Romanian couple pleads guilty to kidnapping newborns, case sent to court

Prosecutors say the couple, living in Italy at the time, convinced an Indonesian caretaker to give them their twin newborns in July 2025, promising to raise the children themselves. The woman, identified as M.F., employed manipulation tactics, including isolation, religious appeals, and fabricated threats, to persuade the mother to flee Italy and cross into Romania. Once in Bucharest's Sector 5, the man, whose face was covered, took the infants, telling the mother they would be taken to Vatican missionaries.

For 24 days the captors kept the babies together with their own daughter in a car, earning money by begging and committing theft. Police discovered the situation, rescued the twins and returned them to their mother. The defendants have now reached plea agreements with the Parchetul de pe lângă Judecătoria Sectorului 5 București, and the case has been forwarded to the Judecătoria Sectorului 5 for sentencing.