Ayla Reynolds /// Part 1 /// 503 | Forensic Files

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[Music] foreign [Music] of Saturday December 17 2011. at 8 51 am A call came in to 9-1-1 emergency
services in Waterville Maine a small town of about 16 000 people 24 year old Justin depietro
told the operator that his daughter Ayla Reynolds was not in her crib that morning
Justin said he had placed the little girl in the crib the night before when putting her to bed for the night
he told the dispatcher that when he woke up and went into her room she was gone the dispatcher asked if it was possible
that the little girl somehow managed to get out of the crib and could she be hiding somewhere
no the father assured the dispatcher adding that he and his sister had already checked the entire house
he then described for the dispatcher what his daughter looked like and what she was wearing when last seen the night
before the operator finished taking the caller's information and dispatched Waterville Police Officers to the
address of the call 29 Violet Avenue and to quote Central maine.com that call set off a chain of events that
eventually grew into the largest criminal investigation in Maine's history most of what happened in this
investigation has been kept Under Wraps by the Waterville Police Department and the state police of Maine
but quite a bit was also leaked this week's True Crime Story is a parent's worst nightmare
and this True Crime garage [Music] Waterville police logs reflect that two officers were sent to the 29 Violet
Avenue house within 10 minutes of the 9-1-1 call searches of the house for the little girl proved fruitless she was not
under a bed she was not hiding in a closet or anywhere else that little kids are usually found by police when helping
parents look for a little one within 90 minutes the officers were joined by two more Waterville PD Officers two
detectives and three units from the fire department the search for the little girl was ramping up and quickly
Waterville Police Chief Joe Massey himself was on the scene but 90 minutes in and we still don't have any sign of
this missing little girl let's review the 9-1-1 call here Captain so that everyone will have a better
understanding of the information that the Waterville Police are armed with going into this search for Ayla Reynolds
from the transcript Waterville communications center what's the address of your emergency
it is then communicated via another dispatcher that they are putting through a caller that is reporting a child
missing from a residence after a quick hello the dispatcher at the Waterville communications center
asked how long ago did you see your child as we said earlier the caller is 24 year
old Justin depietro he is the father of the missing girl Ayla Reynolds he answers when I put her to bed last night
my sister had checked on her um woke up this morning went to her room and she's not there
okay how old is she 20 months old so you last saw her last night sometime in the
evening yeah I put her to bed at eight o'clock I got officers on the way over there
what is your name sir and we already know his name it's Justin depietro all right what was she wearing the last time
you saw her she had on some pajamas they were green pajamas okay can you remember
the exact time you saw her last or somebody saw her last in the crib um Alicia so Alicia is Justin depietro's
sister he says that um Alicia says um Alicia when was the last time you went in her room last night when you saw
her he's now not talking to the dispatcher Captain he's asking his sister who is in the background and can
be heard in the background of the call Alicia says 10 o'clock what is a good number for you sir he then provides a
phone number and the call gets disconnected Justin very quickly calls back to 9-1-1
emergency services and explains that his cell phone died during that call okay says the dispatcher what is your
daughter's name the daughter's name is Ayla Reynolds okay have you checked all through the house is there any way she
could have climbed out of her crib no ma'am there is no way she could have got out there's no way she could have then
the officers are there they arrive on the scene and the dispatcher and Justin agree to end the call so it's a brief
9-1-1 call there is not audio of this call the police have determined that they're not going to release the audio
for this call but they did release these transcripts that we just went through this is early in the morning on Saturday
December 17 2011 and as we said the 9-1-1 call goes in at 8 51 a.m We have two officers on
the scene within 10 minutes of that 9-1-1 call and then we have more officers detectives fire department
showing up to help assist in the search for this girl and the police chief as well they're checking the house
obviously but they're also spreading out and searching the immediate area of this
house as well in the area surrounding it so we know that it's Justin's mother's house but it seems like only Justin and
his sister live there and his girlfriend was spending the night so as more law enforcement Personnel continue to arrive
at the scene we have the state police the main Warden Service two more detectives and three more officers from
Waterville PD all are looking for Ayla Reynolds who despite the now over two hours of looking in our timeline and all
the Personnel involved still she's not turned up so Searchers spread outside peeking into
dumpsters and trash containers and walking through neighbors yards out buildings under decks even going into
residence homes and woods Rivers streams and Fields everything you can think of a
tracking dog was unable to locate ayla's scent to follow any kind of scent Trail
Ayla had vanished now according to the Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey he released a very
brief statement that says quote we are approaching almost 24 hours and no one knows where a 20-month little girl is
and last seen only in pajamas here's the description of Ayla provided by Justin depietro to the responding officers
blonde hair with blue eyes and she was wearing green one-piece pajamas with polka dots and the words Daddy's
princess on them she was two feet nine inches tall and weighed approximately 30 pounds and little Ayla had an air cast
on her left arm because she had broke the arm three weeks earlier you started to get into this Captain
about the living situation but let's talk about what was going on at the depietro house on the night that they
put her to bed and then Ayla vanished so Justin lived at the house with his mom his mom's name is Phoebe she was not at
home that night Justin was home with Ayla his sister Alicia who was 23 years old and his girlfriend Courtney Roberts
who is 24 years old Courtney it sounds like lived in Portland but was staying there at least on this night all three
of the adults had their little kids with them so there were six people in the house in total
three adults and their three kids Justin told investigators that on that Friday night
Ayla was put to bed alone in a separate room on the main level of the home Justin his girlfriend and her son slept
in the basement that night the basement of Phoebe depietro's home is partially finished and has one
bedroom down there which was where Justin had been staying and you know he's sleeping in the basement overnight
Alicia and her small child slept together in a bedroom on the main level where Ayla was in her own room
Justin said on the 9-1-1 call that Alicia checked on Ayla around 10 pm then when Justin checked in on Ayla on
Saturday morning her crib was empty and this is when he calls the police so naturally the police sit down with the
adults and they interview them to figure out what exactly was going on meanwhile they dispatch officers to
check in with others who it was thought might for some reason have collected Ayla this would be like her mother
Trista or her grandparents so most of the time when you have a kid that is missing and it's not as simple
as you know you find the kid at a friend's house playing or they were hiding somewhere often it's a custody dispute
of some sort and here we have parents that are separated they're not together so that will be an early Avenue a
natural early Avenue for the investigation but custody at this time would reside with Justin that's correct
and it sounds like there was no formal agreement about who has Ayla and when and we'll
get into the details of that as well so let's introduce ayla's mother and what she was up to so back to Saturday
December 16th we know that Justin called 9-1-1 at 8 51 a.m where was ayla's Mother Trista well at 10 A.M 23 year old
Trista Reynolds was asleep she was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by Robert Fortier
Robert was making the four-hour drive so a four-hour trip from Portland to machiasport to visit his son Raymond who
was incarcerated at the Down East Correctional Facility Trista and Raymond were engaged so
Trista was traveling with the four tiers to visit her fiancee their son in the prison facility there Robert's phone
rang this is at 10 A.M it was Ron Reynolds trista's dad calling to tell them that
Ayla was missing so this is when mom finds out that her daughter is missing so I'm assuming that Justin called
ayla's grandfather to let him know that she was missing possibly my guess would be that Trista may have lived with her
parents and so it could have been a call that was originally directed trying to get a hold of Trista right because what
this phone call is Captain is the detectives it's Ron Reynolds on the on the call but
he's saying hey ayla's missing and the detectives want to speak with Trista they are going to so they're on this
drive but they're going to have to turn around now and drive back to Waterville well you bring up a good point Justin
might have never contacted her or her family they could have been contacted by the detectives yeah and I don't know how
much that matters I mean Justin's got if if he's there his daughter's missing he's got his own concerns it may not
even been something that he thought about until directed to do so by the detectives I mean keep in mind the
police are on the scene within 15 minutes if we believe his story within 15 minutes of him noticing that she's
gone so everybody's different um some people once the authorities arrive or wants help arrives they sit
back and let help take over I don't know exactly what went down but this gives us
a good indicator of where Trista was and what was going on with her that morning
and she's not alone right she's with a group of people traveling in this vehicle so her whereabouts are pretty
much accounted for as far as we can see here so now they're gonna go ahead but they did on the trip pass
through Waterville they passed by Waterville yes that's correct now Trista later said that she was in shock at the
hearing the news about her baby missing says quote I had no words I didn't know what to say I was thinking like am I in
a dream right now it was all just a shock the only thing I could think about was where the hell was
Justin if he was in the house this shouldn't have happened if he was protecting Ayla this shouldn't have
happened now Justin and Trista had never actually been a couple it was a one-night stand
sort of thing and they were both surprised when Trista ended up getting pregnant
Ayla lived with her mother Trista and visited Justin's home at scheduled times but again there was no formalized
custody agreement between the two parents it always surprises me that people are surprised after having sex
that the result of sex is conceiving a baby that you that's what can happen yes that's one of those things that
surprised in October of 2011 so this is the same year just two months before Ayla would go missing Trista
entered a 10-day rehab program and during that time for reasons we will get into in a second Ayla was with Justin
so daughter's going to go stay with dad while Trista enters this rehab program since Trista since Trista got out of
rehab she lived in Portland with her family with no address of her own now we should point out here that Portland is
about 75 miles away from Waterville when Trista arrived at the Waterville Police
Station on that Saturday she was interviewed for two hours by detective David Karen who was no doubt aware that
child of broken marriages or no relationship at all are often the subject of custody disputes and the
victims of non-custodial parent abductions Trista told Karen the detective that she
had last seen Ayla on November 21st so this is more than three weeks earlier she had spoken to her on the phone on
December 8th now what's even more interesting in that situation is that Trista had filed for custody of Ayla on
December 15th right we said there was no formalized who gets who win version of this parenting and where Ayla
is to go so according to this information Trista filed for custody of her daughter on
December 15th that's the day before she was missing she comes up missing according to Central Maine quote Trista
Reynolds filed a complaint against depietro Justin depietro for determination of paternity paternal
rights and responsibilities and child support according to documents obtained from the Cumberland County Superior
Court in Portland and quote when Trista had entered the 10-day rehab program her
mother Becca and sister Jessica they took Ayla in but while she was away child welfare services placed Ayla with
Justin the child's father Ayla had been living with him for 59 days so five nine days when little Ayla
vanished it's very important for especially a situation like this where they're not going to get married they're
not in a relationship where you set up boundaries and rules and the custody issues through the court system because
what it seems to happen is she was obviously in a situation that she wanted to get help and try to get her life back
on track so then she said okay well Mom I'll have my mom and sister watch her I trust them and then here comes a
situation where there is no laws in place or no rules in place and he can then say look it's first right or
refusal so he could then take the child there there's a lot of times where this stuff happens where especially you know
these fathers that are not that involved they posture by doing this oh you're not
around so now I'm going to take in um my child and I I don't even think this is going by what Justin wanted but more so
what his mother wanted him to do and this seems like a weird situation to me I know this happens all the time you
know there's a lot of great situations great parents kids having wonderful time growing up situations out there that are
similar to this but what is odd about it to me something that I just have no experience with is
it's a little weird that you are a parent of this daughter but the other parent you don't
technically you don't really know them very well now do you I mean there was no real relationship right so it wasn't
like they're showing up to family parties yeah you were opening up Christmas gifts you don't know the
grandparents that well you don't know the the father of your daughter's uh you don't know his friends very well things
like that it seems a very weird for me it's something I can't really wrap my head around too much well
that's why there needs to be more education for women based on their cycles and and also just you know more
uh don't forget about the dumb guys out there well no that's what I mean you gotta again we got the whole idea of
dumb guys the whole idea that we're surprised you know was there any birth control use uh did the guy wear a condom
why are you so surprised by this pregnancy I don't know the details of that uh I don't don't really well I
think it's they're surprised because of ignorance and immaturity so the key thing here Captain is little Ayla had
been living with Justin depietro for 59 days when she disappeared the papers that Trista filed were an attempt to get
her back so Trista told the detectives that she and Justin were not on speaking terms at that point and that he had
refused to put Ayla on the phone when Trista called to talk to her daughter on December 11. however Trista also told
ABC news that Justin did not know that she filed the papers that would restrict his access to
Ayla Reynolds so this is very interesting because when you see something like this and we've seen
custody battles in the past in other cases where somebody files something with the court and magically the next
day the kids are hard to get a hold of they vanish they disappear or dad took them states away we've seen that before
but we have Trista in her own words saying look it's easy to make that leap that that this happened because I filed
these papers however he didn't know that I filed these papers so Justin would have been unaware of this information at
that time again we're assuming he didn't know or didn't hear Through the Grapevine
we don't know exactly what her state is at this moment and I'm talking about the
mother because like we said she entered rehab she then exited rehab it didn't seem like she was clean at this point
again that's something that I have no knowledge of well that's what I'm saying is I I'm saying if we can assume that
she left rehab before the treatment was fully established we could just assume that she's not completely sober at this
point that's something again that I don't know anything about I don't have any reason or couldn't find any reason
to doubt what her belief was that Justin was unaware that she had filed these papers right now this is going to that's
pretty much the early part of the interview with Trista and the information that the detectives are able
to get from her it seems like they were somewhat comfortable with believing that Trista didn't have
anything to do with taking her own daughter from Justin's home so the search for Ayla continues so now we need
to introduce the FBI card team you know it's a garage party when they start busting out the acronyms right so
this stands for the Federal Bureau of Investigations child abduction rapid deployment team card team which works to
recover victims as quickly as possible and helps apprehend those responsible for taking them A Brief History if you
will here Captain the card team was created in 2006 and has deployed more than 100 times for approximately 108
victims both domestically and when requested abroad numerous children have been located and safely returned to
their loved ones tragically the remains of victims have also been found the 60 or so agents who make up the card team
are stationed at field offices around the country each is assigned to one of five Regional teams that cover the
northeast southeast North Central South Central and western United States and and are deployed at the request of a
field office members of the card team are seasoned investigators with experience and crimes against children
cases that are often multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency these are people who have purposely
chosen this line of work because they care deeply about the welfare of all children well the fact of the matter is
we have police and detectives that show up at the scene of where they claim that
this toddler this 22 month old child goes missing there's no sign of her outside of the the house there's no
there's no dog that's tracking a scent that leads for you know from our crib to outside
and you've talked to both parents you can't find her anywhere so now you start wondering
who is telling the truth and who is lying to [Music] [Music] foreign we're back party people off to all the
people in the back all the people in the front put your hands together forget about the
dirties in the middle and the dirty and those dirties in the middle cheers to you Colonel all right cheers to you
Captain so on Sunday the 18th of December FBI agents from the Northeast card team joined 75 state and local Law
Enforcement Officers as well as neighbors and Volunteers in the search for little Ayla as we mentioned before
the break there the car team these are the seasoned professionals that you want involved looking for your missing child
they conducted a knock and talk canvas of the area going house to house and asking residents if they had seen
anything and also going into the homes which people would allow them to come in and search their homes members of the
main Warden Service searched treacherous outdoor areas that it felt Ayla could have possibly walked to one area of
concern Captain was this messalensky stream which was about an eighth of a mile away from the depietro home parts
of this stream which was like a high and fast flowing stream were drained so that
Searchers could get a better look at the depths of the Waterway and police chief
Massey held the first of many press conferences to update members of the public about the search for Ayla
Reynolds saying the FBI and the main Warden Service had been called in to help the major investigation he's
already referring to this as a major investigation it was truly all Hands-On deck at this point and we also had two
search dogs that sniffed for any sign of the missing toddler but again couldn't come up with anything
in that area of Investigation as well investigators said that they were not ruling anything out but the first
imperative obviously was to find Ayla as temperatures in Maine in December at night are generally not survivable by a
toddler of course for extended periods of time on the weekend that Ayla went missing temperatures at night were in
the teens and single digits so this is a big concern for all searching for this little girl and Ayla did not qualify for
an amber alert because there was no vehicle or suspect description this is one thing that I've always been a little
weird about like they're they're Federal they're not necessarily requirements they don't like to use that word they
use more of like suggestions for these Amber Alerts but I don't understand why we just don't use it like let's peel
back some some of the the reasons for not using it and just use it you know use it more often you got a missing kid
seems like something you might want to use but again we have no suspect we have no vehicle
information to send out to anybody so they chose not to use it in this situation but police did use an
automated phone notification system which called everybody within a square mile of the depietro home and alerted
them that there was a child missing which gave a description of Ayla well and that makes a lot of sense because
you wouldn't expect her to be seen Miles and Miles Away but again back to your back to your Amber Alert if you have an
amber alert to go hey here's a description of this child and somebody's at a gas station and sees somebody
uh with a child that they don't seem either familiar with or maybe the child is crying uncontrollably it might be
something that somebody pays attention to that gives you evidence later and right now during the investigation
they're doing all the normal things that you would expect with the missing child
you have the okay kind of behind the scenes we're checking into the custody issues between Mom and Dad is there any
should we be concerned that a loved one took this girl in a custody battle so you can see they've already have been
working that Avenue they're also interviewing the three adults that say they were there the night and morning
that Ayla went missing hold on it's time for a true crime standard the cops I feel are doing their due diligence there
you go but they're also working under the assumption at this point that little Ayla may have wandered off that somehow
she got out of the house and made her waste somewhere another thing investigators did on that Sunday
was Interview all three of the adults again who were in the depietro home on the night that Ayla was last seen this
again was Justin his girlfriend Courtney and his sister Alicia Alicia is admittedly between the three the last
person to see Ayla this is the information that was provided to 9-1-1 during the the initial call
police said that both of ayla's parents were cooperating in the search for the girl and any questions that police had
police also impounded two vehicles belonging to Justin and Courtney but would not say why on the Tuesday the
Maine State Police evidence response team truck was seen at the depietro home this is like seeing one of those crime
scene Tech trailers or Vans outside of someone's house I bought one and this is it sits
outside my house permanently it's empty inside yeah just like just like my soul grid searches continued and the State
Police Special crime incident command and Communications truck were on site at the Waterville City Hall this was
serving as an investigation headquarters searches also occurred at some locations
that were less expected and this was things like dumpsters which immediately you get concerned when
they're searching dumpsters and the Champions Fitness club on Elm Plaza on December 20th even though Waterville PD
was still labeling ayla's disappearance as just a missing child case not an abduction or anything else Justin
depietro felt the need to release a statement through the Waterville PD which read quote I will not make
accusations or insinuations towards anyone until the police have been able to prove who is responsible for this
Ayla was in my sole custody at the time of her disappearance per agreement between her mother and I because she was
unable to care for Ayla I have shared every piece of information with the police contrary to some statements
floating around out there I have been in communication with ayla's Mother over the last couple of weeks the Waterville
police have transcripts of my phone for verification of those Communications it has always been my intention to have a
Shared Parenting Agreement with ayla's mother and I will continue to work towards that when Ayla is returned to us
end quote if you recall Trista had said that she and Justin weren't really on speaking terms Justin's statement
concluded by saying that his family and friends will continue to do everything we can to assist in this investigation
to get Ayla back home so the searches continued aided by 50 members of the main Association for search and rescue but by
this point the search area covered an area five miles wide and two and a half miles deep
but on day five December 22nd crime scene tape went up around the the Petro home
and homicide investigators and prosecutors were seen entering the house the house remained sealed off and on
December 26 police announced that this was no longer a missing child case but a probable child abduction
quote we feel comfortable at this point in our belief that Ayla did not walk away from her home under her own power
for several reasons the physical layout of the home and the steps she would have
needed to take to get outside make it very unlikely we think it would be very very difficult for her to open the door
and get herself out we don't think she could have gone very far we also considered her stature she is a toddler
and although she was walking her Mobility is still developing we believe that someone was involved in taking her
out of the house and that's where the focus of this investigation has turned that was from Chief Massey well just to
go back to what you're saying about them not being on speaking terms Trista is going to rehab leaving her child with
her mom and her sister and then Justin goes no we're not we're not doing that my daughter's staying with me that's why
they're not really on speaking terms and then be because she's a toddler she has
to call Justin and say hey I would like to speak with my daughter and and I think I also at this point he is
maybe and I'm not this is not very clear but it seems as if he is letting her father watch the child every now and
then so there's these reports of you know oh she has you know bruising on her legs
and she has this broken arm and so there's becomes questions of what the hell is going on at your house that
she's getting all these injuries right and just one like for example when she had all these bruises all over her leg
he was like well we went to Chuck E cheese or something and she was in a ball pit and some stranger kid like was
kicking at her or something like that and then they've come to find out that there was no ball pit so just like these
little white lies and his story not adding up to them well and I find the police chief statement very interesting
here in regards to switching announcing that we've switched the focus of the investigation from a child who wandered
off to a child abduction and he's simply saying in very short words there that we look we've looked at
the house and given how short this little girl and how small she was we don't believe she would even have been
able to get out of the door right and we can't find anything to show us that she
left via window or any other method of leaving this house there's no sign of breaking and entering correct so
obviously we can tell by this statement that police do not believe that Ayla being so tiny and having the broken arm
would have been able to open any of the doors and walk out of the house under her own power Massey later said that
also because Violet Avenue is very densely populated it's a residential neighborhood with small houses close to
one another that the police felt that it was very unlikely that Ayla could have gotten out of the house
and been wandering around the neighborhood without anyone seeing her they couldn't find anybody to say that
they had seen anything or heard anything right that night so at this point police received more
than 330 tips in the missing child case 100 of them came in after a thirty thousand dollar reward was announced
this was offered up by local businesses putting together some money trying to help out do some good deeds police said
that they spent 5 000 man hours on the case in the first 11 days meanwhile father Justin depietro decides you know
what I should issue a second statement and this comes out on the 28th he was refusing to give interviews but
apparently felt the need to explain some things so he wrote after thanking all the
people working to find his daughter quote it is important that the public hear it from me personally that I have
no idea what happened to Ayla and that I am not hiding 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 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 a hospital or some safe place and police aren't buying
this because they're also saying that the house is so small that they disbelieve with three adults in the
house that somebody would have heard something that night my only issue with that is that if you
take Justin's statements and you believe that any of them are true he is saying his hunch is if somebody came into the
house and took his daughter it would have been somebody that she knew uh possibly a family member or somebody
connected to her mother yes that's kind of what he's saying there and you wonder like is he very
strategically kind of planting that seed to watch the plant start to grow and take root and and so he can change
it at some point into this full-on full-blown hey I think she was involved somebody
involved with the mom knows what happened here or is responsible for this and maybe you
can answer these because I couldn't find these one no comments about like well we
leave the doors open it's a safe community so we leave the doors unlocked so no comments that I could find about
that and also we know that they didn't have much of a relationship so there would be no need to be like you know
where where um where Trista didn't ever live with Justin that that I could find so why would she
or anybody in her family have like keys to their property yeah that's correct and there is some
talk from police regarding windows and doors that I have here in my notes and we'll get into that some of it's a
little confusing though I'm not gonna lie but from the police statements that we've already reviewed it seems to be
that they are under the impression which that's all they can go off of they show up they interview the three adults
that are at the home that night all three say hey we always lock the doors so they're going to be under the
assumption that these doors were in fact locked now the police steadfastly refused to say anything of the status of
their investigation however they did confirm that they knew where Trista was on the night her daughter vanished
although the police would not clarify they're simply saying we know her whereabouts we
know where she was but they're not saying exactly where that was also they wouldn't say whether there was another
child in the same room with Ayla that night as it had been reported both ways in the
National media so think about how scary this story is that's being pumped out to
our nation where they're saying not only is this a child abduction but uh we think that there was another child
sleeping and staying in the same room somebody was able to sneak into that room that night make off with this girl
leaving another child sleeping in that room alone the other thing that they wouldn't comment on at this time in our
timeline was the forensic evidence if there was any this would be things such as blood found inside the home now
authorities are not making Court affidavits filed in this case public so some of the cases that we've reviewed
here we've got a lot of information from Court affidavits that are filed on behalf of the police department
investigating certain crimes or cases and what they're stating here is hey media you're you're in our way here
with this search for this little girl don't bother go going looking for things that we're filing through the court
system because we have made that so you would not be able to view those at this time this means that they
this could mean that they are on to something and they don't want that information released to the rest of us
they don't want to clue anybody in as to where they're putting their efforts in their investigation at this point we do
know that they were searching the house the depietro's garage They seized the two vehicles
from the driveway of the home so as you can see here Captain they're doing a lot
of work but they're keeping everything very close to the vest here I have another question for you Billy Goat
maybe you maybe you were able to find this what was the distance from Chris's house to Justin's house well the city
where she was staying in to the city where he lived 75 miles so but what's interesting is the day that
she went missing we do know that Trista passed through that town before she got a call
stating that her daughter was missing well passed through the town is one way of saying it yes the the other thing is
driving the freeway and passing the exit and never having stopped off in the the town itself
is another way of saying it as well yes I and I think that's a better way to say
it I believe I think two I think the two things are completely different and paint a very different picture right if
you're on the freeway and you just pass the exit well that's one thing but if you got off
the freeway it's there's no need to go through Waterville on your way to uh your destination right but if you do
well then things look a lot different and maybe that seed that Justin was trying to plant is the correct seed uh
and that he has it right the entire time what you could also see in this case at
this time in our timeline via the national media coverage early on is that everyone could see the obvious
differences in how each of these parents were handling the situation Justin is refusing to Grant interviews
with the media but on the other hand Trista she goes on a media blitz appearing on
Nancy Grace Good Morning America and other news shows on the 23rd of December Trista appeared on NBC's Today Show and
said that she blamed Justin for not keeping Ayla safe on the 29th she appeared on The Today
Show again asking Justin to please talk to her and tell her what happened Justin
was starting to really look like he was hiding something at this point with her going out and
pleading through the media to get some answers from him about what could have happened that night yeah
Trista kept claiming again how well did she even know Justin I mean because they
they just had a one-night stand and then they ended up having a child together but she claims that she could tell in
his eyes that he wanted to tell her something that he wanted that he had some answers
that he wanted to basically confess to her well I don't know if it was pressure or not but Justin and his mom Phoebe and
his brother Lance sat down with the main Morning Sentinel and this was to dispel rumors that there
was a party okay so there was a rumor going around that there was a big large-scale party at the depietro home
on Friday December 16th that being the night that Ayla was last seen they come forward and say there was no
party at our house that night then in a weird turn of events Phoebe depietro appeared on CNN saying
that on the night Ayla vanished that this is one of there's several weird things in this case this is one that
stands out to me Phoebe depietro is on CNN saying that on the night that Ayla vanished she did not hear anything
happening in her home the next day she appeared again on the news network to clarify that she was not actually in the
home that night she was not at home the entire evening she says she couldn't have heard anything obviously because if
we're to believe her she wasn't even present which seems to go along with what the
other three adults were telling investigators from even their early interviews I look at this thing and I go okay this
is a bit confusing but I think it might be a situation where she may have just misspoke or said something in a certain
way that she didn't realize until later kind of implied that she was home that night when in fact she wasn't right
Justin also appeared on The Today Show and this is where he's stating you know I'm here to help in any way I
can by coming on this show it's in hopes of reaching out to the person that does
have my daughter to let them know that what you're doing isn't right you may think what you're doing is right for
Ayla but it's not you have no right you are not her parent she belongs home with
her family on the 6th of January Justin felt the need to explain ayla's broken arm which
was of course of interest to the general public and I'm sure of interest to the investigators working the case as well
and he says that that was completely accidental I would never harm my daughter he said that he had taken Ayla
to a grocery store with him on a rainy night in November he was carrying her remember she's I mean she's very small
she's 20 months old he's carrying her under one arm into the home while carrying groceries in the other arm and
he says I usually would let her walk but it was raining out that night and it was
dark so I carried her he said he walked into this side door of the house and climbed the short Stairway to the
kitchen area and says I came up the stairs and slipped it happened so fast I don't know exactly how I fell on her but
I fell on her and Phoebe his mother backs up this story saying I was sitting in the living room with my daughter and
we heard a big thump I immediately went to the kitchen and Ayla was scared so I so I picked her up the family said
that Ayla was fussy after Justin fell on her but it was not until well into the next day before they
decided that the swelling in her arm warranted a trip to the emergency room Justin was worried about his daughter he
said so he left a commercial driver's license course at Lawrence adult education in Fairfield
this was a class that he had signed up for he left that class early and took his daughter to the hospital depietro
said some people have suggested that he didn't take Ayla to the hospital immediately because he may have been
intoxicated at the time he said that's untrue I don't know Captain I don't know that
we have definitive answers here on if this was a accident if it was something else if it was anything other than an
accident did he delay taking her to the hospital I don't know that you can fault somebody
in every scenario if they are not quick to take somebody to the hospital right I
mean how many I understand that she's a very little girl but how many of us have
rolled an ankle or had an accident and had some type of injury and we don't decide
for ourselves for the sake of our own health until 24 hours later I better get this looked at I don't know how much
blame there is to pass around here it is certainly something to consider and to look at because
look kids don't go missing every day and here we have a scenario where we have a
very small child who does go missing and she happens to have a cast on her arm at
that time well again I think the big thing here is that law enforcement goat from we have a missing child to we have
a missing child where we believe Foul Play is involved [Music] foreign if you're looking for more True Crime
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it was great join us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't you dare litter
foreign [Music]

Ayla Reynolds /// Part 1 /// 503

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Ayla Reynolds was just a little more than 19 months old when she disappeared. She was last seen the night before in her crib. At 8:51a.m. the next morning Justin Dipietro called 911 emergency services to report his daughter missing. That call set off a chain of events that eventually grew into the largest criminal investigation in Maine’s history. Join us in the garage for the details of this ongoing investigation.

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Brief Summary

Ayla Reynolds vanished in 2011, triggering a major investigation into her disappearance and family dynamics.

Key points

The Disappearance of Ayla Reynolds. A 24-year-old father reports his daughter missing, triggering a massive investigation.
Trista's Shock. Trista Reynolds learns her daughter is missing while traveling to visit her fiancé.
FBI Joins Search for Ayla. The FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team is introduced to aid in the search.
Investigation Turns to Abduction. Police announce that Ayla's case is now a probable child abduction, shifting the investigation's focus.
Justin's Public Statement. Justin releases a statement denying any wrongdoing and expressing hope for Ayla's safe return.
Trista's Media Blitz. Trista appears on various news shows, pleading for answers about Ayla's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a parent's worst nightmare.

Introduction to the true crime story.

4:48WatchNov 6, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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