Two little sisters vanished from Thornton, Colorado on December 24, 2010. One-year-old Jiaa Patil and her older sister Aarshiya were last seen on what was also Jiaa’s first birthday; there were no signs of a struggle and no public witnesses reported.

Authorities early on shifted toward a family abduction theory and have focused attention on the girls’ non-custodial mother, Ritu Hemchandra Desai, who is believed by investigators to possibly have taken them to Pune, in Maharashtra, India. Efforts to locate the mother and the children have required international coordination, and the Thornton Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children continue to seek information.

If anyone has information about the girls, their mother, or movements to or from Pune around December 2010, please share what is known with investigators.