In hunt for Lakeville girls, one warrant led to another, and another

Two Lakeville teenage sisters who had been missing since 2013 were found safe Wednesday at a horse farm in Herman in western Minnesota, authorities said.

Lakeville police, U.S. marshals and the Grant County sheriff found Gianna and Samantha Rucki at the White Horse Ranch after executing a search warrant related to the missing girls.

Lakeville police Lt. Jason Polinski said investigations on the missing girls started when they ran away from their home in the spring of 2013 amid a custody dispute between their parents.

"It started with basically the development of enough information to lead to a search warrant of a home" that led to multiple other search warrants, Polinski said. "Every search warrant we did, we got another little cookie, so to speak, and the last warrant that we ended up executing yesterday, the girls happened to be there."

The girls' mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, was arrested last month in Florida and is now facing two counts of felony deprivation of parental rights, he said.

The sisters were in good health and have been returned to Dakota County to reunite with their family, he said.

Polinski said investigations are continuing.

"What we have discovered is there will be potential charges that will be coming out on others that were involved," he said. "We believe that it's more than just Sandra, the mother, helping hide the children."

Before the girls disappeared, they were with their paternal aunt. She was temporarily taking care of the sisters until the custody dispute could be resolved, said Lisa Elliott, an attorney who's has been representing the girls' father, David Rucki, since 2011.

The sisters were at the house less than half an hour before they ran and left everything behind, including their backpacks and shoes, she said.

"We know the mother picked them up that day," Elliott said.

The couple had five children together, and the father was given full custody of all of them in September 2013, the attorney said.

The father is "incredibly relieved," said Elliott. "All of his children are safe for the first time ... in several years."

The White Horse Ranch's website went offline Wednesday.

On that website, the ranch described itself as "a non-profit faith-based horse ranch where children and families can experience healing and wholeness through animals and the grace of God's love."

Elliott said she'd never heard of the ranch until a few days ago.