Friday, May 25, 2012
By BEN McCANNA Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE — Divers found a safe, a knife and a backpack in Messalonskee Stream on Friday, but no evidence to lead them to Ayla Reynolds.
Ayla Reynolds
Authorities clear the Messalonskee Stream of ice under the North Street bridge Friday as they continue searching for Ayla Reynolds, who has now been missing for seven weeks. Divers also looked through an area of the Kennebec River near the Carter Memorial Bridge.
The Associated Press
Dive teams from the Maine Warden Service and Maine State Police returned to Waterville to search for clues in the disappearance of the toddler, who was reported missing seven weeks ago. The items they found were unrelated to the case, said Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service.
"There's nothing we feel can be attributed to her right now," he said during a news conference.
Divers searched the Kennebec River underneath and downstream from the Carter Memorial Bridge, and Messalonskee Stream below the North Street bridge. Teams searched the same bodies of water on Jan. 11.
Adam said last month's searches were incomplete. Divers had considered returning earlier, but poor weather prevented it.
Friday was a sunny day, with temperatures in the high 20s.
"Once we search these areas, there will be more areas," Adam said.
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said at the news conference that police need tips to solve the case, and he reiterated that a $30,000 reward is available to anyone who has information that leads investigators to Ayla.
"We know there's someone out there with information that could help us find Ayla," he said. "I'm encouraging, I'm asking, I'm pleading: If anybody has any information, please come forward and let us know."
Massey said anyone who provides tips will remain anonymous.
Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said investigators are receiving fewer tips from the public that they did in the first weeks after the girl disappeared. In early January, McCausland said investigators received about 600 tips in the first three weeks of the investigation. Seven weeks into the case, the number of tips was about 700.
McCausland said police have been in contact recently with the three adults who were in the house at 29 Violette Ave. on the night before Ayla was reported missing from the home: Justin DiPietro, Ayla's father; his girlfriend, Courtney Roberts; and his sister Elisha DiPietro.
Asked if they were cooperating with the investigation, McCausland said, "There has been contact, and we hope that contact will continue."
He said police still believe that Justin and Elisha DiPietro and Courtney Roberts know more about Ayla's disappearance than they're sharing.
"We have grave doubts that an abduction ever took place there," he said.
McCausland also confirmed that Ayla's paternal grandmother, Phoebe DiPietro, was not in the home on the night before the toddler was reported missing.
In early January, Phoebe DiPietro's whereabouts raised controversy, after she told a CNN reporter that she hadn't heard anything that night but later said she was not in the home.
McCausland wouldn't say Friday where she was that night, but said investigators confirmed she was not in the home.
During the investigation of the home, police removed several hundred pieces of potential evidence, including blood samples from Ayla. McCausland said investigators continue to study the evidence at the state police crime lab.
McCausland said investigators are holding out hope that Ayla is alive, but he acknowledged steep odds.
"I'll be candid, it's been 48 days," he said. "Our concern grows every day, but we remain hopeful we're going to find her."
Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Ben McCanna can be contacted at 861-9239 or at:
bmccanna@centralmaine.com
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