Maine’s Coldest Missing Person Case

By Ted Cohen

The pre-Christmas mystery surrounding a missing 20-month-old continues to tug at her family.

But cops still have no answers to explain how Ayla Reynolds disappeared from her father's home in Waterville.

The little girl was last seen on December 16, 2011 - fourteen years ago - while staying with her father, Justin DiPietro, his sister Elisha, and his girlfriend Courtney Roberts.

DiPietro reported her missing the next day.

The case became one of Maine's most extensive investigations, with police finding a large amount of Ayla's blood in the basement, indicating she had been seriously injured.

DiPietro told investigators his daughter must have wandered away from the house on her own or been abducted in the night, but police later said they had ruled out that story and that the girl’s disappearance was the result of “foul play.”

Police said the adults in the home were withholding information, but no one has ever been charged.

In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services had temporarily placed Ayla with her father.

Two months later, she went missing from his Waterville home.

A Facebook page called Locating the Lost calls it “Maine’s largest cold case.”

Wiki describes it as “the largest criminal investigation in Maine's history.”

“Nobody has ever been held accountable” says a page devoted to the little girl called "Ayla’s Angels.”