New charges: Mom dropped Rucki sisters at ranch in 2013

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Gianna Rucki (left) and Samantha Rucki (right). Photos distributed by Lakeville police and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

HASTINGS, Minn. (KMSP) - Gianna and Samantha Rucki went missing in April 2013 during a bitter custody battle between their parents. Police found the Lakeville, Minn. sisters on Nov. 18 on the White Horse Ranch in Herman, Minn., and an amended criminal complaint filed Monday in Dakota County says the girls’ mother is the one who brought them there 31 months ago.

Sandra Grazzini Rucki is now charged with 3 additional felony counts of deprivation of parental rights. According to the new charges, one of the owners of the White Horse Ranch told investigators that Sandra Grazzini Rucki and another, unnamed individual, brought Gianna and Samantha to the farm property on April 23, 2013, and the girls have been at that location ever since.

Back in 2013, the Rucki family was the subject of Fox 9 investigation about "parent alienation.” The girls said their father physically and emotionally abused them, but David Rucki accused their mother of turning the girls against him. At the time, the girls told Fox 9 they ran away because they didn't want to be reunited with their father. They have been gone ever since -- even their mother denied knowing their whereabouts.

Police didn't believe Sandra Grazzini Rucki's story and arrested her in Florida last month. She's currently being held in the Dakota County jail on 6 total counts of felony deprivation of parental rights.