The Murder of Ayla Reynolds

Ayla Reynolds

Ayla Reynolds was born on April 4, 2010 to Justin DiPietro and Trista Reynolds in Waterville, Maine.  Ayla lived with and was taken care of by her mom, Trista, from birth up until a few months prior to her disappearance.  Trista had family members take care of Ayla while she checked into a rehab facility to deal with her addiction.  

While in the care of Trista’s family, the State Department of Health and Human Services got involved.  At that point in time, Ayla was placed in the custody of her father, Justin.  However, the agreement was made that Justin had to live with his mother, Phoebe, while he had custody of Ayla because that was the safest place for her to be.  This was part of an agreement made by Trista.  On December 15, 2011, just two days before Ayla was reported missing, Trista filed to regain custody of Ayla.  Later on in the same day, Trista called and asked to talk with Ayla, but was told that she was watching “Home Alone,” and was unable to come to the phone.  

Ayla’s Disappearance

Just before 9:00 am on the morning of December 17, 2011, Justin DiPietro called the police to report 20-month-old Ayla, missing from his mother’s house on Violette Avenue in Waterville, Maine.  At that time, he was staying at his mom’s house with his then girlfriend, Courtney Roberts, and his sister, Elisha DiPietro.  

All three adults said that they put Ayla to bed the night of December 16th, and she was wearing green polka dot pajamas that read, “Daddy’s Princess” across the front.  Ayla also had a cast on her left arm.  Police and Justin say the broken arm was from an accidental fall, however, Trista is suspicious that something more sinister happened to her.  Then, according to Justin, when they woke up the next morning, Ayla was gone.

The investigation into her disappearance began immediately.  Within hours of the call, a search for Ayla began.  The police, firefighters and community members all aided in the search for the little girl.  Trista appealed to the public right away, pleading for the safe return of her daughter.  As the search continued, a nearby stream was drained so that a search by overhead plane could be done.  Unfortunately, that search turned up nothing as well.  Waterville Police Chief, Joe Massey, said that they received over 100 tips and over 75 officers were working on the case. 

After four days of searching, Justin released his first statement which said, “I have no idea what happened to Ayla, or who is responsible.  I will not make accusations or insinuations towards anyone until the police have been able to prove who’s responsible for this.”  He stated that he needed to make sure the public knew that he wasn’t in hiding and that he had nothing to do with Ayla’s disappearance.  He also said that Trista’s accusations of his intentional harm to Ayla’s arm was “ludicrous.” 

On Christmas Eve, 2011, Waterville police appealed for a break in media coverage so they can work “outside the microscope.”  Basically, they were asking for the media to not report on their every move.  The near constant reporting probably made it difficult to talk with people without them later being reported as a suspect or person of interest. 

Within a couple of weeks, Ayla’s disappearance was national news and the FBI had gotten involved and offered a $30,000 reward.  Thirteen days after the police were called, Trista appeared on the Today Show and said that Justin was the only one who could answer questions and that she just wanted him to talk to her.  She was asked if she thought Justin had anything to do with Ayla’s disappearance and she said that part of her says yes, and part of her says no.  The part of her that says yes is because despite him saying he isn’t in hiding, he isn’t coming out and he isn’t talking to her.  During the episode of the Today Show, we learned that Justin, at the time, was not a suspect in the case and was pleased with how the investigation was going.  By this time, the police had received over 400 tips.  

Two days after Trista’s appearance on the Today Show, Justin made a public statement.  He said that he was emotionally incapable of coming out and doing an interview and that law enforcement said if he did, it would hinder the investigation.

The biggest question that Ayla’s family had was what happened in the thirteen hours from when Ayla was put to bed and the 911 call was placed.  

As the investigation continued, there was talk online that Ayla had been found 50 miles away in Lewiston, unfortunately, the police said that it wasn’t true and it was just a rumor.  And there were no new leads at the time. 

Then Justin’s mom, Phoebe DiPietro, made her first appearance on TV.  Phoebe said that it was very creepy to think that someone was casing your house and that it was a normal night of hanging out.  She said that her son had nothing to do with Ayla’s disappearance and pleaded for her safe return.  Justin had told police that he believed someone came into the house during the night and taken Ayla. 

In the weeks following Ayla’s disappearance, both Trista and Justin took polygraphs, but the police didn’t share either person’s results.  For about a week and a half, the police gathered evidence from Phoebe’s home and hundreds of pieces of potential evidence were taken.  

During their searches of the home, investigators found no signs of forced entry and no evidence that someone had gone into the home and taken Ayla as Justin had suggested.  The biggest piece of evidence was blood that was found in the basement.  With no signs of someone coming in or out and blood on scene, all three adults that were in the home the night Ayla disappeared, became suspects.  This included Justin DiPietro, his sister, Elisha, and his then girlfriend, Courtney Roberts.  The blood was tested and it was found that it belonged to Ayla.  At this point, police were six weeks into their investigation, and they believed that the three adults present at the home that night knew much more than they were letting on. 

The day following this announcement, Justin and Trista made their first appearance together at a vigil for Ayla.  Both were asked about the blood evidence found, but Justin declined to answer.  Trista said, “I’m ready to go knocking at people’s door myself because I want to know what happened to my daughter, and I want to know where she is and who took her or just whatever, like everybody else does.”  Justin’s mom maintained that she believed Justin when he said that he had nothing to do with Ayla going missing. 

Months passed with no new evidence or sightings of the little girl.  Divers searched more streams, police and the community continued looking, but Ayla still wasn’t found.  Five months into the search, the police made a statement that it was very unlikely that Ayla would be found alive and that nothing pointed to her being alive.  After this announcement, Trista’s father is seen on the news yelling to the camera speaking directly to Justin that they need to come forward.  

In March of 2012, more than 100 searchers scoured Waterville and surrounding areas.  During this search, they found the remains of Steven C. Brandon of Waterville, who was missing since February 2004, but his death was not related to Ayla’s case.  

It was estimated that state police, Waterville police and the Warden Service had spent about $100,000 in overtime related to the investigation. Police Chief Joseph Massey later estimates the cost of the investigation could be as high as $500,000.

In September of 2013, almost two years after Ayla’s disappearance, Justin was charged with assault and violating terms of release.  Trista was at the police station at the time of the arrest, along with Justin’s mom, and the two had a confrontation.  Phoebe was yelling at Trista to tell them what she did with Ayla.

Prosecutors soon dismissed the assault charges against Justin because the victim was no longer cooperating.  However, he pleaded guilty to violating the conditions of release tied to a traffic stop.  He was sentenced to four days in jail and a $150 fine.  With time served, he was released.  After this, Trista was doing her best to keep Ayla’s memory alive, while Justin fled the state.  Two years after Ayla’s disappearance, there was another vigil and Trista demanded answers.  The state police said that the investigation was still active.

A Possible Lead

On June 25th, 2015, the body of a small child was found on  the shoreline of Deer Island near Boston.  Waterville is about three hours north of Boston, so not really close, but not too far either.  There were some similarities between the body that was found and Ayla Reynolds, which led many to believe that it was possibly her. 

A woman had been walking her dog when the dog stopped to investigate a plastic bag.  Now, we are all true crime aficionados, so we know that this is never good…. The body was in a pair of white leggings, with a black polka dot blanket.  Unsure if there would be additional bodies on or near the beach, authorities used cadaver dogs to search the area.  Fortunately, no additional bodies were located.  Due to decomposition and other factors, the body was unable to be visually identified.  Initially, investigators suspected that the girl had died only a few days before she was discovered.  

So, the girl was estimated to be between three and five years old, which would kinda line up with Ayla, if she had been taken back in 2011.  Initially, it seems like this is what sparked many to think it might actually be her.  All of the girls identifying information was put into the NCMEC database, and was cross referenced with cases that involved similarly aged children.  

Investigators were unsure of how the body even ended up on the shore.  Their thoughts were that either someone put the body there or it washed up from the water…. Really narrowing it down there fellas.  The US Coast Guard offered their assistance and set about studying the tides and currents of the water in the area in an effort to estimate where the remains could have originated from.  Divers also dove around the area to check and see if there was anything in the surrounding area that might help them, but nothing was found.  After talking with the Coast Guard and looking at all the info regarding the movement of the water, authorities believed that information coupled with the stage of decomposition pointed towards the body having been placed there by someone.  

At this point, they had still not identified the young girl, and the NCMEC did a digital reconstruction of the face of the child.  Using Photoshop, forensic artist Christi Andrews created a reconstruction of what the girl could have looked like.  It was released and many people mistook it for an actual photograph.  Press conferences were held and the public was encouraged to think if there were any children they knew of that they hadn’t seen in a while.  Hundreds of tips were called in or sent on line and investigated. 

Authorities combed through every missing persons case they could that was even remotely close, but nothing ever matched.  They began to think that this child might not have been reported as missing at all.  A criminologist theorized that the child having been murdered by a stranger didn’t seem likely, based on statistics of similar cases from the past.  Forensics teams ran DNA tests against samples already on file in hopes of matching it to a family member, but nothing returned a hit. 

CNN ran an interview between Anderson Cooper and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted fame.  In the interview, Walsh said that it was possible that people weren’t submitting tips because they were afraid it would lead to their only family being investigated for something unrelated.  Specifically he mentioned a case where a family of undocumented immigrants didn’t report a child missing for fear of deportation.  He put out a plea that anyone who was afraid to talk to the police could contact him directly and remain completely anonymous.  More and more tips rolled in. 

Eventually, a tip came in that pointed the police to Rachelle Bond.  A neighbor had noticed that Bond’s young daughter hadn’t been around and when she asked Bond and her boyfriend, Michael McCarthy about her, they said that she had been taken away by the Dept of Children and Family Services, which was later proven to be a lie.  The neighbor told her sister that she suspected that “Baby Doe” as she had been called by the media, was actually Bond’s young daughter, Bella.  Another witness said she grew concerned when she hadn’t seen Bella in a while and all of her toys had been thrown out. Police executed a warrant on Bond’s apartment on Sept 17th.  Both Bond and her boyfriend were taken into custody. 

In their trials, both claimed that the other was responsible.  Bond eventually took a plea in exchange for testifying against McCarthy in his trial.  She was given time served plus two years of probation as “an accessory after the fact.”  She testified against McCarthy, claiming he was responsible for killing Bella and that she only went along with him afterwards out of fear.  She claimed that he injected her with heroin as a tranquilizer to keep her under control.  McCarthy was charged with first-degree murder, but the judge allowed the jury to consider lesser charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. In June of 2017, the jury returned a guilty verdict of second-degree murder, and two days later, he was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole in 2037.  

Bella’s remaining family was able to get some closure, but this means that we still didn’t know where Ayla Reynolds was or what happened to her.  

A Few Years Later

In 2017, six years after Ayla’s disappearance, Ayla was declared legally dead.  A judge ruled that her time of death was on or about December 17, 2011.  Elisha DiPietro made a statement saying, “I refuse to believe my niece is dead.”  She claimed that her brother and family had nothing to do with Ayla’s disappearance.  Phoebe, Ayla’s grandmother, said that the media wanted to convict them.  Justin was no longer in Maine and he hadn’t been heard from or seen in quite some time.  

A few months later, the show Crime Watch Daily spotted him in California and confronted him.  He told them that he believed it was someone he knew who had taken her and asked if they could meet at another time.  He was not seen publicly again after that. 

Days after the seven year anniversary, Trista and her attorneys wanted to file a wrongful death suit against Justin, but he was nowhere to be found.  Trista said that she hadn’t spoken to him in six years.  In a broadcast she said, “I wonder if our daughter haunts your dreams or if you see her blue eyes at night.  I wonder if you even think about that night.  That night you murdered her.”

Justin and his attorneys denied any involvement and he still insisted that Ayla was taken that night despite the police stating that there was no evidence of that. 

In 2018, Trista filed a wrongful death suit against Justin.  The lawsuit seeks monetary damages from Justin for causing Ayla’s death through “intentional wrongful actions” and for allegedly subjecting her to “pre-death pain, fright, terror and physical injuries.”   Trista’s lawyer said that the suit was really for finding out what happened to Ayla – why, when, and where.

Justin’s attorney, Michael Waxman, responded on behalf of his client.  Of the responses, 23 were admissions while eight were denials.  There were two left unanswered and ten were a combination of admission, denial, objection, and qualification.  

Waxman denied both counts of wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering.  He admitted to the following: 

-The purchase of a life insurance policy on Ayla approximately a month prior to her disappearance.

-Ayla suffered a broken arm on November 11, 2011.  This was said to have been caused by Justin falling while holding Ayla.  Medical treatment was not sought that night.  

-The presence of six people the night of December 16, 2011: Ayla, Justin, Courtney, Courtney’s child, Elisha, and her child.

Waxman further touched on Ayla’s broken arm saying that she was taken in the next morning for treatment (November 12), but that Justin didn’t believe her arm was “severely” swollen or that she was in great pain.  The suit stated that Ayla’s injury was diagnosed as a distal humerus (elbow) fracture of her left arm – with displacement. 

The suit also stated that Trista hadn’t seen Ayla since November 21, 2011.  Waxman admitted on behalf of Justin that this was true.

In 2022, Trista seeked to add Phoebe and Elisha DiPietro to the lawsuit.  Justin argued that this was past the two year statute of limitations.  She also seeked to add a claim that Justin breached a parental duty of care – which he objected to.  Trista seeked to add a claim against Phoebe as the owner of the premises, however, this failed because the complaint was devoid of any allegation that there were any dangerous conditions on the premises.  

Trista also sought to add a claim in her individual capacity against Justin, Elisha, and Phoebe for interference with a dead body.  All counts with the exception of the premises were granted.  These were added due to the evidence of Ayla’s blood being found throughout the house, totaling a cup’s worth and the evidence that showed someone tried to “clean up” the blood before the police arrived.  

The Maine State Police are still investigating Ayla’s disappearance and continue to welcome tips in the case.  Anyone with information should call 1-800-452-4664 or 207-624-7076.  Anonymous tips can also be left on the Maine State Police website.