Canadian tips in the search for missing Swiss twins

Italian reporter Ercole Rocchetti meets Ottawa Police

There are new leads tonight in the global search for missing twin girls, kidnapped in Switzerland three years ago by their Canadian-born father. CTV Ottawa joined an Italian television crew Monday after a recent letter to the Chi L’Ha Visto program suggested the twins might be in Ottawa and in Lachute, Quebec.  The 6-year-old girls, Livia and Alessia Schepp, were caught in a family rift that turned their Canadian-born father into a kidnapper and possibly a killer.

In an interview just last month with Radio Television Suisse, the twins' mother said she could not believe the girls' father, Matthias Kaspar Schepp would transfer his rage for her onto the twins.  Her nightmare began in January of 2011, when he kidnapped the twins.  His body was found in Italy days later.  He had killed himself. Police know that before that, he had travelled to southern Italy with the twins, bought tickets for a ferry to Corsica, and took thousands of euros with him. The money has never been found; neither have the girls. Now, there is a possible Ottawa connection after a letter was sent a few days ago to an Italian TV program, Chi L’Ha Visto that focuses on missing people.  The letter writer said the twins were alive and had been trafficked to Canada on doctored documents.  He claimed to have worked for the printing company that made the false documents.  He says one twin was in Lachute, Quebec and one in Ottawa. Italian journalist Ercole Rocchetti works for Chi L’Ha Visto and is on the hunt to try to find the girls.  Our story yesterday prompted several Canadian tips.

“After the news you did yesterday on CTV,” says Ercole Rocchetti, “some Canadian people contacted my station directly to say maybe they could have seen the Schepp twins, one of them this summer.”

Rocchetti says one woman added, “that maybe they could have seen Livia.  One lady was pretty sure it was her.”

Ottawa Police met with Rocchetti today at the journalist’s request but said, at this point, police here have no request from Italian police to assist.

"If we do receive that call,” says Constable Marc Soucy, “yes we will assist or if we receive any evidence that these kids are in Ottawa, we will investigate but no one has come forward with evidence  or no law enforcement agency has contacted us for assistance right now

Rocchetti and his crew are checking out National Archives as well to see if they can find information on Matthias Schepp and his life in Canada, long before the chemical engineer moved to Europe.  The group has also hired a private investigator.

“Maybe they have a way to see if the children have arrived here,” says Rocchetti, “a legal way three years ago.”

“Chi L’Ha Visto” is an enormously popular show in Italy with a big budget that has been travelling the world for decades, solving crimes and searching for missing people.  It has had some success stories and is hoping this one will prove successful as well. Rochetti asks anyone with information on the twins to contact CTV Ottawa at [e-mail] or his program at [e-mail]