Naples, where the father ate a meal at noon a few hours before he died. Swiss and French authorities have also put a large number of investigators to work on the case.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/07/police-latest-on-missing-swiss-6-yr-old-twins-update-1515/

The family of two missing Swiss six-year-old twin girls say they fear the worst after receiving
money posted by their father before he killed himself.





An international police search is continuing for Alessia and
Livia, who have not been seen since their father's body was found last Thursday.
Valerio Lucidi, the girls' uncle, says Matthias Schepp sent 4,400 euros (£5,720) to his wife before he died.
He said this suggested the money was not being used to care for the girls.
"It worries us because the theory that he might have paid
someone to keep the children doesn't hold any more," Dr Lucidi, a Belgian surgeon, said.
"The fact that he sent back the money is worrying," he added, speaking on behalf of the family.
'No certainty'
But police said the fate of the twins was still unclear.
"Concerning Alessia and Livia, currently we have no
certainty. I repeat we have no certainty... We do not know today if they
are alive or dead," said police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel.
Schepp had taken the twins from his wife's home in
Switzerland on 30 January, before traveling to France and then Italy,
where he threw himself under a train.


Police released an undated image of Matthias Schepp

According to police, the Canadian-born father had withdrawn
7,000 euros in the French port of Marseille last week and mailed 4,400
euros of it to his estranged wife, Irina Lucidi.
He had also sent her a note from Marseilles saying he could not live without her,
and a letter a day later from nearby Toulon.
Some 40 Swiss police investigators, along with French and Italian police,
are taking part in the hunt for the missing girls.
'Not violent'
Police say the only confirmed sighting of Schepp with the twins was on 30 January in St Sulpice.
Dr Lucidi said this was when the girls were playing with a neighbour's child.
Schepp's mobile phone showed he was in nearby Morges about
two-and-a-half hours later, and he then went to Geneva and crossed into
France in the Annecy region, police said.
Police said he is then believed to have taken the ferry from
Marseille, France, to Corsica, before travelling on to Naples in Italy.
Schepp's body was found on train tracks in Cerignola Campagna, in Puglia.
He was found with only about 100 euros on his person.
Swiss police have said there is no record of Schepp ever being violent towards the girls or his wife.
The girls' uncle said the little girls spoke both Italian and
French fluently and would be capable of seeking help if left on their own.
He also said that the twins' passports and identity cards were still with their mother.
Alessia was dressed in a striped white, pink and red t-shirt,
blue jeans, black boots and a white quilted anorak, while Livia was
wearing a purple ski anorak, and white and pink running shoes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12397406

Missing Swiss twins: Father 'searched suicide sites'
February 10, 2011

The father of two missing Swiss twin girls trawled websites on suicide, guns and poison before killing himself, police say.

Police also said that Matthias Schepp, who was last seen with the twins on a ferry to the island of Corsica, made the trip back to mainland France alone.

The uncle of six-year-old Alessia and Livia said the latest news was "very, very worrying".

Schepp threw himself under a train in southern Italy on 3 February.

Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said analysis of Schepp's work computer had turned up the websites, which also included ferry schedules.

"These factors show that the father had carefully planned his journey," Mr Sauterel said.

"The investigation is now focusing on trying to establish more precisely the movements of the father from Tuesday noon, when he arrived in Corsica with the girls, until Thursday noon, when he was in the region of Naples."

'Terrible premeditation'

Meanwhile, police official Alfredo Fabbrocini told Associated Press that Schepp was on his own when he sailed back to the port city of Toulon in mainland France from Corsica on 1 February.

Prosecutors earlier this week said that the girls were last seen with their father on a ferry to Corsica - the first confirmation that they had boarded the boat.

The 43-year-old father had been looking after the girls for the weekend, but failed to return them home as planned.

He picked up the girls from his estranged wife's house in the Swiss village of St Sulpice on 28 January, before travelling to France and Italy. He was found dead in Cerignola, in the region of Puglia.

An unconfirmed report from a cafe owner in Cerignola emerged in recent days suggesting that the girls were seen with their father shortly before he threw himself under a train.

But Mr Fabbrochini said police had viewed closed circuit video footage from the cafe "over and over," but had not seen them.

He added that days of searching the Cerignola area with sniffer dogs had failed to turn up any trace of the girls.

The twins' uncle, Valerio Lucidi, said Schepp's "terrible premeditation" was "very, very worrying", according to AFP news agency.

On Wednesday, the girls' mother, Irina Lucidi, went on Italian TV to urge viewers who might know anything about the case to contact police.

"I appeal to whoever has seen them or knows something to contact the police," she said on Rai 3's primetime news bulletin.

Alessia was dressed in blue jeans, a striped T-shirt and a white jacket, while Livia wore a purple ski jacket with white and pink sneakers.


Missing twins timeline

• * Friday 28 January: Schepp picks up his daughters to spend the weekend with them in their home village, St Sulpice, where both he and his estranged wife have homes
  
  * Sunday 30 January at 1300 (1200 GMT): The girls are last seen with Schepp in St Sulpice
  
  * Sunday 30 January at 1804 (1704 GMT): Schepp crosses the border into France
  
  * Monday 31 January: Schepp sends a despairing postcard to his wife from Marseille; he and the girls take an evening ferry to Propriano, Corsica
  
  * Tuesday 1 February: Schepp disembarks in Propriano, with or without the girls; he later leaves Corsica for Naples in Italy
  
  * Thursday 3 February: Schepp throws himself under a train at Cerignola, in the south Italian region of Puglia
  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12426659

Letter from father | "The girls rest in peace, they have not suffered"
10 February, 2011

"The girls rest in peace, they have not suffered." According to the Corriere della Sera, the father of twins Livia and Alessia announced their death with these words, in one of two letters to their mother Irina which he mailed from Italy before killing himself in Cerignola in Puglia, throwing himself under a train.

http://www.tdg.ch/actu/suisse/jumelles-presumees-mortes-2011-02-10

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

Feb 10, 2011 - Update 22:45 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)

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/10/twins-father-searched-suicide-guns-poisoning-online-update-2/

Police check 'mystery woman' in missing twins hunt
February 12, 2011



AJACCIO, France — French police were checking Saturday a report of a mystery woman who was seen with missing Swiss six-year-old twins and their father in Corsica before he committed suicide.

An investigator said they were "taking seriously" the account of Olga Orneck, a resident of the small ferry port of Propriano, who described to AFP how the four had attracted her attention on the morning of February 1 as she went to buy her newspaper.

"I noticed them because Propriano is a small village where strangers are spotted immediately, especially at this time of year," she said in a telephone interview.

Orneck said the girls wore pink track-suits and parkas and were eating croissants or chocolate pastries. One had spectacles and a pink and white hat.

"The woman was aged 45-50 with brown hair and was wearing a black three-quarter-length coat and white trousers," she said. "She wasn't from Propriano or I'd have recognised her."

Both the woman and the man, whom Orneck identified as Matthias Schepp immediately from a photograph afterwards, were also eating croissants and chatting as if they knew each other well, she said.

Orneck contacted the police in response to an appeal for witnesses after Schepp threw himself under a train in southern Italy two days later, having written to his estranged wife saying he had also killed the girls.

She was "100 percent certain" it was Schepp she had seen and "95 percent certain" the girls were his daughters Alissia and Livia, she said.

Earlier Saturday, police said they hoped their mother, Irina Lucidi, could help them in the hunt on Corsica, while their Italian colleagues searched for the GPS from their dead father's car.

"The mother's presence will enable us to visit all the places the family went on holiday a few years ago," a police investigator told AFP.

He did not say if police had approached Lucidi, who pleaded Friday for the hunt to continue, more than two weeks after Schepp failed to return Livia and Alessia to their Swiss home on January 30.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, Schepp said in his last letter to his wife, postmarked the day of his death in the Puglia town of Cerignola, "I will be the last to die. I have already killed the girls. They did not suffer and now they are resting in a tranquil place.

"You will not see them again."

French police, who were being joined by Swiss colleagues on Saturday, say he had returned alone from Corsica, which he knew both from holidays and his work with a tobacco company.

They have been scouring the island between Propriano in the southwest, where Schepp arrived with the twins, and Bastia in the northeast, from where he left.

Meanwhile, Italian police were concentrating their hunt on a canal not far from the station at Cerignola, in Puglia, where Schepp committed suicide.

ANSA said they were acting on the assumption that Schepp threw away the satellite navigator from his car before he killed himself. If found, it could enable them to retrace his route since he left the Swiss village of St-Sulpice on January 28.

"My heart of a mother feels that my daughters are alive. I beg you, continue to search for Livia and Alessia. Keep looking, it can't be that my little twins are dead," ANSA quoted their mother, who is of Italian origin, as saying on Friday.

Lucidi's family have said Schepp, 43, suffered from a split personality.

Swiss newspaper 24 Heures reported that he had been receiving psychiatric counselling, although there were no signs he presented a danger for his daughters. By all accounts he was regarded as a loving and doting father before his fateful trip.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jW6v4gsC81Hwog1iSN_C6LkRlPNg?docId=CNG.34b0a7cfb441605b61894f84b5a9eda2.751

Missing Alessia & Livia is on Facebook.

Facebook link: Missing Alessia & Livia

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A heartsick Swiss mother has turned to Facebook in a plea to the public to help find her young twin daughters, missing since they were snatched by their suicidal father. Alessia and Livia Schepp, both 6, were last spotted crying on a ferry to Corsica with their dad after he had taken them from the home of his estranged wife last week, reports the BBC. He later killed himself after throwing himself in the path of an oncoming train in Italy.

"That all three were seen in Corsica on a ferry is a sign of hope that they may be somewhere in somebody's care," said the girl's mom, Irina Lucidi, on Italian TV. "I appeal to whoever has seen them or knows something to contact the police." The twins' dad, Matthias Schepp, wrote a postcard to his wife saying that he could not live without his girls.

Mum Of Missing Twins Joins Search In Corsica
February 13



The mother of missing Swiss six-year-old twins has joined a police hunt in Corsica after their father confessed to killing them before committing suicide.

Officials on the French Mediterranean island said Irina Lucidi and her brother arrived on a private jet and immediately boarded a police helicopter to fly over areas mentioned by the girls' father in his letters.

In one of the letters sent before he died, Matthias Schepp confessed to killing Alessia and Livia Schepp.

He later threw himself under a train in southern Italy, without revealing their whereabouts.

Despite the confession, the twins' mother said she had "not lost hope" of finding her children.

Police in Switzerland, France and Italy have been searching for signs of the blonde youngsters after Schepp failed to return them to his estranged wife on January 30.

He was found dead four days later.

French police say Schepp had returned alone from Corsica after travelling there with the twins.

Police have been scouring the island between Propriano in the southwest, where Schepp arrived with the twins, and Bastia in the northeast, from where he left, apparently alone.

Meanwhile, Italian police were concentrating their hunt on a canal not far from the station at the southern town of Cerignola, where Schepp committed suicide.

Italy's ANSA news agency said they were acting on the assumption that Schepp threw away the satellite navigator from his car before he killed himself.

If found, it could enable them to retrace his route since he left the Swiss village of St-Sulpice on January 28.

:: Anyone with information on the twins has been asked to contact the investigating authorities on +41 21 644 82 31.

Read more

Mother of missing Swiss girls raise question of accomplice
February 15, 2011

The mother of missing Swiss twins on Tuesday raised the possibility that the father of the girls had picked up an accomplice on his journey through France.

"We are asking ourselves if Matthias Schepp had picked up an accomplice at the airport in Lyon," Irina Lucidi told Swiss online newspaper 20 minuten.

Swiss police confirmed that Schepp was in the region of Lyon on the evening of January 30 as his mobile phone signal was picked up then.

Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel would not confirm that Schepp travelled to the airport, but noted that the mobile "relay antenna is in the region of Lyon and covers the sector in the direction of the airport."

French police were checking on Saturday a report of a mystery woman who was seen with Schepp and the six-year-old twins in the French island of Corsica.

Olga Orneck, a resident of the small ferry port of Propriano, told AFP that the woman was "aged 45-50 with brown hair and was wearing a black three-quarter-length coat and white trousers."

"She wasn't from Propriano or I'd have recognised her," she added.

Meanwhile a resident at Macinaggio said that he saw a blonde woman sitting in Schepp's car while the twins' father was driving.

20 minuten however quoted Lucidi saying that she has "never met a woman who fits this description."

Quoting sources close to the family, the newspaper also reported that police have retrieved a voice recorder belonging to Schepp, although it added that the recorder did not contain any important elements regarding the girls' fate.

Police in Italy, France and Switzerland have been hunting for the two girls after Schepp failed to return them to their mother on January 30.

It later emerged that Schepp confessed in a letter sent to his estranged wife to killing six-year-old Alessia and Livia before he threw himself under a train in Italy.

Investigators have focused their search on Corsica over the past few days after witnesses came forward to say they had seen Schepp and the two girls there on February 1.

According to the police inquiry, Schepp allegedly left Corsica on the same day, alone, aboard a ferry to mainland France from where he drove to southern Italy, where he committed suicide.
http://www.expatica.com/ch/news/swiss-news/mother-of-missing-swiss-girls-raise-question-of-accomplice_130273.html

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Missing twins: father’s GPS, car key found, say Italian police
February 15, 2011
GPS destroyed, unlikely to provide hoped-for information

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/15/missing-twins-fathers-gps-car-key-found-say-italian-police/

Investigation of missing Swiss twins upended
February 16, 2011

,,,,

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss police now say the missing 6-year-old twins might never have left Switzerland at all — throwing the entire investigation into doubt — and French investigators say they could even be alive.

After spending weeks searching for the girls, Swiss police and the public prosecutor's office for the canton (state) of Vaud said Wednesday there is no way of telling whether any witnesses actually saw Matthias Kaspar Schepp whisk away his daughters from Lausanne to Marseille, France, and then to the French island of Corsica and possibly to Italy.

"Anything is possible now," Vaud police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. "We can't rule anything out."

The surprise turn of events came as authorities held news conferences in Marseille and later in Lausanne. Investigators say they have been unable to confirm any of the alleged witness sightings of the girls since they were seen playing at 1 p.m. Jan. 30 with a neighbor's child in their hometown of Saint-Sulpice, part of Lausanne, along Lake Geneva.

Until Wednesday, the search had focused on Corsica, where Schepp was thought to have brought the girls. He later committed suicide in Italy on Feb. 3, police said.

Swiss police said investigators were now looking for a large, dark station wagon with Swiss license plates that was similar to the one driven by Schepp. Sauterel told the AP that witnesses had reported seeing the Audi A6 in different places in Corsica at exactly the same time.

The sighting of the second Audi is "confusing the witness accounts," Sauterel said. He added that it should, however, be easier to find the driver of the second car to eliminate its route from investigations as it was during a low tourist season.

Sauterel and Eric Cottier, the public prosecutor for Vaud, told reporters the implications of that include the possibility the girls never left Lausanne.

Cottier said 100 people have called or written to the police with information, but none of it has led to evidence of the girls' whereabouts.

"In Switzerland, every tip, every concrete thing, was checked to find the two girls," he said.

They said Italian police had found fragments of the GPS navigation system from Schepp's Audi on the railroad tracks not far from where he threw himself in front of the train in Cerignola, Italy.

The GPS was too damaged to retrieve any data from it, and Sauterel said it seemed Schepp had removed the GPS and tried to deliberately destroy it. He also said the will police found that Schepp had written on Jan. 27 — the same day his wife e-mailed him to say she wanted a divorce — did not contain any details of an alleged plan to kill the children, contrary to some news reports. Schepp and his wife had been separated for six months.

Read more


. . .
In this undated picture taken by a monitoring camera and provided by the Marseille Police,a man supposed to be Matthias Schepp, the father of the missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp,is photographed at a automatic teller of a bank in Marseille, France.

Missing twins: police search for second car

Correction: father’s tape recorder not yet found

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:

“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.


A car similar to Matthias Schepp's Audi A6 may be involved; police are seeking witnesses

“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


A second car, similar to the Audi A6, dark in colour, may have been involved on Corsica in early February in the twins' disappearance

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.

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

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/16/missing-twins-police-search-for-second-car-update-3/

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Missing Alessia & Livia

The twins' mother is fighting relentlessly to find traces leading to the place where her daughters could be. She travels in her mind to all places she visited during the family trip. Irina will issue a press release indicating all the places they visited. We keep searching and waiting!!

Missing children: did Lyons detour mean an accomplice?
Matthias Schepp’s treasured tape recorder may have been found in Italy

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/16/missing-children-did-lyons-detour-mean-an-accomplice/

Missing twins: mother tells Italian TV too many riddles remain



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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/21/missing-twins-mother-tells-italian-tv-too-many-riddles-remain/

Missing twins: GPS gives no clues
February 22, 2011

Possible links to two women not confirmed

Twins reportedly did not arrive in Italy with father



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

Vaud police commissioner Jean-Christophe Sauterel has told GenevaLunch that there is no confirmation to a report in the Italian media that the father was seen in January with his daughters around Lake Como. And, he says, concerning Katia Iritano, who went missing from Montbovon in canton Fribourg 25 January, “no link has been confirmed for now between these two cases”.

Italian media in particular have raised the question of a possible tie-in between the 27-year-old’s disappearance and that of the twins, possibly because Iritano speaks Italian and French, as do the little girls.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/22/missing-twins-gps-gives-no-clues/

Missing twins: solidarity walk in St Sulpice Wednesday
February 23, 2011



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.

“He wanted to punish me: his hatred towards me was greater than his love for his children. That, I find chilling.”

She described the girls publicly for the first time, showing the journalist their bedroom, their toys, their storybooks (newspaper has photos):

“Alessia is a ball of energy, outgoing, she loves to sing and she makes me laugh when I hear her imitating Mina, her favourite singer. Livia is more of a thinker, introverted, loves animals very much. They’re both crazy about Pippi Longstocking and wanted a cat. A while back I found two, thanks to a friend, one black and one red.”

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/02/23/missing-twins-solidarity-walk-in-st-sulpice-wednesday-update/

Missing children: police focus on Swiss-Marseille route
Scientific investigations rule out link to missing woman, sleeping tablets in home
February 25, 2011



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.

http://genevalunch.com/news/

Missing children: family of Alessia and Livia seeks volunteers
March 3, 2011

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.

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/03/03/missing-children-mother-of-alessia-and-livia-seeks-volunteers/

MISSING TWINS: FATHER'S GPS MICROCHIP FOUND



Memory chip may help determine whereabouts of missing Swiss twins
March 5, 2011, 14:20 GMT

Cerignola, Italy - A memory chip found in Cerignola on Saturday and believed to belong to a car navigator used by the father of missing six-year-old Swiss twin girls, is to be examined for clues on their whereabouts, Italian news reports said.

The chip was found under some pebbles near the railway track where the father, Matthias Schepp, committed suicide by throwing himself under a train on February 3, the ANSA news agency said.

Investigators plan to send the chip to the US-based manufacturer of the navigator to determine whether it is possible to access the device's memory, including possibly the route taken by Schepp with the twins, ANSA said.

Read more

Missing twins: police seek Geneva witnesses
March 7, 2011


Alessia, Livia and their father in 2010

Update 20:00 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two witnesses have come forward, say Vaud police, with 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.

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/03/07/missing-twins-police-seek-geneva-witnesses-update/

Missing twins: chief Swiss investigator raises spectre of murder
March 25, 2011


Alessia, Irina and Livia Schepp

Pascal Gilléron, chief investigator in canton Vaud in the case of missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp, has told a Fribourg newspaper in an interview Friday that officials are now considering more closely the possibility that the six-year-old girls’ father killed them.

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.

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/03/25/missing-twins-chief-swiss-investigator-raises-spectre-of-murder/

Missing twins: all trails lead to nowhere
March 30, 2011


The first photos released by police and the family in early February, shortly after the twins were declared missing

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:

• A key one that there is no forensic evidence of the presence of the girls on the ferryboat heading for Corsica, although there is a credible witness.

• The presence of the girls in three Swiss towns and on the ferry has been confirmed only by witnesses, in contrast to the presence of the father in several locations, confirmed by video surveillance cameras.

• French police have checked with every autoroute service station and hotels in the region around Montelimar, where he left the autoroute for the night, but have turned up no evidence of the girls’ presence or other useful details.

The GPS chip from the father’s car has to date provided no useful data, although Italian police are still waiting for a final report from the Korean supplier.

Thorough research into the father’s Internet contacts and telephone calls has provided no useful information.

Investigation will continue

Police say the investigation will continue, concentrating on France, in the Montelimar region and in Corsica, in particular trying to determine precisely the movements of the father, Matthias Schepp.

The three-country investigations up to now have confirmed the following path, and police say they hope the detailed route will help bring forward new witnesses. The joint statement issued by police notes the following:

The Swiss leg of the journey

The route taken by the father of the twins has now been largely worked out thanks to details provided by witnesses and technical details uncovered by investigators. His presence in St Sulpice 30 January around 13:00 (1:00 pm) has been confirmed, then in Préverenges (14:30 / 2:30 pm), Morges (15:51 / 3:51 pm), then Geneva (16:15-18:00 /4:15 pm to 6:00 pm). He was then in the Croix de Rozon region in France (18:04 / 6:04 pm) and Lyons (19:38 / 6:38 pm).

Mid-France to the ferry

He left the A7 autoroute at Montélimar Nord at 20:55 (8:55 pm) Sunday night, then got back on the autoroute at the same place the next morning at 08:44. He then went through the toll gate at Lançon in Provence at 09:55 and was seen in Marseille the same morning in a parking lot (11:30) and at a travel agency, at 12:45 in front of an ATM, bank teller machine, then again at the travel agency early in the afternoon (13:00 / 1:00 pm), where he bought three tickets for a ferry to Corsica.

The ferry to Corsica, the trail to Italy

He took the boat at 16:33 (4:33 pm), leaving Marseille at 18:35 to head to Propriano in Corsica, where he arrived the morning of Tuesday 1 February at 06:30. He was then seen in Bastia the same day at 15:57 (3:57 pm), where he bought a single ticket at 15:45 (3:45 pm). He took the 21:00 (9:00 pm) boat for Toulouse and arrived there Wednesday at 07:00 in the morning.

He then took the autoroute from Nice Capitou at 09:13, heading for Italy. The father of the twins was then seen in the village of Vietri sul Mare, near Naples, shortly before noon Thursday 3 February. He was then in Cerignola at 20:00 (8:00 pm) where he ended his life at 22:47 (10:47 pm).

The father’s presence has been confirmed by a number of video images from surveillance cameras. The presence of the girls, however, has been confirmed only by witnesses: in St Sulpice, Préverenges, Geneva, on the boat between Marseille and Propriano and in Corsica. The images captured in Nice Capitou the Wednesday morning show that Alessia and Livia were not visibly inside their father’s car.

The cost of the investigations has not been a factor in deciding on what procedures to use, Gillerion noted, responding indirectly to accusations by the maternal grandfather of the girls earlier this week.

http://genevalunch.com/news/