Tomorrow, October 26, Denise Pipitone will turn 21. It will be a different birthday, again this year, because there will be no birthday girl to blow out the candles on the cake, there will be no hugs with relatives and friends and there won't be her, Denise. Piera Maggio, her mother, on the eve of her birthday, published her daughter's new Age Progress on social media. How could it be today. The aging was commissioned by Paloma Joana Galzi, the Forensic Imaging Specialist of Alexandria (Virginia, United States), through the original photos of Denise, her parents and her brother.
There is an entire Italy that has been tightening for 17 years around Piera Maggio and his father Piero Pulizzi, in search of the truth. The hope of re-embracing Denise remains alive in the hearts of those who loved her, of the family, of those who have learned to know her through photos, short videos and an innocent look. He was only three years old when a game suddenly turned into a drama that still today is shrouded in a thick curtain of mystery.
September 1, 2004 seemed like any other day in Mazara del Vallo. It is 8.30 in the morning and Piera Maggio has entrusted her two children to her mother to go to the computer course. Everything changes at 12.30, when she receives a call telling her that Denise, her little girl, has disappeared and everyone is looking for her. Piera immediately rushes home, in via Domenico La Bruna, on the outskirts of the town, near the cemetery. On Wednesday morning, about 500 meters as the crow flies, the local market takes place.
The woman repeats to the investigators that Denise would never go away alone. Someone surely had kidnapped her. Who? The last trace of the child dates back to 11.35 that morning, when she was playing in the garage-kitchen with her grandmother while she was preparing food. Denise suddenly became aware of her little cousin's presence and ran after him but the little cousin didn't see her. Where is Denise?
Angelo Barraco