What happened after 5-month-old Sabrina Aisenberg vanished from her crib

Sabrina Aisenberg was just 5 months old when she and a handmade yellow blanket vanished from her crib at her Florida home on Nov. 24, 1997.  The disappearance tapped into every parent's worst fears and captivated the nation.

The investigation quickly zeroed on Sabrina's parents. But could Sabrina have been kidnapped? And is she still alive today?

The first episode of "Somebody Knows Something," "The Baby in the Yellow Blanket," premieres Monday, Aug. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Freeform, and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

Host Kara Robinson Chamberlain, a true crime influencer, kidnapping survivor and former law enforcement officer, and the "Somebody Knows Something" team take viewers to the small town outside of Tampa Bay, speaking to Sabrina's parents and others connected to the case.

Marlene and Steve Aisenberg say they believe Sabrina was kidnapped, telling police that when they woke up around 6:30 a.m. that day, she wasn't in her crib -- she had vanished.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare," Marlene Aisenberg told Chamberlain.

When authorities arrived at the Aisenberg house and began their investigation, deputies found a boot print in Sabrina's room and a blonde hair in her crib that didn't belong to anyone in the family. They also saw no signs of forced entry.

"After the initial report, every neighbor was talked to in detail and at length," Sergeant Mike Blair, the spokesperson for Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, told Chamberlain. "But in this case, the evidence didn't take us outside the home."

Despite intense public and police scrutiny on the Aisenberg family, they tried to go on with their lives.

"I do remember going to dinner with our friends, and everybody was whispering ... " Marlene Aisenberg said. "Steve and I would drive in the car with the kids. We were always being followed. I mean, that became our life. It was horrifying."

State authorities never charged the Aisenbergs in connection with Sabrina's disappearance, but in 1999 they were charged in a federal indictment with making false statements to law enforcement.

The indictment revealed that prosecutors had bugged the Aisenbergs' home for three months after Sabrina's disappearance. Prosecutors alleged that they had recorded conversations between the couple in which Steve Aisenberg had talked about killing Sabrina while high on cocaine.

"They had days and days worth of tapes," Kevin Kalwary, a private investigator hired by the Aisenberg family, told Chamberlain.

"Not one thing they highlighted in the indictment was on a tape," he added.

The Aisenbergs denied the charges, saying they never said those things.

A federal judge declared a number of the tapes inaudible, the rest taken out of context by detectives, and the transcriptions faulty. In February 2001, the prosecution dropped the charges before the trial began. Three years later, an appeals court ordered the federal government to pay the Aisenbergs' attorneys almost $1.5 million in legal fees.

Hillsborough County continues to investigate Sabrina's disappearance, while the Aisenbergs work with the National Center for Missing Children to find her. According to Chamberlain, Steve and Marlene Aisenberg believe the person who took Sabrina wanted to raise her in a loving family.

They even received a call from a woman who reached out claiming she might have been Sabrina and was 98% Ashkenazi Jewish like the Aisenbergs. Further genetic testing revealed she was not Sabrina, but the Aisenbergs haven't given up hope.

"We live with the hope every day that she's going to come home," Marlene Aisenberg said.

If you have any information about this case, please call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office: at (813) 247-8200.

For additional reporting and discussion about the cases, join us live beginning Monday on the "Somebody Knows Something" YouTube Channel.