The kidnapping of Alexandra Măceșanu and Luiza Melencu happened in Caracal, Olt County, Romania in April and on 25 July 2019.
Romanian police were heavily criticized for taking 19 hours to locate and search the building where Alexandra Măceșanu was held captive.
The handling of the case met widespread outrage and protests, which led to the dismissal of Interior Minister Nicolae Moga and other officials.
[1] Alexandra's uncle, Alexandru Cumpănașu, released a written copy of her calls on his Facebook account,[1] to show "the rottenness of a murderous system and the courage of this incredible child".
[6] An official statement from DIICOT, the agency investigating the case, announced that Alexandra's DNA was identified in “dental pieces” found in a barrel on Dincă's property,[7] however, this result was shown to be inconclusive.
[9] Despite the uncertainties of the DNA result, on its basis, DIICOT issued a death certificate for Alexandra, which her family refused to recognize.
[16] Both Alexandra and Luiza's families received phone calls from men offering reassurances about the girls shortly after each disappearance.
[23][24] DIICOT has been criticized for investigating both Alexandra and Luiza's cases as murders, instead of kidnappings, and for refusing many of the requests made by the lawyers of the victims’ families that were seemingly relevant to the case, such as performing a judicial experiment to ascertain if Dincă could’ve incinerated the bodies of the victims as described, or to question important witnesses and suspected accomplices to Dincă's sex trafficking and other criminal activities.
[25][26][27] Alexandra's uncle, businessman and former talk-show host Alexandru Cumpănașu, revealed that a week after his niece's kidnapping, he allegedly obtained information about her whereabouts which required immediate action from the authorities and which he sent to several officials asking for help, most notably to president Klaus Iohannis, who infamously replied: “I will analyze”.
[2] Lucian Gabriel Popescu, the man first misidentified as the perpetrator, stated in a press release that he only met Dincă once, while working in the local cadastre office; he does not know him.