Police in Naples have confirmed they are still looking for the kidnapped baby of Ms Mary O'Sullivan, a 20-year-old Kerry woman who suffered nine months of beatings at the hands of a Naples-based group of Romanian Rom or Gypsies.
Although precise details of her ordeal are not yet clear, police reports suggest that Ms O'Sullivan arrived in Naples last July, via France, five months pregnant and with baby boy Joshua in her arms.
Neither police nor media reports were able to explain just why she had chosen to travel to Naples or what her plans were once she arrived there.
Police records show that she stayed for a month in a hotel near the Piazza Garibaldi train station. During that time, according to media reports, she got to know three Romanians, one woman and two men.
When she was on the point of returning to Ireland, she accepted an invitation to visit them at their Gypsy encampment at Scampia on the outskirts of Naples.
Her hosts refused to let her leave the encampment and she was assaulted by her captors who made her wash, cook and clean for them.
They also took her son Joshua from her, sending him out in the arms of a camp woman in order to beg on the streets of Naples. Last November, a baby girl, Rosa, was born to Ms O'Sullivan.
As of now, it is not clear whether Rosa was born at the camp, or in a hospital in the Naples area.
Ms O'Sullivan escaped from her captors about ten days ago when they decided to move, travelling North to Rome.
In the confusion of the departure, she slipped out early one morning with Rosa in her arms but without her now 18-month-old boy, Joshua.
She managed to make her way to a supermarket in Mugnano, on the outskirts of Naples, where, with difficulty, she told her story to a security guard. Although the guard did not quite comprehend the gravity of her situation, he did summon the carabinieri.
Looking through police photo-records later that day, Ms O'Sullivan was able to identify three of her alleged captors, all in their 20s.
Police in Rome were subsequently alerted and the three were found and immediately arrested on kidnapping charges at the "La Rustica" encampment, on the outskirts of Rome.
Despite searching the camp, however, police found no trace of Joshua. In order to help with what has now become a nationwide search for baby Joshua, police this week authorised that details of the story be released on the state TV's weekly "missing persons" programme, Chi L'Ha Visto?.
Last night, police sources stated that, so far, the TV programme has thrown up no new leads as to the whereabouts of the missing baby.
Police in Naples were unwilling to confirm or deny reports that Ms O'Sullivan is still in Naples, currently living in a state-run home for immigrants. Ms O'Sullivan was not available for comment.