Ayla Reynolds, 20 mos. Maine missing

[Lady Cop]

just got home, waiting for presser in a couple minutes.

crime scene tape should of been up before now, that's where she was "kidnapped".

· Detectives have been walking around the property with white protective booties covering their feet.
by Becky Sawtelle/Staff 1:58 PM


· Bill Stokes, chief of the criminal division at the Maine attorney general's office, is at the scene.
by Becky Sawtelle/Staff 1:57 PM


· Crime scene tape is up around the Reynold's home on Violette Avenue.
by Becky Sawtelle/Staff 1:57 PM

[Lady Cop]

presser.

nothing new.

this is just WRONG! Massey said no one has taken a lie detector test.

[Jezreel]

They have to know more then they are saying, why wouldn't they give the parents LDT's, and the other people in the home that night for that matter? Ugh so frustrating. I have to think they are doing more than what is being said.

Where are you sweetheart?

[Lady Cop]

i hate second-guessing these police, but 6 days later it's a crime scene??? come on! it was a crime scene 6 days ago and now who knows what has been compromised? a defense attny. is ultimately going have a bozo baez field day with this. :(

fox
WATERVILLE, Maine – Two of the state's top homicide prosecutors have been called to the Maine home of a missing 20-month-old girl, but authorities continue to treat the disappearance as a missing child case.

As the search for Ayla Reynolds entered its sixth day, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey told reporters during an afternoon press conference that the investigation is focused closely on the girl's Violette Avenue home. Crime-scene tape surrounding the home and the presence of two homicide prosecutors are merely investigative tools, he said. HORSESHIT.

Police are also using cadaver dogs in an area near the city's airport in the search, Massey said.

[Jezreel]

I would think that with all these 'missing' children's cases recently where they suddenly disappear from their homes that LE all over would have learned something. Hell I have and I'm not in law enforcement. Maybe there needs to be a complete re-haul of what should be done in these situations?

[Lady Cop]

Police say the snow has hampered the large-scale search today for #AylaReynolds
16 minutes ago

Waterville Police say there will NOT be a press conference today regarding the search for #AylaReynolds
17 minutes ago




WATERVILLE, Maine — The mother of missing toddler Ayla Reynolds told NBC's TODAY Show Friday that investigators were keeping her in the dark about the search for her 20-month-old daughter.

"Everything I'm hearing I'm hearing from news reporters," Trista Reynolds said. "I'm just like everybody else out there right now. I'm not hearing from any detectives, any state police, nothing — just what I hear on the news."

On Thursday, police intensified their focus on the house where Ayla was living, while continuing to look through local fields and waterways and chasing down tips from the public.

Two hundred leads on the missing little girl have come in, investigators said.

'I just want her home'
Reynolds said she planned to attend a candlelight vigil for Ayla at Monument Square in Portland, Maine, later Friday.

"I just want her home," she told TODAY. "And I'm hoping for maybe my Christmas present ... that she's going to come home."

she also said she's been sober for 3 months now.

grandpa

[Lady Cop]

missing one week today, Christmas Eve.


Morning Sentinel
Ayla Reynolds’ mother Trista Reynolds, right, is consoled by her father, Ronald Reynolds, left, and her stepsister, Whitney Raynor of Portland, second from left, and her fiance, Charles Martin of Westbrook, at a vigil for the missing girl in Portland’s Congress Square on Friday night.

[Lady Cop]

12/26
presser at 3 PM

morning sentinel
WATERVILLE -- By nightfall Sunday, untracked snow had accumulated around 29 Violette St., the home where 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds was last seen. Candles flickered among stuffed animals and toys at a shrine on the front yard.

evidence tape now seals all windows and doors, including the side door where investigators were seen entering the home last week. The garage door is also sealed with tape. An empty police car parked at the end of the driveway was covered in snow.

Waterville police held no press conferences over the weekend.

In a Saturday statement, Chief Joseph Massey said investigators were working on the case Christmas Eve, but said they wouldn't be communicating with the media for the time being.

"Our team of investigators and searchers have spent the past week working in the glaring spotlight of national attention that has rightly focused on the tragic event which befell Ayla and her family on December 17^th," the release states. "Now, detectives need the opportunity to continue their work for a few days outside of the microscope."

Activity outside the police station was light over the weekend. During the previous week, Maine State Police cruisers and Maine Warden Service trucks had filled the nearby parking lots the previous week were gone. By Saturday morning, only Waterville police cars remained.

[Lady Cop]

only thing new in presser is a $30 K reward.

Robb1239 Rob Poindexter
"We're confident Ayla didn't walk out of the house. We feel someone took Ayla out of the house." no shit.
4 minutes ago

Robb1239
Waterville Attorney John Nale and other Waterville residents offering reward of $30,000
6 minutes ago
Rob Poindexter
Robb1239
$30,000 reward being offered for information in Ayla Reynolds investigation
7 minutes ago

[Lady Cop]

investigators were back in house monday.

where is she??
dead quiet over Christmas.

[Jezreel]

Daddy releases another statement:

Waterville - "First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who's been involved in their continued efforts in finding my daughter, Ayla. A special thanks to the residents of Waterville that came together to offer a reward for information leading to Ayla's return. I am pleased with the amount of resources being expended from all the departments of law enforcement. Until now I have not participated in any interviews for I don't want to in any way hinder the investigation.

However, it is important that the people hear it from me personally that I have no idea what happened to Ayla and that I am not hiding. I have been in full cooperation with everyone in this effort, including not adding additional media hype.

I would never do anything to hurt my child. The questions of Ayla's arm or bruises or anything else being said are simply ludicrous. I would never want anyone to spend even a minute in my shoes. No should ever have to experience this. It has affected me in more ways than you can imagine.

I have to believe that Ayla is with somebody and I just want that person to find the courage to do the right thing and find a way to return her safely. Even if that means dropping her off at a church, or hospital, or some place safe..

Again, thank you to everyone in trying to help and thank you to everyone showing your support! Please don't give up or lose hope, because that is easy to do. Please be grateful for what you have. I know what I don't have.

The truth is the truth and when the case is solved, it will be out there. Until then, please try to remain positive and hopeful as I remain confident the Ayla will return safely."

http://www.wabi.tv/news/26342/ayla-reyno...-statement

[Cheyne]

One of the more narcissistic statements I have read from a "grieving" parent.
Note the statement is all about him and his feelings, not too much there about Ayla.

I have no idea what happened to [Ayla]. I would never do anything to hurt my child.

These are two lines very commonly used by abusers. Obviously Daddy Dearest is more concerned with his image and refuting mommies statements than finding his child.

[Lady Cop]

i think mom etc. are media whores.

(CNN) -- The grandfather of a missing 20-month-old Maine girl repeated over and over Wednesday night that the girl's father has not been in touch with the family, even as the father reiterated he doesn't know what happened to her.

"Nothing, not a word, nothing," Ron Reynolds told HLN's Nancy Grace. "My daughter tried to talk to him. Nothing's coming back ... nothing is being said."

The mother of a missing Maine toddler blasted the girl's father for cutting off communication after the 20-month-old's disappearance.

Trista Reynolds called out Justin DiPietro -- the last person to see Ayla Reynolds -- for refusing to speak with her since their baby vanished.

The girl has been missing for 13 days.

"He says he's not in hiding, but why won't he come out? Why won't he talk to me? Why is he staying away?" Trista Reynolds said during an interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show.

"What is he so afraid of to not come out or to talk to me?"

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I wouldn't talk to her either

[Lady Cop]

notice how the professional journalist says "THERE daily press release" duh.

Waterville - Waterville Police says there daily press release will be released later than usual today.

It's been two weeks since 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds disappeared from her Waterville home. So far there's been no sign of her.

At the house on Violette Avenue where Ayla was last seen the scene looks a bit different.

The State Police forensic team was back there again today and for the first time they appeared to have roped off part of the backyard near a shed.

Members of the State Police, wearing gloves and boots, were in and out of the house and at one point they removed a paper bag from the house. We're not sure what was in that bag or if it's significant at all.

Rob Poindexter
#aylareynolds State Police have taken over the lead in the investigation. Waterville Police: "We believe foul play has occurred"


good video of police activity today:

http://www.wabi.tv/news/26403/ayla-reyno...e-ave-home

[Lady Cop]

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Waterville police said Friday night that the Ayla Reynolds case is no long a missing person's case. They say there is evidence of foul play.

According to Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey, the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit is now leading the investigation. He went on to say: "The men and women of the Waterville Police Department will continue to work cooperatively with the State Police and other agencies on this case until Ayla is located."

[Jezreel]

Oh dear gawd! Poor baby ;( even though its conforming what most of us have thought from the beginning.

[Lady Cop]

mainetoday.com
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey added that Waterville police will continue to work on the case along with other angencies until Ayla Reynolds is found.

"Our commitment to finding Ayla and explaining the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is as strong as it was on December 17^th," he said.

Department of Pubic Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said the Major Crimes Unit is the new name for the Criminal Investigation Division, or CID.

McCausland said the unit is tasked with investigating homicides, suspicious deaths and major investigations.

"This case would fall into that latter category," he said.

Earlier on Friday, a state police evidence response team truck returned Friday to the Violette Avenue home where was reported missing from her bed two weeks ago today.

State troopers using surveying equipment appeared to be taking measurements from the driveway to the home at 29 Violette Ave. where Ayla lived with her father, Justin DiPietro.

A window of the modest vinyl-sided house on the driveway side of DiPietro's house had been removed and appeared to be part of the measuring detail.

A pickup truck with Massachusetts license plates was parked nearby, as was a Maine detective's car. A man wearing a Massachusetts State Police jacket also was on the scene.

McCausland said Massachusetts detectives offered special investigative equipment to aid in the investigation.

"And we took them up on the offer," he said.

[Lady Cop]

i have to say this. i said days ago that this should have been designated a crime scene the moment she was missing. i hope at some point there will be an explanation. this is missing kid 101.


mainetoday.com

Six days into the search for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds, investigators strung bright-yellow crime-scene ribbon around the perimeter of the little grey house.

The man in charge of the investigation, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey, downplayed the action, telling reporters that the plastic ribbon was "just an additional barrier" to secure the site. He emphasized that the girl's disappearance was still considered a missing-child case, though abduction or some other wrongdoing was possible from the start.

The case escalated late Friday, when Massey announced that police now suspect "foul play" in Ayla's disappearance. It has evolved into a criminal investigation and Maine State Police have taken the lead, he said.

On Saturday, state police concluded gathering evidence at the house and released it back to its occupants.

But even before the weekend's developments, the late addition of crime-scene ribbon raised questions about the way police have handled a case that has gained national media attention. A manual for investigating missing-child cases, used by police across the country, indicates that the house on Violette Avenue should have been "sealed" soon after the first investigators arrived Dec. 17.

"I don't know why they didn't put crime-scene tape up before they did, but I have to believe they're gathering evidence as they should," said Chuck Drago, of Oviedo, Fla., a retired police chief and cabinet member and adviser to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

Drago and other experts in police procedures say missing-child cases are among the most difficult to investigate, in part because family members must be viewed as both victims and potential suspects.

Chief Massey and representatives of other agencies involved in the search for Ayla, including the Maine State Police and the Maine Warden Service, declined to respond to questions about actions in the investigation, which now involves Massachusetts State Police.

Experts in police procedures hesitated to comment directly on the Waterville case, noting that their assessments of the investigation would be limited because they haven't participated in it. They applauded efforts that have been made to find Ayla, including massive ground searches, flyovers and help from an FBI child-abduction team.

"It's easy to make assumptions about the investigation from the outside, but we don't know what happened inside that house," said Joe Loughlin, a retired Portland police detective who served as assistant chief, interim chief and head of criminal investigations.

Even representatives of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a federally mandated and supported nonprofit that works closely with law enforcement agencies, refused to discuss their own recommended procedures for missing-child investigations.

However, the center's investigative checklist advises first responders to "seal/protect scene and area of the child's home ... so evidence is not destroyed during or after the initial search." It doesn't specify how that should be done.

While the checklist isn't numbered, the recommendation comes four steps before a recommendation to "extend search to surrounding areas" outside the home. In Ayla's case, the search expanded on Dec. 17, the day her father reported her missing.

The checklist also advises investigators to "treat areas of interest as potential crime scenes, including all areas where the child may have been or was going to be located."

The center's more in-depth investigative manual says that "care should be taken to avoid contamination of the area where the child was last seen." Again, the manual, "Missing and Abducted Children: A Law-Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management," doesn't specify how that should be done.

The manual also notes that "when interviewing the complaintant and all people at the scene, it would not be unusual for the person reporting the crime or someone at the crime scene to somehow be involved in the missing episode."

Massey said early in the investigation that Ayla's father, Justin DiPietro, and mother, Trista Reynolds, who has been living in South Portland, were cooperating with investigators.

It's unclear whether police asked DiPietro and other family members to leave the house during the investigation, though he wasn't seen there for days after Ayla's disappearance.

"They may not have evidence that he was involved, but they may have asked him to leave the premises to prevent contamination of the scene," said Drago, the former Florida police official.

From the start there were signs that the house was being treated as a potential crime scene. On the first day of the investigation, Massey told reporters that Waterville and state police were conducting a detailed search for forensic evidence at the house.

Loughlin, the former Portland police official, said investigators may have taken several steps at that time to secure evidence in the house.

"They may have blocked off a room and secured the house in other ways," Loughlin said. "They gather evidence. They may document the scene with still photographs and videos. Having worked with these guys in the past, they know what they're doing."

Dan Vogel, of Edmond, Okla., a retired FBI agent with experience in child abduction cases, had a similar perspective.

"Putting up crime-scene tape six days later doesn't really bother me, as long as they're restricting access to the house from the start," Vogel said. That would include keeping a record of all people, including investigators, who entered the house after Ayla disappeared, he said.

On Day 2 of the investigation, when Morning Sentinel reporter Doug Harlow approached the house seeking interviews, police shooed him off the property. Harlow said a Waterville police cruiser was parked outside the house round-the-clock until last Thursday.

On Day 3, authorities seized DiPietro's 1996 Ford Explorer and another vehicle parked in his driveway. Drago said that shows police were viewing the father as a potential suspect, as they should have.

State police investigators were back at the house on Day 4. One was photographed swabbing an exterior door frame for forensic evidence while wearing gloves and booties. The same day, DiPietro released a written statement saying that he didn't know what happened to Ayla.

The statement was unusual, largely because it was distributed by Waterville police. However, law enforcement experts said one of the biggest challenges police face in missing-child cases is maintaining a productive relationship with family members.

"If they are legitimately grieving or if they are suspects, you don't want to alarm them to the point they stop talking to you," Drago said. "You have to balance treating parents with dignity and respect with watching for clues and collecting evidence as gingerly as possible. The last thing you want is for anyone close to the investigation to clam up."

Drago said police also try to control the information they provide to the public through the media, which investigators need to help find the child and get the word out about progress in the case. That might have played a role in the decision to put yellow ribbon around DiPietro's house.

"Everything (investigators) say and do is subject to outside interpretation," Drago said. "When that tape goes up, people start paying attention and asking questions."

The yellow ribbon went up Dec. 22, the same day that two of the state's top homicide prosecutors, William Stokes and Andrew Benson, visited the house. Chief Massey told reporters that investigators were expanding the search of the house and going "through that as thoroughly as we can."

"Cases like this pull at the public's emotions," Loughlin said. "The chief is trying to show he's functioning with zeal but being cautious. Everybody involved in the investigation wants to find this girl, believe me, and they know a lot more than we do."

Investigators in a missing-child case must consider a huge spectrum of possible motives and potential suspects, said Vogel, the former FBI agent. He urged Waterville police to take advantage of technology to bolster their investigation, such as setting up a website dedicated to Ayla.

"It's about means, motive and opportunity, like most crimes," Vogel said. "It comes down to who had access to the child and who can be eliminated by alibi. The first 24 hours are critical. They seem to have done everything they should. Now they just need a break."

As the investigation continues, Drago said, Chief Massey and others involved in the case must manage the careful dance between evidence and intuition, victims and potential suspects, sharing information with the public and keeping details to themselves, all in an effort to learn what happened to little Ayla.

"I know the pressure the police chief is under," Drago said. "This is not easy, and it just gets harder every day."

[Jezreel]

(NBC) - The father of missing 20 month old Ayla Reynolds has given his first on camera interview since his daughter went missing more than two weeks ago.

Justin DiPietro said he chose not to speak out shortly after his daughter went missing because he was "emotionally incapable" and that he had been advised by law enforcement that speaking out might "hinder the investigation".

DiPietro says he went on the TODAY Show in hopes of "reaching out to the person that has his daughter".

When asked about the night that Aylag went missing, he responded, "It was just a normal night."

When asked about his relationship with Ayla, DiPietro said that he loves his daughter and said "I would never do anything to harm my daughter." 

DiPietro responded to concerns made by Ayla's mother that her daughter wasn't safe in his care. He said, "we had both agreed that me having her at this point in time was the best thing for her."

He went on to say, "I'm doing anything possible to get my daughter home..."

Video at link:http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article/184297/3/Father-of-Ayla-Reynolds-speaks-to-the-TODAY-Show