WATERVILLE — The search for Ayla Reynolds is now a criminal investigation and the Maine State Police are taking the lead, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said Friday night.

“At this point, we believe that foul play has occurred in connection with Ayla’s disappearance,” Massey said in a written release. “We base our conclusions on evidence gathered by investigators during the past two weeks. This case has evolved from the search for a missing child to a criminal investigation.”

For that reason, Massey said he has asked the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit to take the lead role in the investigation. Waterville police will continue to work on the case, along with other agencies.

Massey said, “Our commitment to finding Ayla and explaining the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is as strong as it was on December 17th,” the day her father reported her missing from their home at 29 Violette Ave.

The Major Crimes Unit investigates homicides, suspicious deaths and other major criminal cases, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. “This case would fall into that latter category,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, a state police evidence response team truck returned to the home on Violette Avenue. State troopers using surveying equipment appeared to be taking measurements from the driveway to the now-vacant home, where the 20-month-old girl was living with her father, Justin DiPietro.

A window on the driveway side of the modest vinyl-sided house had been removed and appeared to be part of the measuring detail.

A pickup truck with Massachusetts license plates was parked nearby, as was a Maine detective’s car. A man wearing a Massachusetts State Police jacket also was on the scene.

McCausland said Massachusetts detectives offered special investigative equipment to aid in the investigation, “and we took them up on the offer.”

McCausland did not provide details on the equipment and its uses.

A growing shrine of stuffed animals left in support of the missing girl served as a backdrop to Friday’s police activity.

Ayla was last seen on the night of Dec. 16, sleeping in her bed.

Police say DiPietro, 24, reported his daughter missing just before 9 a.m. on Dec. 17, some 10 to 12 hours after she was put to bed. They say the toddler was taken from the home by someone, though they have stopped short of calling it a kidnapping.

Ayla’s mother, Trista Reynolds, 23, who lives in the Portland area, filed for sole custody of the girl on Dec. 15.

Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, said Friday that the odds of finding a child decrease if he or she isn’t found within the first day or two of the disappearance. But he said there’s some reason for optimism because there are rare cases of missing children who turn up later in someone’s care.

“If you don’t get this child back real quickly, you know that it gets harder and harder,” he said. “But you can’t give up hope.”

Scott Bernstein, founder of Child Recovery International, a New York City-based organization that helps find missing children, agreed that the first hours of an investigation are key in tracking down missing children as young as Ayla. Although the situation looks bleak, there’s still room for hope, he said.

“One percent hope — but I’ll go for that 1 percent hope,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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