Montana Barbaro returns home after parents’ desperate plea

Montana Barbaro was abducted from a shopping centre in Deer Park at just three weeks old. Now aged 15, the teenager went missing this week and sparked a plea from her terrified parents — but has since been found safe.

Parents plead for missing teenager Montana Barbaro to make contact. Picture: Supplied

A girl who was snatched from her mother as a baby in a crime that shocked Melbourne has been found after going missing again this week.

Montana Barbaro was abducted from Brimbank Central Shopping Centre in Deer Park when she was three weeks old in 2004.

She was found two days later in a derelict house in North Melbourne.

Now 15, Montana went missing about 9pm on January 18 after going outside to access Wi-Fi on her phone in Truganina.

The empty pram of baby Montana Barbaro, who was snatched from the carpark at Brimbank Central Shopping Centre.

But she has since been found safe and well, police confirmed.

More than six days after vanishing, Montana has returned home to her relieved family.

The family had been about to cut the cake for her youngest brother’s sixth birthday when she disappeatred.

Her frantic parents reported her missing to police on January 20.

Her dad, convicted drug dealer Giuseppe “Joe” Barbaro, earlier said it was killing him seeing how distraught Montana’s mother Anita was.

“She can’t cope without her — you know what she went through 15 years ago,” Mr Barbaro said when his daughter vanished.

“She’s going mad. I can’t concentrate, I can’t do nothing — she’s an absolute mess.

“Come home,” he urged Montana. “We love her, we miss her.”

Anita Barbaro was a picture of utter devastation as she fronted media on August 8, 2004, to plead for the safe return of her baby girl.

“Please look after her — she’s only three weeks old and she’s a very precious baby,’’ the young mum said at the time.

“She’s very quiet; she just needs to be looked after and kept warm and safe. And please, please just take her somewhere safe and call the police. Just bring my baby back.’’

Kidnapped baby Montana Barbaro reunited with mother Anita Ciancio outside Royal Childrens Hospital.

Montana Barbaro, who was abducted as a three-week-old, prepares for school with her mother Anita Ciancio.

She almost collapsed and had to be carried inside Sunshine Police Station after the press conference.

Following intense media interest and a massive two-day manhunt, Montana was found dumped in a house in Erskine St, North Melbourne, a passing jogger hearing her cries.

Cheryl and Mark McEachran, both of Timor, near Maryborough, later handed themselves in to police. Ms McEachran was sentenced to eight years with a minimum term of four-and-a-half years for Montana’s kidnapping and Mr McEachran to nine years with a non-parole term of five-and-a-quarter years.

The pair hatched a plan to steal a child, unable to have another of their own.

They stalked, then attacked Ms Barbaro in the Brimbank Central underground car park as she strapped her newborn baby into the car. It had been one of her first outings with the tiny infant.

Police inspect the window of the house in Erskine St, North Melbourne, where kidnapped baby Montana Barbaro was found.

They stole Montana, cutting her hair and claiming her as their own for two terrible days.

To the Barbaros, the horror of that period has come back to haunt them this week after Montana walked outside the family business and never returned.

The Barbaros said on Thursday that nothing had indicated Montana would run away and she had not taken anything with her.

Montana has blocked both of their numbers on her phone. Mr Barbaro said a family friend had called her and she hung up on them.

Police said they had checked multiple addresses that had been linked to Montana but had not yet found her.

Police officers inspect the house where baby Montana Barbaro was found.

Ms Barbaro said she had barely slept since Montana disappeared.

“She knows I can’t breathe without her,” Ms Barbaro said.

“Every time she is away from me it is like a sickness, I can’t explain it. I’m not angry at her — if she needs a break, just contact me.

“If we had an argument or things were bad, I could understand, but just before your little brother’s birthday cake? It’s not like Montana.

“One day is too much for me, one hour is too much for me. My daughter has never been away from me for more than a night.”

She said Montana was usually frantic if she was late home, knowing the fear it would cause in her mother.

Ms Barbaro was adamant that if Montana had planned to go she would have taken her rosary beads and Bible.

“If she was intending to go she would not have taken her dirty, crappy shoes,” Ms Barbaro said.

Anita Cianco and Joe Barbaro are appealing for their daughter Montana to come home after disappearing on Saturday. Picture: David Caird

An emotional Mr Barbaro said the alleged murder of his son, underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro, in Sydney in 2016 had a big impact on Montana. It came two weeks after Anita lost a baby girl. Another of Montana’s brothers took his own life six months later.

“Mentally, Montana, she is at a point where I think she is extremely vulnerable,” Ms Barbaro said.

Mr Barbaro, who was jailed in 2005 for amphetamine supply, said he had “kept my nose clean for so long now” but believed police were not doing everything they could due to his family name.

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Police said they had done all the usual checks that they would with a missing child.

Mr Barbaro’s dad was murdered in a gangland hit in 1990.

Mr Barbaro is also the cousin of the gangland figure Pasquale Barbaro, who was gunned down with Jason Moran at an Auskick clinic in Pascoe Vale South in 2003.

Montana’s older sister Sienna was reported missing in September, 2018. Police found her and she has since moved out of home.

Originally published as Montana Barbaro returns home after parents’ desperate plea