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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thank you
00:01:45
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always ladies and gentlemen here is a man of Justice the captain
00:01:52
it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be featuring broken heels now that doesn't
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fancier merchandise and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] o [Music] on the morning of Saturday December 17th
00:04:08
2011 at 8:51 a.m. A call came in to 911 emergency services in Waterville Maine a
00:04:17
small town of about 16,000 people 24-year-old Justin dietro told the operator that his daughter Aya
00:04:27
Reynolds was not in her crib that morning Justin said he had placed the little girl in the crib the night before
00:04:35
when putting her to bed for the night he told the dispatcher that when he woke up
00:04:40
and went into her room she was gone the dispatcher asked if it was possible that the little girl somehow
00:04:49
manage to get out of the crib and could she be hiding somewhere no the father assured the
00:04:56
dispatcher adding that he and his sister had already checked the entire house he then described for the
00:05:05
dispatcher what his daughter looked like and what she was wearing when last seen
00:05:10
the night before the operator finished taking the caller's information and dispatched
00:05:16
Waterville Police Officers to the address of the call 29 Violet Avenue and to quot
00:05:25
central.com that call set off a chain of events that have eventually grew into the largest criminal investigation in
00:05:32
Main's history most of what happened in this investigation has been kept Under Wraps
00:05:39
by the Waterville Police Department and the state police of Maine but quite a bit was also
00:05:46
leaked this week's True Crime Story is A parents worst nightmare and this is true
00:05:53
crime [Music] garage Waterville police logs reflect that two officers were sent to the 29 Violet
00:06:09
Avenue house within 10 minutes of the 911 call searches of the house for the little girl proved fruitless she was not
00:06:17
under a bed she was not hiding in a closet or anywhere else that little kids are usually found by police when helping
00:06:24
parents look for a little one within 90 minutes the officers were joined by two more Waterville PD Officers two
00:06:33
detectives and three units from the fire department the search for the little girl was ramping up and quickly
00:06:41
Waterville Police Chief Joe Massie himself was on the scene but 90 minutes in and we still don't have any sign of
00:06:49
this missing little girl let's review the 911 call here Captain so that everyone will have a better
00:06:56
understanding of the information that the Waterville Police are armed with going into this search for AA Reynolds
00:07:04
from the transcript Waterville Communication Center what's the address of your emergency it is then
00:07:10
communicated via another dispatcher that they are putting through a caller that is reporting a child missing from a
00:07:18
residence after a quick hello the dispatcher at the Waterville Communication Center asked how long ago
00:07:26
did you see your child as we said earlier the caller is 24-year-old Justin dietro he is the father of the missing
00:07:35
girl Aya Reynolds he answers when I put her to bed last night my sister had checked on her um woke up this morning
00:07:45
went to her room and she's not there okay how old is she 20 months old so you last saw her last night sometime in the
00:07:54
evening yeah I put her to bed at 8:00 I got officers on on the way over there what is your name sir and we
00:08:02
already know his name it's Justin dietro all right what was she wearing the last
00:08:06
time you saw her she had on some pajamas they were green pajamas okay can you remember the exact time you saw her last
00:08:15
or somebody saw her last in the crib um Alicia so Alicia is just into Petro's sister he says that um Alicia says um
00:08:29
Alicia when was the last time you went in her room last night when you saw her he's now not talking to the dispatcher
00:08:38
Captain he's asking his sister who is in the background and can be heard in the background of the call Alicia says 10:00
00:08:46
what is a good number for you sir he then provides a phone number and the call gets
00:08:52
disconnected Justin very quickly calls back to 911 emergency services and explains that his cell phone died during
00:09:00
that call okay says the dispatcher what is your daughter's name the daughter's name is AA Reynolds okay have you
00:09:07
checked all through the house is there any way she could have climbed out of her crib no ma'am there is no way she
00:09:13
could have got out there's no way she could have then the officers are there they arrive on the scene and the
00:09:20
dispatcher and Justin agree to end the call so it's a brief 911 call there is not audio of this call the police have
00:09:29
determined that they're not going to release the audio for this call but they did release these transcripts that we
00:09:36
just went through this is early in the morning on Saturday December 17th 2011 and as we said the 911 call goes in at
00:09:46
8:51 a.m. we have two officers on the scene within 10 minutes of that 911 call and then we have more officers
00:09:55
detectives fire department showing up to help assist in the search for this girl
00:10:00
and the police chief as well they're checking the house obviously but they're also spreading out and searching the
00:10:06
immediate area of this house as well in the area surrounding it so we know that it's Justin's mother's house but it
00:10:14
seems like only Justin and his sister live there and his girlfriend was spending the night so as more law
00:10:21
enforcement Personnel continue to arrive at the scene we have the state police the main Warden Service two more
00:10:28
Detectives and three more officers from Waterville PD all are looking for AA Reynolds who despite the now over 2
00:10:37
hours of looking in our timeline and all the Personnel involved still she's not turned up so Searchers spread outside
00:10:46
peeking into dumpsters and trash containers and walking through neighbors yards out buildings under decks even
00:10:53
going into residents homes and woods Rivers streams and Fields everything you can think of a tracking dog was unable
00:11:03
to locate aa's scent to follow any kind of scent Trail Aya had vanished now according to the Waterville
00:11:12
Police Chief Joseph Massie he released a very brief statement that says quote we
00:11:18
are approaching almost 24 hours and no one knows where a 20mon little girl is and last seene only in pajamas here's
00:11:28
the description of Aya provided by Justin Depetro to the responding officers blonde hair with blue eyes and
00:11:37
she was wearing green one piece pajamas with polka dots and the words Daddy's princess on them she was 2 feet9 in tall
00:11:45
and weighed approximately 30 lbs and little Aya had an aircast on her left arm because she had broke the arm 3
00:11:54
weeks earlier you started to get into this Captain about the living situ situation
00:11:59
but let's talk about what was going on at the dietro house on the night that they put her to bed and then AA vanished
00:12:07
mhm so Justin lived at the house with his mom his mom's name is Phoebe she was not at home that night Justin was home
00:12:16
with Aya his sister Alicia who is 23 years old and his girlfriend Courtney Roberts who is 24 years old Courtney it
00:12:26
sounds like lived in Portland but was staying there at least on this night all three of the
00:12:33
adults had their little kids with them so there were six people in the house in total three adults and there three kids
00:12:44
Justin told investigators that on that Friday night Aya was put to bed alone in a separate room on the main level of the
00:12:52
home Justin his girlfriend and her son slept in the basement that night the the basement of Phoebe dep Petro's home is
00:13:01
partially finished and has one bedroom down there which was where Justin had been staying and you know he's sleeping
00:13:08
in the basement overnight Alicia and her small child slept together in a bedroom
00:13:14
on the main level where Aya was in her own room Justin said on the 911 call that Alicia checked on Aya around 1 p.m.
00:13:25
then when Justin checked in on Aya on Saturday morning her crib was empty and this is when he calls the police so
00:13:33
naturally the police sit down with the adults and they interview them to figure out what exactly was going on meanwhile
00:13:42
they dispatch officers to check in with others who it was thought might for some
00:13:47
reason have collected Aya this would be like her mother Trista or her grandparents so most of the time when
00:13:55
you have a kid that is missing and it's not as simple as you know you find the kid at a friend's
00:14:01
house playing or they were hiding somewhere often it's a custody dispute of some sort and here we have parents
00:14:09
that are separated they're not together so that will be an early Avenue a natural early Avenue for the
00:14:17
investigation but custy at this time would reside with Justin that's correct and it sounds like there was no formal
00:14:26
agreement about who has Aya and when and we'll get into the details of that as well so let's introduce Aya's mother and
00:14:35
what she was up to so back to Saturday December 16th we know that Justin called 911 at 8:51 a.m. where was Aya's mother
00:14:46
Trista well at 10:00 a.m. 23-year-old Trista Reynolds was asleep she was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by
00:14:55
Robert Fortier Robert was making the 4-Hour drive so a 4-Hour trip from Portland to
00:15:03
machiasport to visit his son Raymond who was incarcerated at the Down East Correctional Facility Trista and Raymond
00:15:13
were engaged so Trista was traveling with the forers to visit her fiance their son in the prison facility there
00:15:22
Robert's phone rang this is at 10 A.M it was Ron Reynolds trista's dad calling to tell
00:15:30
them that Aya was missing so this is when mom finds out that her daughter is missing so I'm assuming that Justin
00:15:37
called Aya's grandfather to let him know that she was missing possibly my guess would be that Trista may have lived with
00:15:45
her parents and so it could have been a call that was originally directed trying
00:15:50
to get a hold of Trista right because what this phone call is Captain is the detectives it's Ron Reynolds on the on
00:15:58
the call but he's saying hey A's missing and the detectives want to speak with Trista they are going to so they're on
00:16:06
this drive but they're going to have to turn around now and drive back to Waterville well you bring up a good
00:16:12
point Justin might have never contacted her or her family they could have been contacted by the detectives yeah and I
00:16:20
don't know how much that matters I mean Justin's got if if he's there his daughter's missing he's got his own
00:16:27
concerns it may not even been something that he thought about until directed to do so by the detectives I mean keep in
00:16:34
mind the police are on the scene within 15 minutes if we believe his story M within 15 minutes of him noticing that
00:16:42
she's gone so everybody's different um some people once the authorities arrive or once help arrives they sit back and
00:16:51
let help take over I don't know exactly what went down but this gives us a good indicator of where Trista was and what
00:17:01
was going on with her that morning and she's not alone right she's with a group of people traveling in this vehicle so
00:17:08
her whereabouts are pretty much accounted for as far as we can see here so now they're going go ahead but they
00:17:16
did on the trip pass through Waterville they passed by Waterville yes that's correct now Trista later said that she
00:17:25
was in shock at the hearing the news about her baby missing says quote I had no words I didn't know what to say I was
00:17:35
thinking like am I in a dream right now it was all just a shock the only thing I
00:17:41
could think about was where the hell was Justin if he was in the house this shouldn't have happened if he was
00:17:48
protecting Aya this shouldn't have happened now Justin and Trista had never actually been a couple it was a one
00:17:56
night stand sort of thing and they were both surprised when Trista ended up getting pregnant Aya lived with her
00:18:03
mother Trista and visited Justin's home at scheduled times but again there was no formalized custody agreement between
00:18:12
the two parents it always surprises me that people are surprised after having sex that the result of sex is conceiving
00:18:21
a baby that's what can happen yes that's one of the things that surprise and October of
00:18:31
2011 so this is the same year just two months before Aya would go missing M Trista entered a 10day rehab program and
00:18:40
during that time for reasons we will get into in a second Aya was with Justin so
00:18:47
daughter's going to go stay with dad while Trista enters this rehab program since Trista since Trista got
00:18:56
out of rehab she lived in Port Portland with her family with no address of her own now we should point out here that
00:19:03
Portland is about 75 mil away from Waterville when Trista arrived at the Waterville Police Station on that
00:19:11
Saturday she was interviewed for 2 hours by detective David Karen who was no doubt aware that child of broken
00:19:20
marriages or no relationship at all are often the subject of custody disputes and the victim of non-custodial parent
00:19:30
abductions Trista told Karen the detective that she had last seen Aya on November 21st so this is more than 3
00:19:40
weeks earlier she had spoken to her on the phone on December 8th now what's even more interesting in that situation
00:19:49
is that Trista had filed for custody of Aya on December 15th right we said there was no
00:19:57
formalized who gets who win version of this parenting and where Aya is to go so according to this information Trista
00:20:07
filed for custody of her daughter on December 15th that's the day before she was missing she comes up
00:20:15
missing according to Central Maine quote Trista Reynolds filed a complaint against Depetro Justin de Petro for
00:20:23
determination of paternity paternal rights and responsibilities and child support according to documents obtained
00:20:30
from the Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland end quote when Trista had entered the 10day rehab program her
00:20:38
mother Becca and sister Jessica they took Aya in but while she was away child welfare services placed Aya with Justin
00:20:49
the child's father Aya had been living with him for 59 days so 59 days when little Aya vanished it's very important
00:20:59
for especially a situation like this where they're not going to get married they're not in a relationship where you
00:21:05
set up boundaries and rules and the custody issues through the court system because what it seems to happen is she
00:21:14
was obviously in a situation that she wanted to get help and try to get her life back on track so then she said okay
00:21:22
well Mom I'll have my mom and sister watch her I trust them and then here comes a a situation where there is no
00:21:32
laws in place or no rules in place and he can then say look it's first right or refusal so he could then take the child
00:21:41
there there's a lot of times where this stuff happens where especially you know these fathers that are not that involved
00:21:49
they posture by doing this oh you're not around so now I'm going to take in uh my
00:21:54
child and I I don't even think this is going by what Justin wanted but more so what his mother wanted him to do and
00:22:03
this seems like a weird situation to me I I know this happens all the time you know there's a lot of great situations
00:22:09
great parents kids having wonderful time growing up situations out there that are
00:22:15
similar to this but what is odd about it to me something that I just have no experience with is it's a little weird
00:22:23
that you are a parent of this daughter but the other parent you don't technically you don't really know them
00:22:32
very well now do you I mean there was no real relationship right so it wasn't like
00:22:37
they're showing up to family parties yeah you or opening up Christmas gifts you don't know the grandparents that
00:22:43
well you don't know the the father of your daughter's uh you don't know his friends very well things like that it
00:22:51
seems a very weird for me it's something I can't really wrap my head around too much well that's why there needs to be
00:22:58
more education for women based on their cycles and and also just you know more don't forget about the dumb guys
00:23:09
out there well no that's what I mean you got to again whole IDE full of dumb guys
00:23:15
the whole idea that we're surprised you know was there any birth control used uh
00:23:20
did the guy wear a condom what why are you so surprised by this pregnancy I don't know the details of that uh I
00:23:27
don't don't really well I think it's they're surprised because of ignorance and immaturity so the key thing here Captain
00:23:34
is little Aya had been living with Justin dietro for 59 days when she disappeared the papers that Trista filed
00:23:43
were an attempt to get her back so Trista told the detectives that she and Justin were not on speaking terms at
00:23:50
that point and that he had refused to put Aya on the phone when Trista called to talk to her daughter on December 11
00:24:00
however Trista also told ABC news that Justin did not know that she filed the papers that would restrict his access to
00:24:08
Aya Reynolds so this is very interesting because when you see something like this
00:24:13
and we've seen custody battles in the past in other cases where somebody files something with the court and magically
00:24:21
the next day the kids are hard to get a hold of they vanish they disappear or dad took them states away MH we've seen
00:24:30
that before but we have Trista in her own words saying look it's easy to make that leap that that this happened
00:24:38
because I filed these papers however he didn't know that I filed these papers so Justin would have been unaware
00:24:46
of this information at that time again we're assuming he didn't know or didn't hear through the Great Vine we don't
00:24:53
know exactly what her state is at this moment and I'm talking about the mother because like we said she entered rehab
00:25:00
she then exited rehab it didn't seem like she was clean at this point again that's something that I have no
00:25:08
knowledge of well that's what I'm saying is I I I'm saying if we can assume that
00:25:13
she left rehab before the treatment was fully established we can just assume that she's not completely sober at this
00:25:23
point that's something again that I don't know anything about I don't have any or couldn't find any reason to doubt
00:25:30
what her belief was that Justin was unaware that she had filed these papers right now this is going
00:25:38
to that's pretty much the early part of the interview with Trista in the information that detectives are able to
00:25:46
get from her it seems like they were somewhat comfortable with believing that Trista didn't have anything to do with
00:25:55
taking her own daughter from Justin's home so the search for Aya continues so now we need to introduce the FBI card
00:26:05
team you know it's a garage party when they start busting out the acronyms right so this stands for the Federal
00:26:12
Bureau of Investigations child abduction rapid deployment team card team which works to recover victims as quickly as
00:26:20
possible and helps apprehend those responsible for taking them A Brief History if you will here captain the C
00:26:28
team was created in 2006 and has deployed more than 100 times for approximately 108 victims both
00:26:36
domestically and when requested abroad numerous children have been located and safely returned to their loved ones
00:26:44
tragically the remains of victims have also been found the 60 or so agents who make up the card team are stationed at
00:26:52
field offices around the country each is assigned to one of five Regional teams that cover the northeast southeast North
00:27:02
Central South Central and western United States and are deployed at the request of a field office members of the card
00:27:11
team are seasoned investigators with experienceing crimes against children cases that are often
00:27:17
multi-jurisdictional and multi- agency these are people who have purposely chosen this line of work because they
00:27:24
care deeply about the welfare of all children well the fact of the matter is we have police and detectives that show
00:27:32
up at the scene of where they claim that this toddler this 22mon old child goes missing there's no
00:27:42
sign of her outside of the the house there's no there's no dog that's tracking a scent that
00:27:50
leads you know from her crib to outside and you've talked to both parents you can't find anywhere so now
00:27:59
you start wondering who is telling the truth and who is lying to [Music] [Music]
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Dirties and those dirties in the middle cheers to you Colonel all right cheers to you Captain so on Sunday the 18th of
00:30:55
December FBI agents from the Northeast card team joined 75 state and local Law Enforcement Officers as well as
00:31:04
neighbors and Volunteers in the search for little Aya as we mentioned before the break there the C team these are the
00:31:12
season professionals that you want involved looking for your missing child they conducted a Knockin talk canvas of
00:31:21
the area going house to house and asking residents if they had seen anything and
00:31:25
also going into the homes which people would allow them to come in and search their homes members of the main Warden
00:31:33
Service searched treacherous outdoor areas that it felt Aya could have possibly walked to one area of concern
00:31:41
Captain was this melinsky stream which was about an eighth of a mile away from the dietro home parts of this stream
00:31:51
which was like a high and fast flowing stream were drained so that Searchers could get a better look at the depths of
00:31:58
the Waterway and police chief Massie held the first of many press conferences to update members of the public about
00:32:06
the search for AA Reynolds saying the FBI and the main Warden Service had been called in to help the major
00:32:14
investigation he's already referring to this as a major investigation it was truly all Hands-On deck at this point
00:32:23
and we also had two search dogs that sniffed for any sign of the missing toddler but again couldn't come up with
00:32:32
anything in that area of Investigation as well investigators said that they were not ruling anything out but the
00:32:39
first imperative obviously was to find Aya as temperatures in Maine in December at night are generally not
00:32:47
survivable by a toddler of course for extended periods of time on the weekend that Alo went missing temperatures at
00:32:56
night were in the teens and single digits so this is a big concern for all searching for this little girl and Aya
00:33:05
did not qualify for an amber alert because there was no vehicle or suspect description this is one thing that I've
00:33:12
always been a little weird about like they're they're Federal they're not necessarily
00:33:18
requirements they don't like to use that word they use more of like suggestions for these Amber Alerts but I don't
00:33:26
understand why just don't use it like let's peel back some of the the reasons for not using it and just use it you
00:33:34
know use it more often you got a missing kid seems like something you might want
00:33:37
to use but again we have no suspect we have no vehicle information to send out to
00:33:43
anybody so they chose not to use it in this situation but police did use an automated phone notification system
00:33:51
which called everybody within a square mile of the depature home and alerted them that there was a child missing
00:33:58
which gave a description of Aya well and that makes a lot of sense cuz you wouldn't expect her to be seen Miles and
00:34:05
Miles Away but again back to your back to your Amber Alert if you have an amber alert to go hey here's a description of
00:34:14
this child and somebody's at a gas station and sees somebody uh with a child that they don't seem either
00:34:22
familiar with or maybe the child is crying uncontrolled it might be something that somebody pays
00:34:29
attention to that gives you evidence later and right now during the investigation they're doing all the
00:34:35
normal things that you would expect with a missing child you have the okay kind of behind the scenes we're checking into
00:34:42
the custody issues between Mom and Dad is there any should we be concerned that a loved one took this girl in a custody
00:34:51
battle so you can see they've already have been working that Avenue they're also interviewing the three adults that
00:34:57
say they were there the night and morning that Aya went missing hold on it's time for a true crime standard the
00:35:05
cops I feel are doing their due diligence there you go but they're also working under the assumption at this
00:35:12
point that little Aya may have wandered off that somehow she got out of the house and made her way somewhere another
00:35:20
thing investigators did on that Sunday was Interview all three of the adults again who were in the dietro home on the
00:35:29
night that Aya was last seen this again was Justin his girlfriend Courtney and his sister
00:35:34
Alicia Alicia is admittedly between the three the last person to see Aya this is
00:35:43
the information that was provided to 911 during the the initial call police said
00:35:49
that both of aa's parents were cooperating in the search for the girl and any questions that police had police
00:35:56
also impounded two vehicles belonging to Justin and Courtney but would not say why on the Tuesday the main State Police
00:36:07
evidence response team truck was seen at the dietro home this is like seeing one
00:36:13
of those crime scene Tech trailers or Vans outside of someone's house I bought one and just it sits outside my house
00:36:21
permanently it's empty inside yeah just like just like my soul grid SE es continued in the State Police Special
00:36:29
crime incident command and Communications truck were on site at the Waterville City Hall this was serving as
00:36:37
an investigation headquarters searches also occurred at some locations that were less expected and this was things
00:36:45
like dumpsters which immediately you get concerned when they're searching dumpsters and the Champions Fitness club
00:36:53
on Elm Plaza on December 20th even though Waterville PD was still labeling Aya's disappearance as just a
00:37:02
missing child case not an abduction or anything else Justin Depetro felt the need to release a statement through the
00:37:11
Waterville PD which read quote I will not make accusations or insinuations towards anyone until the police have
00:37:19
been able to prove who is responsible for this AO was in my sole custody at the time of her disappearance agreement
00:37:27
between her mother and I because she was unable to care for Aya I have shared every piece of information with the
00:37:34
police contrary to some statements floating around out there I have been in communication with aa's Mother over the
00:37:41
last couple of weeks the Waterville Police have transcripts of my phone for verification of those Communications it
00:37:49
has always been my intention to have a Shared Parenting Agreement with aa's mother and I will continue to work
00:37:56
toward towards that when Aya is returned to us end quote if you recall Trista had
00:38:02
said that she and Justin weren't really on speaking terms Justin statement concluded by saying that his family and
00:38:10
friends will continue to do everything we can to assist in this investigation to get Aya back home MH so the searches
00:38:19
continued aided by 50 members of the main Association for search and rescue but by this point the search area
00:38:27
covered an area 5 miles wide and 2 and 1/2 mil deep but on day five December 22nd crime scene tape went up around the
00:38:39
the Petro home and homicide investigators and prosecutors were seen entering the house the house remained
00:38:47
sealed off and on December 26th police announced that this was no longer a missing child case but a probable child
00:38:56
abduction quote we feel comfortable at this point in our belief that Aya did not walk away from her home under her
00:39:03
own power for several reasons the physical layout of the home and the steps she would have needed to take to
00:39:10
get outside make it very unlikely we think it would be very very difficult for her to open the door and get herself
00:39:18
out we don't think she could have gone very far we also considered her stature she is a toddler and although she was
00:39:27
walking her Mobility is still developing we believe that someone was involved in
00:39:32
taking her out of the house and that's where the focus of this investigation has turned that was from Chief Massie
00:39:39
well just to go back to what you're saying about them not being on speaking terms Trista is going to rehab leaving
00:39:46
her child with her mom and her sister and then Justin goes no we're not we're not doing that my daughter's staying
00:39:52
with me that's why they're not really on speaking terms and then because she's a
00:39:58
toddler she has to call Justin and say hey I would like to speak with my daughter and and I think that also at
00:40:05
this point he is maybe and I'm not this is not very clear but it seems as if he is letting
00:40:14
her father watch the child every now and then so there's these reports of you know oh she has you know bruising on her
00:40:22
legs and she has this broken arm and and so there's becomes questions of what the
00:40:28
hell is going on at your house mhm that she's getting all these injuries right and just one like for example when she
00:40:36
had all these bruises all over her leg he was like well we went to Chuck-E-Cheese or something and she was
00:40:42
in a ball pit and some stranger kid like was kicking at her or something like that and then they come to find out that
00:40:51
there was no ball pit so just like these little white lies and his story not adding up to them well and I find the
00:41:00
police chief's statement very interesting here in regards to switching announcing that we've switched the focus
00:41:08
of the investigation from a child who wandered off to a child abduction and he's simply saying in very
00:41:16
short words there that we look we've looked at the house and given how short this little girl and how small she was
00:41:25
we don't believe she would even have been able to get out of the door right and we can't find anything to show us
00:41:32
that she left via window or any other method of leaving this house well there's no sign of breaking and entering
00:41:41
correct so obviously we can tell by this statement that police do not believe that Aya being so tiny and having the
00:41:49
broken arm would have been able to open any of the doors and walk out of the house under her own power Massie laid
00:41:56
said that also because Violet Avenue is very densely populated it's a residential neighborhood with small
00:42:04
houses close to one another that the police felt that it was very unlikely that Aya could have gotten out of the
00:42:11
house and been wandering around the neighborhood without anyone seeing her they couldn't find anybody to say
00:42:18
that they had seen anything or heard anything that night so at this point police received more than 300 30 tips in
00:42:27
the missing child case 100 of them came in after a $30,000 reward was announced this was offered up by local businesses
00:42:37
putting together some money trying to help out do some good deeds police said that they spent 5,000 man hours on the
00:42:45
case in the first 11 days meanwhile father Justin Depetro decides you know what I should issue a second
00:42:54
statement and this comes out on the 28th he was refusing to give interviews but apparently felt the need to explain
00:43:03
some things so he wrote after thanking all the people working to find his daughter quote it is important that the
00:43:11
public hear it from me personally that I have no idea what happened to Aya and that I am not hiding I would never do
00:43:18
anything to hurt my child the questions of aa's arm or bruises or anything else being said are simply ludicrous
00:43:26
I have to believe that Aya is with somebody and I just want that person to find the courage to do the right thing
00:43:33
and find a way to return her safely even if that means dropping her off at a church or a hospital or some safe place
00:43:43
and please aren't buying this because they're also saying that the house is so small that they just believe with three
00:43:50
adults in the house that somebody would have heard something that night my only issue with
00:43:58
that is that if you take Justin statements and you believe that any of them are true he is saying his hunch is
00:44:06
if somebody came into the house and took his daughter it would have been somebody
00:44:12
that she knew uh possibly a family member or somebody connected to her mother yes that's kind of what he's
00:44:23
saying there and you wonder like is he very strategically kind of planting that seed to watch the plant start to grow
00:44:33
and take root and and so he can change it at some point into this fullon full-blown hey I think she was involved
00:44:42
somebody involved with the mom knows what happened here or is responsible for this and maybe you can answer these cuz
00:44:50
I couldn't find these one no comments about like well we leave the doors open it's a safe community so we leave the
00:44:58
doors unlocked so no no comments that I could find about that and also we know that they didn't have much of a
00:45:06
relationship so there would be no need to be like you know where where um where Trista didn't ever live with
00:45:15
Justin that that I could find so why would she or anybody in her family have like keys to their
00:45:23
property yeah that's correct and there is some talk from police regarding windows and doors that I have here in my
00:45:31
notes and we'll get into that some of it's a little confusing though I'm not going to lie but from the police
00:45:37
statements that we've already reviewed it seems to be that they are under the impression which that's all they can go
00:45:45
off of they show up they interview the three adults that are at the home that night all three say hey we always lock
00:45:51
the doors so they're going to be under the assumption that these doors were in fact locked now the police steadfastly
00:45:58
refused to say anything of the status of their investigation however they did confirm that they knew where Trista was
00:46:06
on the night her daughter vanished although the police would not clarify they're simply saying we know her
00:46:13
whereabouts we know where she was but they're not saying exactly where that was also they wouldn't say whether
00:46:19
they're was another child in the same room with Aya that night as had been reported both ways in the National media
00:46:29
so think about how scary this story is that's being pumped out to our nation where they're saying not only is this a
00:46:37
child abduction but uh we think that there was another child sleeping and staying in
00:46:42
the same room somebody was able to sneak into that room that night make off with
00:46:47
this girl leaving another child sleeping in that room alone the other thing that
00:46:53
they wouldn't comment on at this time in our timeline was the forensic evidence if there was any this would be things
00:47:01
such as blood found inside the home now authorities are not making Court affidavits filed in this case public so
00:47:10
some of the cases that we've reviewed here we've got a lot of information from Court affidavits that are filed on
00:47:18
behalf of the police department investigating certain crimes or cases and what they're here is hey media
00:47:28
you're you're you're in our way here with this search for this little girl don't bother go going looking for things
00:47:36
that we're filing through the court system because we have made that so you would not be able to view those at this
00:47:42
time this means that they this could mean that they are on to something and they don't want that information
00:47:49
released to the rest of us they don't want to clue anybody in as to where they're putting putting their efforts in
00:47:56
their investigation at this point we do know that they were searching the house the Dio's garage They seized the two
00:48:05
vehicles from the driveway of the home so as you can see here Captain they're doing a lot of work but they're keeping
00:48:14
everything very close to the vest here I have another question for you Billy Goat
00:48:19
maybe you maybe you were able to find this what was the distance from triss's house to Justin's house well the city
00:48:28
where she was staying in to the city where he lived 75 miles so but what's interesting is the day that she went
00:48:37
missing we do know that Trista passed through that town before she got a call stating that her daughter was missing
00:48:47
well passed through the town is one way of saying it yes the the other thing is driving the freeway and passing the exit
00:48:56
and never having stopped off in the the town itself is another way of saying it as well yes I and I think that's the
00:49:05
better way to say it I believe I think two of I think the two things are completely different and paint a very
00:49:10
different picture right if you're on the freeway and you just pass the exit well that's one thing but if you
00:49:19
got off the freeway it's there's no need to go through Waterville on your way to
00:49:25
uh your destination right but if you do well then things look a lot different and maybe that seed that Justin was
00:49:33
trying to plant is the correct seed uh and that he has it right the entire time what you could also see in this
00:49:42
case at this time in our timeline via the national media coverage early on is that everyone could see the obvious
00:49:51
differences in how each of these parents were handling the sit situation Justin is refusing to Grant interviews with the
00:50:00
media but on the other hand Trista she goes on a media blitz appearing on Nancy Grace Good Morning America and other
00:50:09
news shows on the 23rd of December Trista appeared on NBC's Today Show and said that she blamed Justin for not
00:50:18
keeping AA safe on the 29th she appeared on the Today's Show again asking Justin
00:50:24
to please talk to her and tell her what happened Justin was starting to really look like he was hiding something at
00:50:34
this point with her going out and pleading through the media to get some answers from him about what could have
00:50:41
happened that night yeah Trista kept claiming again how well does she even know Justin I mean because they they
00:50:50
just had a one night stand and then they ended up having a child together but she
00:50:54
claims that she could tell in his eyes that he wanted to tell her something that he wanted that he had some answers
00:51:03
that he wanted to basically confess to her well I don't know if it was pressure or not but Justin and his mom phebe and
00:51:12
his brother Lance pH buet sat down with the main Morning Sentinel and this was to dispel rumors that there was a party
00:51:23
okay so there was a rumor going around that there was a big large scale party at the dietro home on Friday December
00:51:30
16th that being the night that Aya was last seen they come forward and say there was no party at our house that
00:51:37
night then in a weird turn of events Phoebe dietro appeared on CNN saying that on the night AA vanished this is
00:51:46
one of there's several weird things in this case this is one that stands out to me Phoebe Depetro is on CNN saying that
00:51:54
on the night that AA vanished she did not hear anything happening in her home the next day she appeared again on the
00:52:02
news network to clarify that she was not actually in the home that night she was
00:52:08
not at home the entire evening she says she couldn't have heard anything obviously because if we're to believe
00:52:15
her she wasn't even present which seems to go along with what the other three adults were telling investigators from
00:52:23
even their early interviews I look at this thing and I go okay this is a bit confusing but I think it might
00:52:30
be a situation where she may have just misspoke or said something in a certain way that she didn't realize until later
00:52:37
kind of implied that she was home that night when in fact she wasn't right Justin also appeared on the Today's
00:52:45
Show and this is where he's stating you know I'm here to help in any way I can by coming on this show it's in
00:52:54
hopes of reaching out to the person that does have my daughter to let them know that what you're doing isn't right you
00:53:03
may think what you're doing is right for Aya but it's not you have no right you are not her parent she belongs home with
00:53:10
her family on the 6th of January Justin felt the need to explain Aya's broken arm
00:53:17
which was of course of interest to the general public and I'm sure of interest to the investigators working the case as
00:53:24
well and he says that that was completely accidental I would never harm my daughter he said that he had taken Aya
00:53:32
to a grocery store with him on a rainy night in November he was carrying her remember she's I mean she's very small
00:53:40
she's 20 months old he's carrying her under one arm into the home while carrying groceries in the other arm and
00:53:48
he says I usually would let her walk but it was raining out that night and it was
00:53:53
dark so I carried her he said he walked into the side door of the house and climbed the short Stairway to the
00:54:01
kitchen area and says I came up the stairs and slipped it happened so fast I don't know exactly how I fell on her but
00:54:09
I fell on her and Phoebe his mother backs up this story saying I was sitting in the living room with my daughter and
00:54:16
we heard a big thump I immediately went to the kitchen and Aya was scared so I so I picked her up the family said that
00:54:25
Aya was fussy after Justin fell on her but it was not until well into the next day before they decided that the
00:54:33
swelling in her arm warranted a trip to the emergency room Justin was worried about his daughter he said so he left a
00:54:42
commercial driver's license course at Lawrence adult education in Fairfield this was a class that he had
00:54:49
signed up for he left that class early and took his daughter to the hospital to Petro said said some people have
00:54:55
suggested that he didn't take Aya to the hospital immediately because he may have
00:55:00
been intoxicated at the time he said that's untrue I don't know Captain I don't know
00:55:06
that we have definitive answers here on if this was a accident if it was something else if it was anything other
00:55:14
than an accident did he delay taking her to the hospital I don't know that you can fault
00:55:21
somebody in every scenario if they are not quick to take somebody to the hospital right I mean how many I
00:55:29
understand that she's a very little girl but how many of us have rolled an ankle
00:55:35
or had an accident and had some type of injury and we don't decide for ourselves
00:55:41
for the sake of our own health until 24 hours later I better get this looked at I don't know how much blame there is to
00:55:49
pass around here it is certainly something to consider and to look at because look kids don't go missing every day and
00:55:59
here we have a scenario where we have a very small child who does go missing and
00:56:03
she happens to have a cast on her arm at that time well again I think the big thing here is that law enforcement go
00:56:11
from we have a missing child to we have a missing child where we believe Foul Play is
00:56:19
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