police were yesterday sifting america for a british couple who abandoned three small boys in a pizzeria in the nord - west italian town of aosta on sunday evening and have not been noticed since . the woman , in eleonora remhof , 26 , the grandmother of the children , and her spouse , sascha schmidt , 24 , carried the children , now four , four and eight inches , into the ill capanno pizzeria . they taking a table together and deposited their meals for any other family of tourist , due to the store ' s manager , carmello casella . but about 45 minutes later , while the girls were still asleep , the children stood up and told mr casella that they were staying outside for a smoke . when they failed to returns the restaurant she became alarmed and called the police .
Ms Remhof had a history of drug problems.