Is There Movement in the Baby Ayla Case?

                    Is there movement in the case of missing Maine toddler, Ayla Reynolds?

After an early January meeting with Trista Reynolds, have officials come closer to an indictment?

Officials met with Trista Reynolds earlier this month and reviewed with her the evidence in the case, including items found in the Kennebec River that are relevant to the case. 

In what has become a silent stand still, Baby Ayla was reported missing by her father in December of 2011.  

He portrayed the child as kidnapped from the small home in Waterville, that is owned by his mother.  From that 911 call, still unreleased, a steady stream of deception has emerged. 

                                Behavioral Analysis


When a child goes missing, the percentages say that someone in the house is responsible for the disappearance of the child.  

When a child goes missing, parental instinct is observed in action, that is, analysis of the parent's behavior is made. 

1.  Does the parent call out to the child?
2.  Does the parent cooperate with police?
3.  Does the parent take a polygraph?
4.  Does the parent pass the polygraph?

The well known critical first 48 hours is where most of the Behavioral Analysis is concluded.  

An innocent parent of a missing child will call out to the child.  This is no different than a parent who cannot find a toddler at a supermarket:  the parent calls out to the child, and calls out to workers to help find the child.  It is natural and reflexive in nature.  It is not anything that needs to be taught, nor counseled to do.  

Police follow a similar pattern:  The child goes missing so police facilitate the means of which a parent can, publicly, call out to the child and/or the kidnappers.  Communication is key. 

If a parent, at Walmart for example, has a toddler wander off, and were to decide, "I will not look for her, nor call out to her.  I will just go home..." we may safely conclude that the parent does not want the child found. 

It is the same with missing children and police. 

As police move into emergency mode, the media is contacted so that a public statement can be made.  This is where police will assist the parent in addressing the kidnapper, personalizing the child, address and comfort the child, and alert the public to the child's name and appearance.  

It is done very quickly. 

If a parent does not immediately cooperate with this facilitation of information, it is the same thing as the parent in Walmart getting in his car and driving home without looking for the child.

The parent does not want the child found. 

We saw this in the case of missing 7 year old Isabel Celis, where the parents held off police for almost 5 days before they agreed to go before the cameras on behalf of their daughter. 

Police knew.

In the case of Baby Ayla, the father, Justin DiPietro, refused to call out for Ayla.  When pressured into making a statement by Trista Reynolds, he claimed to be "emotionally incapable" of calling out to the kidnapper or his child.  

Police knew. 

In any and every investigation, just as in every and any interview, the police will have a distinct feeling from the parent:

Either the parent is doing everything he or she can to help me find the child (Elizabeth Smart's parents) 

or

the parent is hindering the flow of information. 

It is black and white, without gray. 

This is Behavioral Analysis, 101, the first hours of a missing child report.  

The innocent parent does not care about his or her "emotional needs"; all the parent cares about is the safety of the child.  (Desiree Young, mother of missing 7 year old Kyron Horman). 

Like the parent at Walmart who will not be silenced, nor leave without the child, so it is that innocent parents of missing children react, instinctively, to help the child by helping the police. 

Parents that seek to hinder, delay, or keep police at arm's length (John and Patsy Ramsey) have reason to do so.

Liars often react in a very embittered and often emboldened manner when accused.  This is why many will take polygraphs, believing, from years of successful lying, that they will "beat" or "smoke" the machine. 

They do not. 


Billie Jean Dunn, mother of missing 13 year old Hailey Dunn, had to be challenged into taking a polygraph regarding the disappearance of her daughter.  When she finally, along with boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, agreed and actually showed up, she did so under the influence of drugs, believing she would beat the machine. 

Sent home, red faced and embarrassed, she was forced to return and take the polygraph. 

She and Shawn Adkins both failed the polygraph, just as Justin DiPietro, father of Baby Ayla, did. 

In the case of Baby Ayla Reynolds, the failed polygraph, the subsequent statements, the life insurance policy against the child, the DNA/blood sample in the basement are all consistent with the Behavioral Analysis of the opening days of this case.  

Are officials now set to present their case to a Grand Jury in Maine to see if a Grand Jury will vote for indictment of those in the household?

We await word of such plans by officials responsible for bringing justice to Ayla Reynolds.