The girls' mother, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, maintained that she didn't know where they were for the past two and a half years, but police arrested her on charges of deprivation of parental rights. An investigation will continue into her potential involvement with keeping the teenagers hidden.

According to KMSP, the girls said that they ran away because they did not want to live with their father, David Rucki. The girls told KMSP that their father physically and emotionally abused them, but David Rucki said their mother turned the girls against him.