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foreign [Music] [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thank you for listening I'm your
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good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very happy to be
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of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] foreign [Music] of Saturday December 17 2011. at 8 51 am A call came in to 9-1-1 emergency
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services in Waterville Maine a small town of about 16 000 people 24 year old Justin depietro
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told the operator that his daughter Ayla Reynolds was not in her crib that morning
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Justin said he had placed the little girl in the crib the night before when putting her to bed for the night
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he told the dispatcher that when he woke up and went into her room she was gone the dispatcher asked if it was possible
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that the little girl somehow managed to get out of the crib and could she be hiding somewhere
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no the father assured the dispatcher adding that he and his sister had already checked the entire house
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he then described for the dispatcher what his daughter looked like and what she was wearing when last seen the night
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before the operator finished taking the caller's information and dispatched Waterville Police Officers to the
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address of the call 29 Violet Avenue and to quote Central maine.com that call set off a chain of events that
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eventually grew into the largest criminal investigation in Maine's history most of what happened in this
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investigation has been kept Under Wraps by the Waterville Police Department and the state police of Maine
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but quite a bit was also leaked this week's True Crime Story is a parent's worst nightmare
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and this True Crime garage [Music] Waterville police logs reflect that two officers were sent to the 29 Violet
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Avenue house within 10 minutes of the 9-1-1 call searches of the house for the little girl proved fruitless she was not
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under a bed she was not hiding in a closet or anywhere else that little kids are usually found by police when helping
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parents look for a little one within 90 minutes the officers were joined by two more Waterville PD Officers two
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detectives and three units from the fire department the search for the little girl was ramping up and quickly
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Waterville Police Chief Joe Massey himself was on the scene but 90 minutes in and we still don't have any sign of
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this missing little girl let's review the 9-1-1 call here Captain so that everyone will have a better
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understanding of the information that the Waterville Police are armed with going into this search for Ayla Reynolds
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from the transcript Waterville communications center what's the address of your emergency
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it is then communicated via another dispatcher that they are putting through a caller that is reporting a child
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missing from a residence after a quick hello the dispatcher at the Waterville communications center
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asked how long ago did you see your child as we said earlier the caller is 24 year
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old Justin depietro he is the father of the missing girl Ayla Reynolds he answers when I put her to bed last night
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my sister had checked on her um woke up this morning went to her room and she's not there
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okay how old is she 20 months old so you last saw her last night sometime in the
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evening yeah I put her to bed at eight o'clock I got officers on the way over there
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what is your name sir and we already know his name it's Justin depietro all right what was she wearing the last time
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you saw her she had on some pajamas they were green pajamas okay can you remember
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the exact time you saw her last or somebody saw her last in the crib um Alicia so Alicia is Justin depietro's
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sister he says that um Alicia says um Alicia when was the last time you went in her room last night when you saw
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her he's now not talking to the dispatcher Captain he's asking his sister who is in the background and can
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be heard in the background of the call Alicia says 10 o'clock what is a good number for you sir he then provides a
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phone number and the call gets disconnected Justin very quickly calls back to 9-1-1
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emergency services and explains that his cell phone died during that call okay says the dispatcher what is your
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daughter's name the daughter's name is Ayla Reynolds okay have you checked all through the house is there any way she
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could have climbed out of her crib no ma'am there is no way she could have got out there's no way she could have then
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the officers are there they arrive on the scene and the dispatcher and Justin agree to end the call so it's a brief
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9-1-1 call there is not audio of this call the police have determined that they're not going to release the audio
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for this call but they did release these transcripts that we just went through this is early in the morning on Saturday
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December 17 2011 and as we said the 9-1-1 call goes in at 8 51 a.m We have two officers on
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the scene within 10 minutes of that 9-1-1 call and then we have more officers detectives fire department
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showing up to help assist in the search for this girl and the police chief as well they're checking the house
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obviously but they're also spreading out and searching the immediate area of this
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house as well in the area surrounding it so we know that it's Justin's mother's house but it seems like only Justin and
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his sister live there and his girlfriend was spending the night so as more law enforcement Personnel continue to arrive
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at the scene we have the state police the main Warden Service two more detectives and three more officers from
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Waterville PD all are looking for Ayla Reynolds who despite the now over two hours of looking in our timeline and all
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the Personnel involved still she's not turned up so Searchers spread outside peeking into
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dumpsters and trash containers and walking through neighbors yards out buildings under decks even going into
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residence homes and woods Rivers streams and Fields everything you can think of a
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tracking dog was unable to locate ayla's scent to follow any kind of scent Trail
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Ayla had vanished now according to the Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey he released a very
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brief statement that says quote we are approaching almost 24 hours and no one knows where a 20-month little girl is
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and last seen only in pajamas here's the description of Ayla provided by Justin depietro to the responding officers
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blonde hair with blue eyes and she was wearing green one-piece pajamas with polka dots and the words Daddy's
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princess on them she was two feet nine inches tall and weighed approximately 30 pounds and little Ayla had an air cast
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on her left arm because she had broke the arm three weeks earlier you started to get into this Captain
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about the living situation but let's talk about what was going on at the depietro house on the night that they
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put her to bed and then Ayla vanished so Justin lived at the house with his mom his mom's name is Phoebe she was not at
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home that night Justin was home with Ayla his sister Alicia who was 23 years old and his girlfriend Courtney Roberts
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who is 24 years old Courtney it sounds like lived in Portland but was staying there at least on this night all three
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of the adults had their little kids with them so there were six people in the house in total
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three adults and their three kids Justin told investigators that on that Friday night
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Ayla was put to bed alone in a separate room on the main level of the home Justin his girlfriend and her son slept
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in the basement that night the basement of Phoebe depietro's home is partially finished and has one
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bedroom down there which was where Justin had been staying and you know he's sleeping in the basement overnight
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Alicia and her small child slept together in a bedroom on the main level where Ayla was in her own room
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Justin said on the 9-1-1 call that Alicia checked on Ayla around 10 pm then when Justin checked in on Ayla on
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Saturday morning her crib was empty and this is when he calls the police so naturally the police sit down with the
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adults and they interview them to figure out what exactly was going on meanwhile they dispatch officers to
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check in with others who it was thought might for some reason have collected Ayla this would be like her mother
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Trista or her grandparents so most of the time when you have a kid that is missing and it's not as simple
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as you know you find the kid at a friend's house playing or they were hiding somewhere often it's a custody dispute
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of some sort and here we have parents that are separated they're not together so that will be an early Avenue a
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natural early Avenue for the investigation but custody at this time would reside with Justin that's correct
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and it sounds like there was no formal agreement about who has Ayla and when and we'll
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get into the details of that as well so let's introduce ayla's mother and what she was up to so back to Saturday
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December 16th we know that Justin called 9-1-1 at 8 51 a.m where was ayla's Mother Trista well at 10 A.M 23 year old
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Trista Reynolds was asleep she was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by Robert Fortier
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Robert was making the four-hour drive so a four-hour trip from Portland to machiasport to visit his son Raymond who
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was incarcerated at the Down East Correctional Facility Trista and Raymond were engaged so
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Trista was traveling with the four tiers to visit her fiancee their son in the prison facility there Robert's phone
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rang this is at 10 A.M it was Ron Reynolds trista's dad calling to tell them that
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Ayla was missing so this is when mom finds out that her daughter is missing so I'm assuming that Justin called
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ayla's grandfather to let him know that she was missing possibly my guess would be that Trista may have lived with her
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parents and so it could have been a call that was originally directed trying to get a hold of Trista right because what
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this phone call is Captain is the detectives it's Ron Reynolds on the on the call but
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he's saying hey ayla's missing and the detectives want to speak with Trista they are going to so they're on this
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drive but they're going to have to turn around now and drive back to Waterville well you bring up a good point Justin
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might have never contacted her or her family they could have been contacted by the detectives yeah and I don't know how
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much that matters I mean Justin's got if if he's there his daughter's missing he's got his own concerns it may not
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even been something that he thought about until directed to do so by the detectives I mean keep in mind the
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police are on the scene within 15 minutes if we believe his story within 15 minutes of him noticing that she's
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gone so everybody's different um some people once the authorities arrive or wants help arrives they sit
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back and let help take over I don't know exactly what went down but this gives us
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a good indicator of where Trista was and what was going on with her that morning
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and she's not alone right she's with a group of people traveling in this vehicle so her whereabouts are pretty
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much accounted for as far as we can see here so now they're gonna go ahead but they did on the trip pass
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through Waterville they passed by Waterville yes that's correct now Trista later said that she was in shock at the
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hearing the news about her baby missing says quote I had no words I didn't know what to say I was thinking like am I in
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a dream right now it was all just a shock the only thing I could think about was where the hell was
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Justin if he was in the house this shouldn't have happened if he was protecting Ayla this shouldn't have
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happened now Justin and Trista had never actually been a couple it was a one-night stand
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sort of thing and they were both surprised when Trista ended up getting pregnant
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Ayla lived with her mother Trista and visited Justin's home at scheduled times but again there was no formalized
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custody agreement between the two parents it always surprises me that people are surprised after having sex
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that the result of sex is conceiving a baby that you that's what can happen yes that's one of those things that
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surprised in October of 2011 so this is the same year just two months before Ayla would go missing Trista
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entered a 10-day rehab program and during that time for reasons we will get into in a second Ayla was with Justin
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so daughter's going to go stay with dad while Trista enters this rehab program since Trista since Trista got out of
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rehab she lived in Portland with her family with no address of her own now we should point out here that Portland is
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about 75 miles away from Waterville when Trista arrived at the Waterville Police
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Station on that Saturday she was interviewed for two hours by detective David Karen who was no doubt aware that
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child of broken marriages or no relationship at all are often the subject of custody disputes and the
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victims of non-custodial parent abductions Trista told Karen the detective that she
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had last seen Ayla on November 21st so this is more than three weeks earlier she had spoken to her on the phone on
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December 8th now what's even more interesting in that situation is that Trista had filed for custody of Ayla on
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December 15th right we said there was no formalized who gets who win version of this parenting and where Ayla
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is to go so according to this information Trista filed for custody of her daughter on
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December 15th that's the day before she was missing she comes up missing according to Central Maine quote Trista
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Reynolds filed a complaint against depietro Justin depietro for determination of paternity paternal
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rights and responsibilities and child support according to documents obtained from the Cumberland County Superior
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Court in Portland and quote when Trista had entered the 10-day rehab program her
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mother Becca and sister Jessica they took Ayla in but while she was away child welfare services placed Ayla with
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Justin the child's father Ayla had been living with him for 59 days so five nine days when little Ayla
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vanished it's very important for especially a situation like this where they're not going to get married they're
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not in a relationship where you set up boundaries and rules and the custody issues through the court system because
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what it seems to happen is she was obviously in a situation that she wanted to get help and try to get her life back
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on track so then she said okay well Mom I'll have my mom and sister watch her I trust them and then here comes a
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situation where there is no laws in place or no rules in place and he can then say look it's first right or
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refusal so he could then take the child there there's a lot of times where this stuff happens where especially you know
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these fathers that are not that involved they posture by doing this oh you're not
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around so now I'm going to take in um my child and I I don't even think this is going by what Justin wanted but more so
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what his mother wanted him to do and this seems like a weird situation to me I know this happens all the time you
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know there's a lot of great situations great parents kids having wonderful time growing up situations out there that are
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similar to this but what is odd about it to me something that I just have no experience with is
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it's a little weird that you are a parent of this daughter but the other parent you don't
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technically you don't really know them very well now do you I mean there was no real relationship right so it wasn't
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like they're showing up to family parties yeah you were opening up Christmas gifts you don't know the
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grandparents that well you don't know the the father of your daughter's uh you don't know his friends very well things
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like that it seems a very weird for me it's something I can't really wrap my head around too much well
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that's why there needs to be more education for women based on their cycles and and also just you know more
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uh don't forget about the dumb guys out there well no that's what I mean you gotta again we got the whole idea of
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dumb guys the whole idea that we're surprised you know was there any birth control use uh did the guy wear a condom
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why are you so surprised by this pregnancy I don't know the details of that uh I don't don't really well I
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think it's they're surprised because of ignorance and immaturity so the key thing here Captain is little Ayla had
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been living with Justin depietro for 59 days when she disappeared the papers that Trista filed were an attempt to get
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her back so Trista told the detectives that she and Justin were not on speaking terms at that point and that he had
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refused to put Ayla on the phone when Trista called to talk to her daughter on December 11. however Trista also told
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ABC news that Justin did not know that she filed the papers that would restrict his access to
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Ayla Reynolds so this is very interesting because when you see something like this and we've seen
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custody battles in the past in other cases where somebody files something with the court and magically the next
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day the kids are hard to get a hold of they vanish they disappear or dad took them states away we've seen that before
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but we have Trista in her own words saying look it's easy to make that leap that that this happened because I filed
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these papers however he didn't know that I filed these papers so Justin would have been unaware of this information at
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that time again we're assuming he didn't know or didn't hear Through the Grapevine
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we don't know exactly what her state is at this moment and I'm talking about the
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mother because like we said she entered rehab she then exited rehab it didn't seem like she was clean at this point
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again that's something that I have no knowledge of well that's what I'm saying is I I'm saying if we can assume that
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she left rehab before the treatment was fully established we could just assume that she's not completely sober at this
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point that's something again that I don't know anything about I don't have any reason or couldn't find any reason
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to doubt what her belief was that Justin was unaware that she had filed these papers right now this is going to that's
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pretty much the early part of the interview with Trista and the information that the detectives are able
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to get from her it seems like they were somewhat comfortable with believing that Trista didn't have
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anything to do with taking her own daughter from Justin's home so the search for Ayla continues so now we need
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to introduce the FBI card team you know it's a garage party when they start busting out the acronyms right so
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this stands for the Federal Bureau of Investigations child abduction rapid deployment team card team which works to
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recover victims as quickly as possible and helps apprehend those responsible for taking them A Brief History if you
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will here Captain the card team was created in 2006 and has deployed more than 100 times for approximately 108
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victims both domestically and when requested abroad numerous children have been located and safely returned to
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their loved ones tragically the remains of victims have also been found the 60 or so agents who make up the card team
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are stationed at field offices around the country each is assigned to one of five Regional teams that cover the
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northeast southeast North Central South Central and western United States and and are deployed at the request of a
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field office members of the card team are seasoned investigators with experience and crimes against children
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cases that are often multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency these are people who have purposely
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chosen this line of work because they care deeply about the welfare of all children well the fact of the matter is
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we have police and detectives that show up at the scene of where they claim that
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this toddler this 22 month old child goes missing there's no sign of her outside of the the house there's no
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there's no dog that's tracking a scent that leads for you know from our crib to outside
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and you've talked to both parents you can't find her anywhere so now you start wondering
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who is telling the truth and who is lying to [Music] [Music] foreign we're back party people off to all the
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people in the back all the people in the front put your hands together forget about the
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dirties in the middle and the dirty and those dirties in the middle cheers to you Colonel all right cheers to you
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Captain so on Sunday the 18th of December FBI agents from the Northeast card team joined 75 state and local Law
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Enforcement Officers as well as neighbors and Volunteers in the search for little Ayla as we mentioned before
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the break there the car team these are the seasoned professionals that you want involved looking for your missing child
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they conducted a knock and talk canvas of the area going house to house and asking residents if they had seen
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anything and also going into the homes which people would allow them to come in and search their homes members of the
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main Warden Service searched treacherous outdoor areas that it felt Ayla could have possibly walked to one area of
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concern Captain was this messalensky stream which was about an eighth of a mile away from the depietro home parts
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of this stream which was like a high and fast flowing stream were drained so that
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Searchers could get a better look at the depths of the Waterway and police chief
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Massey held the first of many press conferences to update members of the public about the search for Ayla
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Reynolds saying the FBI and the main Warden Service had been called in to help the major investigation he's
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already referring to this as a major investigation it was truly all Hands-On deck at this point and we also had two
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search dogs that sniffed for any sign of the missing toddler but again couldn't come up with anything
00:29:32
in that area of Investigation as well investigators said that they were not ruling anything out but the first
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imperative obviously was to find Ayla as temperatures in Maine in December at night are generally not survivable by a
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toddler of course for extended periods of time on the weekend that Ayla went missing temperatures at night were in
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the teens and single digits so this is a big concern for all searching for this little girl and Ayla did not qualify for
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an amber alert because there was no vehicle or suspect description this is one thing that I've always been a little
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weird about like they're they're Federal they're not necessarily requirements they don't like to use that word they
00:30:21
use more of like suggestions for these Amber Alerts but I don't understand why we just don't use it like let's peel
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back some some of the the reasons for not using it and just use it you know use it more often you got a missing kid
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seems like something you might want to use but again we have no suspect we have no vehicle
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information to send out to anybody so they chose not to use it in this situation but police did use an
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automated phone notification system which called everybody within a square mile of the depietro home and alerted
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them that there was a child missing which gave a description of Ayla well and that makes a lot of sense because
00:31:02
you wouldn't expect her to be seen Miles and Miles Away but again back to your back to your Amber Alert if you have an
00:31:11
amber alert to go hey here's a description of this child and somebody's at a gas station and sees somebody
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uh with a child that they don't seem either familiar with or maybe the child is crying uncontrollably it might be
00:31:28
something that somebody pays attention to that gives you evidence later and right now during the investigation
00:31:34
they're doing all the normal things that you would expect with the missing child
00:31:38
you have the okay kind of behind the scenes we're checking into the custody issues between Mom and Dad is there any
00:31:47
should we be concerned that a loved one took this girl in a custody battle so you can see they've already have been
00:31:53
working that Avenue they're also interviewing the three adults that say they were there the night and morning
00:31:59
that Ayla went missing hold on it's time for a true crime standard the cops I feel are doing their due diligence there
00:32:09
you go but they're also working under the assumption at this point that little Ayla may have wandered off that somehow
00:32:16
she got out of the house and made her waste somewhere another thing investigators did on that Sunday
00:32:23
was Interview all three of the adults again who were in the depietro home on the night that Ayla was last seen this
00:32:31
again was Justin his girlfriend Courtney and his sister Alicia Alicia is admittedly between the three the last
00:32:41
person to see Ayla this is the information that was provided to 9-1-1 during the the initial call
00:32:48
police said that both of ayla's parents were cooperating in the search for the girl and any questions that police had
00:32:56
police also impounded two vehicles belonging to Justin and Courtney but would not say why on the Tuesday the
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Maine State Police evidence response team truck was seen at the depietro home this is like seeing one of those crime
00:33:14
scene Tech trailers or Vans outside of someone's house I bought one and this is it sits
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outside my house permanently it's empty inside yeah just like just like my soul grid searches continued and the State
00:33:28
Police Special crime incident command and Communications truck were on site at the Waterville City Hall this was
00:33:36
serving as an investigation headquarters searches also occurred at some locations
00:33:42
that were less expected and this was things like dumpsters which immediately you get concerned when
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they're searching dumpsters and the Champions Fitness club on Elm Plaza on December 20th even though Waterville PD
00:33:59
was still labeling ayla's disappearance as just a missing child case not an abduction or anything else Justin
00:34:06
depietro felt the need to release a statement through the Waterville PD which read quote I will not make
00:34:15
accusations or insinuations towards anyone until the police have been able to prove who is responsible for this
00:34:23
Ayla was in my sole custody at the time of her disappearance per agreement between her mother and I because she was
00:34:30
unable to care for Ayla I have shared every piece of information with the police contrary to some statements
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floating around out there I have been in communication with ayla's Mother over the last couple of weeks the Waterville
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police have transcripts of my phone for verification of those Communications it has always been my intention to have a
00:34:52
Shared Parenting Agreement with ayla's mother and I will continue to work towards that when Ayla is returned to us
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end quote if you recall Trista had said that she and Justin weren't really on speaking terms Justin's statement
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concluded by saying that his family and friends will continue to do everything we can to assist in this investigation
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to get Ayla back home so the searches continued aided by 50 members of the main Association for search and rescue but by
00:35:25
this point the search area covered an area five miles wide and two and a half miles deep
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but on day five December 22nd crime scene tape went up around the the Petro home
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and homicide investigators and prosecutors were seen entering the house the house remained sealed off and on
00:35:49
December 26 police announced that this was no longer a missing child case but a probable child abduction
00:35:57
quote we feel comfortable at this point in our belief that Ayla did not walk away from her home under her own power
00:36:04
for several reasons the physical layout of the home and the steps she would have
00:36:09
needed to take to get outside make it very unlikely we think it would be very very difficult for her to open the door
00:36:17
and get herself out we don't think she could have gone very far we also considered her stature she is a toddler
00:36:26
and although she was walking her Mobility is still developing we believe that someone was involved in taking her
00:36:32
out of the house and that's where the focus of this investigation has turned that was from Chief Massey well just to
00:36:39
go back to what you're saying about them not being on speaking terms Trista is going to rehab leaving her child with
00:36:47
her mom and her sister and then Justin goes no we're not we're not doing that my daughter's staying with me that's why
00:36:54
they're not really on speaking terms and then be because she's a toddler she has
00:37:00
to call Justin and say hey I would like to speak with my daughter and and I think I also at this point he is
00:37:07
maybe and I'm not this is not very clear but it seems as if he is letting her father watch the child every now and
00:37:17
then so there's these reports of you know oh she has you know bruising on her legs
00:37:23
and she has this broken arm and so there's becomes questions of what the hell is going on at your house that
00:37:32
she's getting all these injuries right and just one like for example when she had all these bruises all over her leg
00:37:37
he was like well we went to Chuck E cheese or something and she was in a ball pit and some stranger kid like was
00:37:47
kicking at her or something like that and then they've come to find out that there was no ball pit so just like these
00:37:54
little white lies and his story not adding up to them well and I find the police chief statement very interesting
00:38:03
here in regards to switching announcing that we've switched the focus of the investigation from a child who wandered
00:38:11
off to a child abduction and he's simply saying in very short words there that we look we've looked at
00:38:20
the house and given how short this little girl and how small she was we don't believe she would even have been
00:38:27
able to get out of the door right and we can't find anything to show us that she
00:38:33
left via window or any other method of leaving this house there's no sign of breaking and entering correct so
00:38:42
obviously we can tell by this statement that police do not believe that Ayla being so tiny and having the broken arm
00:38:50
would have been able to open any of the doors and walk out of the house under her own power Massey later said that
00:38:57
also because Violet Avenue is very densely populated it's a residential neighborhood with small houses close to
00:39:06
one another that the police felt that it was very unlikely that Ayla could have gotten out of the house
00:39:12
and been wandering around the neighborhood without anyone seeing her they couldn't find anybody to say that
00:39:18
they had seen anything or heard anything right that night so at this point police received more
00:39:25
than 330 tips in the missing child case 100 of them came in after a thirty thousand dollar reward was announced
00:39:34
this was offered up by local businesses putting together some money trying to help out do some good deeds police said
00:39:42
that they spent 5 000 man hours on the case in the first 11 days meanwhile father Justin depietro decides you know
00:39:53
what I should issue a second statement and this comes out on the 28th he was refusing to give interviews but
00:40:01
apparently felt the need to explain some things so he wrote after thanking all the
00:40:07
people working to find his daughter quote it is important that the public hear it from me personally that I have
00:40:14
no idea what happened to Ayla and that I am not hiding I would never do anything to hurt my
00:40:20
child the questions of ayla's arm or bruises or anything else being said are simply ludicrous I have to believe that
00:40:28
Ayla is with somebody and I just want that person to find the courage to do the right thing and find a way to return
00:40:35
her safely even if that means dropping her off at a church or a hospital or some safe place and police aren't buying
00:40:44
this because they're also saying that the house is so small that they disbelieve with three adults in the
00:40:51
house that somebody would have heard something that night my only issue with that is that if you
00:41:00
take Justin's statements and you believe that any of them are true he is saying his hunch is if somebody came into the
00:41:07
house and took his daughter it would have been somebody that she knew uh possibly a family member or somebody
00:41:17
connected to her mother yes that's kind of what he's saying there and you wonder like is he very
00:41:26
strategically kind of planting that seed to watch the plant start to grow and take root and and so he can change
00:41:36
it at some point into this full-on full-blown hey I think she was involved somebody
00:41:43
involved with the mom knows what happened here or is responsible for this and maybe you
00:41:49
can answer these because I couldn't find these one no comments about like well we
00:41:55
leave the doors open it's a safe community so we leave the doors unlocked so no comments that I could find about
00:42:02
that and also we know that they didn't have much of a relationship so there would be no need to be like you know
00:42:10
where where um where Trista didn't ever live with Justin that that I could find so why would she
00:42:19
or anybody in her family have like keys to their property yeah that's correct and there is some
00:42:26
talk from police regarding windows and doors that I have here in my notes and we'll get into that some of it's a
00:42:34
little confusing though I'm not gonna lie but from the police statements that we've already reviewed it seems to be
00:42:40
that they are under the impression which that's all they can go off of they show up they interview the three adults
00:42:48
that are at the home that night all three say hey we always lock the doors so they're going to be under the
00:42:54
assumption that these doors were in fact locked now the police steadfastly refused to say anything of the status of
00:43:02
their investigation however they did confirm that they knew where Trista was on the night her daughter vanished
00:43:08
although the police would not clarify they're simply saying we know her whereabouts we
00:43:14
know where she was but they're not saying exactly where that was also they wouldn't say whether there was another
00:43:20
child in the same room with Ayla that night as it had been reported both ways in the
00:43:28
National media so think about how scary this story is that's being pumped out to
00:43:33
our nation where they're saying not only is this a child abduction but uh we think that there was another child
00:43:41
sleeping and staying in the same room somebody was able to sneak into that room that night make off with this girl
00:43:48
leaving another child sleeping in that room alone the other thing that they wouldn't comment on at this time in our
00:43:55
timeline was the forensic evidence if there was any this would be things such as blood found inside the home now
00:44:05
authorities are not making Court affidavits filed in this case public so some of the cases that we've reviewed
00:44:12
here we've got a lot of information from Court affidavits that are filed on behalf of the police department
00:44:19
investigating certain crimes or cases and what they're stating here is hey media you're you're in our way here
00:44:30
with this search for this little girl don't bother go going looking for things that we're filing through the court
00:44:38
system because we have made that so you would not be able to view those at this time this means that they
00:44:45
this could mean that they are on to something and they don't want that information released to the rest of us
00:44:51
they don't want to clue anybody in as to where they're putting their efforts in their investigation at this point we do
00:44:59
know that they were searching the house the depietro's garage They seized the two vehicles
00:45:06
from the driveway of the home so as you can see here Captain they're doing a lot
00:45:13
of work but they're keeping everything very close to the vest here I have another question for you Billy Goat
00:45:19
maybe you maybe you were able to find this what was the distance from Chris's house to Justin's house well the city
00:45:28
where she was staying in to the city where he lived 75 miles so but what's interesting is the day that
00:45:37
she went missing we do know that Trista passed through that town before she got a call
00:45:44
stating that her daughter was missing well passed through the town is one way of saying it yes the the other thing is
00:45:54
driving the freeway and passing the exit and never having stopped off in the the town itself
00:46:01
is another way of saying it as well yes I and I think that's a better way to say
00:46:06
it I believe I think two I think the two things are completely different and paint a very different picture right if
00:46:12
you're on the freeway and you just pass the exit well that's one thing but if you got off
00:46:20
the freeway it's there's no need to go through Waterville on your way to uh your destination right but if you do
00:46:28
well then things look a lot different and maybe that seed that Justin was trying to plant is the correct seed uh
00:46:36
and that he has it right the entire time what you could also see in this case at
00:46:43
this time in our timeline via the national media coverage early on is that everyone could see the obvious
00:46:51
differences in how each of these parents were handling the situation Justin is refusing to Grant interviews
00:47:00
with the media but on the other hand Trista she goes on a media blitz appearing on
00:47:06
Nancy Grace Good Morning America and other news shows on the 23rd of December Trista appeared on NBC's Today Show and
00:47:16
said that she blamed Justin for not keeping Ayla safe on the 29th she appeared on The Today
00:47:23
Show again asking Justin to please talk to her and tell her what happened Justin
00:47:29
was starting to really look like he was hiding something at this point with her going out and
00:47:36
pleading through the media to get some answers from him about what could have happened that night yeah
00:47:43
Trista kept claiming again how well did she even know Justin I mean because they
00:47:49
they just had a one-night stand and then they ended up having a child together but she claims that she could tell in
00:47:56
his eyes that he wanted to tell her something that he wanted that he had some answers
00:48:03
that he wanted to basically confess to her well I don't know if it was pressure or not but Justin and his mom Phoebe and
00:48:12
his brother Lance sat down with the main Morning Sentinel and this was to dispel rumors that there
00:48:22
was a party okay so there was a rumor going around that there was a big large-scale party at the depietro home
00:48:29
on Friday December 16th that being the night that Ayla was last seen they come forward and say there was no
00:48:36
party at our house that night then in a weird turn of events Phoebe depietro appeared on CNN saying
00:48:43
that on the night Ayla vanished that this is one of there's several weird things in this case this is one that
00:48:50
stands out to me Phoebe depietro is on CNN saying that on the night that Ayla vanished she did not hear anything
00:48:57
happening in her home the next day she appeared again on the news network to clarify that she was not actually in the
00:49:06
home that night she was not at home the entire evening she says she couldn't have heard anything obviously because if
00:49:15
we're to believe her she wasn't even present which seems to go along with what the
00:49:20
other three adults were telling investigators from even their early interviews I look at this thing and I go okay this
00:49:28
is a bit confusing but I think it might be a situation where she may have just misspoke or said something in a certain
00:49:34
way that she didn't realize until later kind of implied that she was home that night when in fact she wasn't right
00:49:41
Justin also appeared on The Today Show and this is where he's stating you know I'm here to help in any way I
00:49:52
can by coming on this show it's in hopes of reaching out to the person that does
00:49:57
have my daughter to let them know that what you're doing isn't right you may think what you're doing is right for
00:50:05
Ayla but it's not you have no right you are not her parent she belongs home with
00:50:10
her family on the 6th of January Justin felt the need to explain ayla's broken arm which
00:50:18
was of course of interest to the general public and I'm sure of interest to the investigators working the case as well
00:50:25
and he says that that was completely accidental I would never harm my daughter he said that he had taken Ayla
00:50:33
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
00:50:40
she's 20 months old he's carrying her under one arm into the home while carrying groceries in the other arm and
00:50:49
he says I usually would let her walk but it was raining out that night and it was
00:50:53
dark so I carried her he said he walked into this side door of the house and climbed the short Stairway to the
00:51:01
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
00:51:09
I fell on her and Phoebe his mother backs up this story saying I was sitting in the living room with my daughter and
00:51:17
we heard a big thump I immediately went to the kitchen and Ayla was scared so I so I picked her up the family said
00:51:25
that Ayla was fussy after Justin fell on her but it was not until well into the next day before they
00:51:32
decided that the swelling in her arm warranted a trip to the emergency room Justin was worried about his daughter he
00:51:41
said so he left a commercial driver's license course at Lawrence adult education in Fairfield
00:51:48
this was a class that he had signed up for he left that class early and took his daughter to the hospital depietro
00:51:55
said some people have suggested that he didn't take Ayla to the hospital immediately because he may have been
00:52:00
intoxicated at the time he said that's untrue I don't know Captain I don't know that
00:52:06
we have definitive answers here on if this was a accident if it was something else if it was anything other than an
00:52:15
accident did he delay taking her to the hospital I don't know that you can fault somebody
00:52:22
in every scenario if they are not quick to take somebody to the hospital right I
00:52:28
mean how many I understand that she's a very little girl but how many of us have
00:52:33
rolled an ankle or had an accident and had some type of injury and we don't decide
00:52:40
for ourselves for the sake of our own health until 24 hours later I better get this looked at I don't know how much
00:52:47
blame there is to pass around here it is certainly something to consider and to look at because
00:52:56
look kids don't go missing every day and here we have a scenario where we have a
00:53:01
very small child who does go missing and she happens to have a cast on her arm at
00:53:06
that time well again I think the big thing here is that law enforcement goat from we have a missing child to we have
00:53:14
a missing child where we believe Foul Play is involved [Music] foreign if you're looking for more True Crime
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