WATERVILLE — Investigators searching for missing toddler Ayla Reynolds have received about 100 tips since offering a $30,000 reward Monday for her safe return.

On Tuesday, investigators and search teams continued the search 11 days after the 20-month-old was reported missing from the Violette Avenue home where she was staying with her father.
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said investigators have received about 330 tips in all.

“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.”

Investigators said for the first time Monday that they don’t believe Ayla walked out of the house by herself.

“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 also said that Ayla’s height and a soft cast on her arm make it unlikely she could have opened doors by herself.

He said many missing-children cases are resolved quickly and successfully, but that the odds of finding children safe diminish over time.

Massey urged anyone with information on the location of Ayla Reynolds to contact Waterville police at 680-4700.

Ayla was reported missing by her father, Justin DiPietro, the morning of 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, and said he was assisting investigators.

Ayla had been living with her father while her mother, Trista Reynolds, checked herself into a rehabilitation program in October. Reynolds, 23, who completed the program, had filed court papers Dec. 15 in Portland seeking sole custody of her daughter.

Ayla was last seen wearing green, one-piece pajamas with polka dots and the words “Daddy’s Princess” on them. She is 2 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds.

A section of nearby Messalonskee Stream was drained earlier in the investigation, and searchers have examined Dumpsters, garages, backyards, ballfields 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.

He has not said whether blood or any other forensic evidence was found in the house or garage. He also has not said whether police have any suspects. Massey said several people were in the house the night of Dec. 16, when Ayla 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.

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Doug Harlow can be contacted at 612-2367 or at dharlow@centralmaine.com