WATERVILLE — There were fresh footprints in the snow Tuesday near a growing shrine for missing toddler Ayla Reynolds.
But there was no Ayla.
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Police investigators and search teams on Tuesday continued the search — 11 days after the 20-month-old was reported missing from her Violette Avenue home.
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said investigators have received about 330 tips. About 100 of those came after a $30,000 reward was announced Monday for information that would lead investigators to the missing child, Massey said.
“These leads have poured in from around the nation, including several from as far away as California,” Massey said Tuesday in a news release. “Our detectives are working to thoroughly investigate these leads, requesting assistance from investigators across America when necessary. This has truly become a national effort.”
On Monday, investigators said for the first time they are confident that Ayla did not walk out of the house by herself. Someone else had to have been involved, Massey said.
“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,” Massey said in an interview. “The physical layout of the home and the steps she would have needed to take to get outside make it very unlikely.
“We also considered her stature — she is a toddler and although she was walking, her mobility is still developing.”
Massey said a soft cast on Ayla’s arm and her height would also have made it unlikely that the toddler could have opened doors. He said once police received the report that she was missing, search teams went right to work.
“Public safety workers responded immediately and began an intensive, exhaustive and thorough search to include the use of numerous tracking canines, one of which responded to the scene on Saturday morning,” he said.
Massey said many missing-children cases are resolved quickly and successfully, but this was not the case with Ayla.
She was reported missing by her father, Justin DiPietro, on Dec. 17, according to police. DiPietro said he last saw her in her bed the previous night.
In a statement released last week, DiPietro, 24, denied any knowledge of how she disappeared. The toddler’s mother, Trista Reynolds, 23, had filed court paperwork in Portland for sole custody of the child on Dec. 15. The state Department of Health and Human Services had turned Ayla over to DiPietro in October.
Trista Reynolds’ family members have said she had enrolled previously in rehabilitation for substance abuse.
Ayla was last seen wearing green, one-piece pajamas with polka dots, with the words “Daddy’s Princess” on them. She is 2 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds. Her left arm is in a soft cast for an accidental fall about a month ago.
Since the search began, a section of nearby Messalonskee Stream was drained as part of the investigation. A Warden Service airplane searched the area from the air.
Investigators also examined Dumpsters, garages, backyards, ball fields and wooded areas near the Violette Avenue home.
Massey said all four agencies that initially responded to find Ayla — Waterville police, Maine State Police, the Maine Warden Service and the FBI — remain on the case.
In the days after Ayla’s disappearance, Massey would not say whether foul play was suspected or whether blood or any other forensic evidence was found in the house or garage.
He would not say whether police have any suspects in the girl’s disappearance, nor would he discuss alibis given to police by those who have been interviewed. Massey said several people were in the house, including nonrelatives, the night of Dec. 16, when the little girl was last seen.
Massey would not say why police seized two vehicles from the driveway last week — one of them registered to DiPietro — or what authorities might be looking for in those vehicles.
Massey urged anyone with information on the location of Ayla Reynolds to contact Waterville Police at 680-4700.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
dharlow@centralmaine.com
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