ABC 2020 Exposes Parental Alienation: Footprints in the Snow

BREAKING NEWS: on July 28th, 2016, a jury found Sandra Grazzini-Ruckio guilty of six felony counts. "It is simply inappropriate and unacceptable for any parent to hide their children and keep them from the custodial parent in violation of a court order for any amount of time," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. "The almost two and a half years that these children were hidden led to significant trauma to her daughters and caused significant adverse impacts to the rest of her family. We are pleased with the jury’s decision in this matter."

a. See also: CNN exposes parental alienation , 60 Minutes exposes parental alienation , Canada TV investigates parental alienation , and the BBC exposes parental alienationb. See also: Parental Alienation Caught on Video , Formerly Alienated Teens Speak Out , Formerly Alienated Adults Speak Out

c. Please sign the petition to ask the APA to help more therapists understand parental alienation

d. For a deep explanation of how this all works and how easy it is to manipulate children, read the works for Dr. Childress or the attachment model.

e. Editors Note: Fathers do this, mothers do this. Gender is irrelevant. Children are the victims.

Synopsis of Footprints in the Snow: Dr. Paul Reitman, a court-appointed psychologist and expert in the field of parental alienation, stated that Sandra seemed to be suffering from a personality disorder. Two days later, the judge ordered that Sandra move out of her house. Sandra’s sister Nancy Olson moved in and became the children’s temporary guardian, and Sandra and David were both ordered to have no unsupervised contact with the children. Then the indisputable truth comes out that proves just how much of a liar Sandra is and that it is not about the children but about her narcissistic/borderline injury. The children then do well living with their father and the oldest son comes out with the truth that he was manipulated and say the horrible things about his father that he knew were not true.

Read the ABC article

Watch the ABC Video on this link

The Most Important Excerpt: "Grazzini-Rucki's strongest proof that her husband was abusive was always the testimony of her children, but her oldest son Nico, who once also claimed his father was abusive, now says that after his parents split his mother began subtly poisoning him against his father." "One of the five children, Nico Rucki, was 16 when his mother told him she had lost custody. Nico says of his mother: “She told me to run… and, like, don’t come back home, because if I came back home the police would get me.” Nico reveals that before his sisters Samantha and Gianna ran away in 2013, Samantha called him a traitor. The girls were found two years later at a horse ranch that helps abused children heal by working with rescue horses."

Written ABC Report: Are Some Divorcing Parents Brainwashing Their Children? The controversial Idea of Parental Alienation

Written ABC Report: Timeline: How Parent's Bitter Divorce and Custody Battle Led to the Disappearance of Two Sisters

Summary Video on ABC News

From ABC News: Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4 Part5 Part6

Time Line Summary:

    • April 19, 2011: Sandra Grazzini-Rucki serves David Rucki with divorce papers.

  • June 2011: An order of protection is issued against David.

    • September 2011: Sandra and David’s divorce judgment is vacated. reunification therapy ordered and did not help

    • January 2012: The children continue to ignore their father.

    • September 2012: The court orders a new custody agreement for the Rucki children. Dr. Paul Reitman, a court-appointed psychologist and expert in the field of parental alienation, stated that Sandra seemed to be suffering from a personality disorder as well as a mood disorder. Two days later, the judge ordered that Sandra move out of her house. Sandra’s sister Nancy Olson moved in and became the children’s temporary guardian, and Sandra and David were both ordered to have no unsupervised contact with the children.

    • April 19, 2013: Samantha and Gianna run away from home.

    • May 15, 2013: Samantha and Gianna appear on a local news report. The sisters claimed David threatened to kill their family and Sandra, which David denies. After the interview, the girls disappeared again.

    • Nov. 25, 2013: David is granted sole custody.

    • April 18, 2015: The Minneapolis Star Tribune publishes a story about the missing girls. Dale Nathan, Sandra's lawyer, said they picked Samantha and Gianna up that same day, but didn’t know where Sandra ended up taking them because she dropped him off at a truck stop. Police later named Sandra a person of interest in her daughters’ disappearance.

    • Oct. 18, 2015: Sandra is arrested.

    • November 18, 2015: Samantha and Gianna are found. The Dahlens said Sandra dropped the girls off at the ranch and that they were helping them out of good intentions, because Samantha and Gianna said their father was abusive.

  • April 8, 2016: Sandra and David speak to ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas.

Other worthwhile topics:

by Howie Dennison