SALON

Saturday, Dec 31, 2011 9:09 PM UTC

Missing Maine Toddler’s Granddad Pleads For Return

By

Topics: From the Wires,

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A day after police declared a 20-month-old girl’s disappearance a crime, her grandfather pleaded Saturday for her return, urging anyone with information to come forward.

“We’re all out here begging and pleading for the return of our baby girl, safe and sound. Call the state police,” Ronald Reynolds, grandfather of Ayla Reynolds, said outside his home.

“What did they do to my little girl? What did they do to Ayla? What did they do to a helpless defenseless child?” asked Reynolds, who wore a green ribbon, the symbol for missing children. “Every day I get up and wait and wonder. Yesterday I kept looking out the window, waiting for someone to come by and tell me something.”

Saturday marked two weeks since Ayla’s father reported her missing from his home in Waterville, 75 miles north of Portland. Justin DiPietro told police he saw her the night before when he put her to bed. He said she was missing from her bed on the morning of Dec. 17.

A massive search began, with wardens and volunteers combing through the woods and neighborhoods and searching streams. Police and FBI agents went door to door.

A $30,000 reward, the largest in state history for a missing person case, has been offered for information leading authorities to the child.

On Friday, Massachusetts state police brought special equipment to DePietro’s home, and crime scene technicians were seen taking measurements. Investigators concluded that a crime had taken place and the State Police Major Crimes Unit took over the investigation, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said. State police reported no new developments Saturday.

Of the 500 tips submitted to investigators, Waterville police say 75 have been from psychics. Deputy Waterville Police Chief Charles Rumsey told the Central Maine Morning Sentinel of Waterville (http://bit.ly/vA1qcq) that each tip, no matter who it’s from, is assigned to an investigator.

Ayla was placed in her father’s care while her mother, Trista Reynolds, was in a substance abuse rehabilitation program, which she completed. Ronald Reynolds said he was proud of his daughter for seeking help. “I know what my daughter did. She did the right thing,” Reynolds said.

During Ayla’s stay with her father, she broke her arm in what police described as an accident. The Reynolds family said they were concerned about Ayla’s care, and they’ve also criticized DiPietro for not pleading publicly for his daughter’s safe return.

DiPietro, who has issued a statement denying he had anything to do with her disappearance, couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday.

Reynolds said the family is trying to maintain hope that Ayla is safe and will be found. He said he wakes up every morning and kisses a photo of Ayla, praying that she’s OK.

Reynolds said he sometimes spends his day looking out the window, hoping someone will drop by with new information, something positive for the family to latch onto.

“Someone took her. Somebody took her out the home. Who is what’s I’d like to know,” he said.

“I beg of these people: Bring her home safe. Bring her home safe and sound.”

___

Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/

More David Sharp.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
43 points44 points | 1 comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
26 points27 points | 1 comment
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
5 points6 points | comment
vote
Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic shows the famously flamboyant entertainer as a person, not a stereotype
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer - I think that crackdown is ideologically driven and I think it’s hard to come to a different conclusion given the vigor with which this justice department has gone after people. So I think it is about a method of control that is badly misplaced.
4 points5 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations