[Nancy Grace:] Breaking news tonight, live, Maine. 8:00 PM, a 20-month-old baby girl goes to sleep in her own crib. 8:50 AM, baby Ayla gone, snatched from her own crib. Bombshell tonight. Just hours before the baby disappears, Mommy secretly goes to court to get full custody. She never sees her baby again. Tonight, where is baby Ayla?
[Unidentified Female:] this child is named Ayla Reynolds. Through the woods and down the streets, search parties still looking for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds.
[Unidentified Male:] Two feet, 9 inches tall, she was wearing last seen wearing some green pajamas with white polka dots.
[Unidentified Female:] Police say Ayla`s father, Justin DePietro, was home.
[Unidentified Male:] The father who reported his 20-month-old daughter missing from the home.
[Unidentified Female:] And he wasn`t alone. They aren`t saying who else was in the house, and they haven`t ruled out an abduction.
[Unidentified Male:] She also had a sling with a soft cast that was wrapped in a white bandage.
[Unidentified Female:] Waterville police are now working with the fire department, state police, the FBI, and the wardens service, coordinating efforts to find that little girl.
[Unidentified Male:] In finding little Ayla and bring her home safely. That`s the goal here.
[Grace:] Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Live to Maine. 8:00 PM, a baby girl goes to sleep in her crib. 8:50 AM, baby Ayla is gone. Bombshell tonight. Just hours before the baby disappears, Mommy secretly goes to court to fight for full custody, but she never sees her little girl again. Tonight, what happened to baby Ayla? Straight out to Ken Altshuler, WGAN "Morning News With Ken and Mike." Ken, what do we know about the circumstances leading up to the baby`s disappearance around 9:00 AM, just before 9:00 AM?
[Ken Altshuler, Wgan:] The dad said he put the child to bed, checked on her the next morning at 8:50, and Ayla was gone.
[Grace:] You know, 10 `til 9:00, Ken I mean, at that time of the morning, you would expect the baby to be up, wanting to be fed. I mean, a baby at just 20 months old maybe my experience with the twins is wrong, but this baby wasn`t waking up during the night, wanting a bottle, wanting something to eat? This baby was already sleeping through the night, Ken?
[Altshuler:] No 20-month-old goes 12 hours without making some sounds. There were other people in the house. We don`t know what they heard. The police are being very quiet about it.
[Grace:] Parents being very quiet. We are taking your calls. With me right now is a special guest, Trista Reynolds. This is baby Ayla`s mother. Trista, thank you for being with us.
[Trista Reynolds, Missing Child`s Mother:] Hi.
[Grace:] Trista, I know just literally hours before baby Ayla goes missing, you go to court to fight for full custody of your baby girl. And as of right now, you have not seen her since. What are police telling you about her disappearance, Trista?
[Reynolds:] They`re telling me nothing. They`re telling me that we`re in the same place that I was on Saturday, that they don`t know what happened to her. They don`t know where she could be. And all that`s running through my mind is, I know my baby girl. I know Ayla, and Ayla doesn`t sleep through the night. She normally gets up once or twice for a diaper change, to have a bottle, to just, you know, like like, I would check on her all hours of the night. All hours.
[Grace:] Well, Trista, I mean, mine are now 4. And you know, last night, they both got up. Lucy got up once, then got up again. John David got up a third time. So between them, I was up with them three times in one night. And they`re 4 years old. Your baby is 20 months old. So I find it very hard to believe that she goes a whole night and doesn`t make a peep. And another thing, Ms. Reynolds everyone, with me is baby Ayla`s mother. If the night goes by, and say, I wake up around 2:00 or 3:00 o`clock and I haven`t heard from them, I go check on them because it`s so abnormal not to have heard from them by 3:00 o`clock in the morning, OK?
[Reynolds:] Right.
[Grace:] So that`s how typical it is for children that age to wake up during the night. Now, let me ask you this, Trista. Another thing that`s concerning me. At the time baby Ayla goes missing, her arm was in a sling. Why?
[Reynolds:] A few weeks ago, Justin had given me a call and said that he was holding Ayla and they fell up, like, two or three little steps, and he fell on top of her and her arm was broken. And he waited over almost 24 hours to bring her to the emergency room. I want I want reasons I want to know reasons to why why do you wait almost 24 hours to bring a child to he himself told me she screamed bloody murder when they fell, so you wait almost 24 hours to go have her checked out?
[Grace:] Everyone, with us, baby Ayla`s mother, taking your calls. She is not afraid of the spotlight of the camera, or your uncensored calls. Out to the lines. Cassandra in Maine. Hi, Cassandra. What`s your question, dear?
[Unidentified Female:] Hi. My question is, have the police ruled out any kind of abuse as far as the cast and the falling incident?
[Grace:] Well, Cassandra, I`m trying to find out about that right now. With me, Marc Klaas, president and founder, Klaas Kids Foundation. Marc, I`m very, very concerned that Daddy says he falls on the baby on the stairs and breaks her arm, and then Daddy is the one when the baby goes missing.
[Marc Klaas, Klaas Kids Foundation:] Yes, well...
[Grace:] Daddy is not a suspect. But what I`m saying is, all this is happening while Daddy has the baby.
[Klaas:] Yes, this is very troubling. And I think another aspect of that is that if this were a stereotypical stranger abduction, I think the last thing somebody would want to do is take a baby with a broken arm because toddlers tend to look very similar to each other, but one with a cast on their arm is an absolute standout. And anybody that is aware of this case, that sees a baby in such a situation, is going to immediately contact the authorities. Therefore, I think that we need to look at a much smaller population of suspects, that population being the people that were in the house the night that she disappeared and any registered sex offenders that live within close proximity to her address in that community.
[Grace:] With me, in addition to Marc Klaas and our all-star panel, taking your calls is baby Ayla`s mother. To Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter, Radaronline.com. Alexis, thanks for being with us. What do we know about the structure, the home? Was it two-story, one-story, ranch? Was the front door locked? Was the baby on the first floor? What do we know, Alexis?
[Alexis Tereszcuk, Radaronline.com:] Nancy, it`s a one-story home. There`s actually a garage. And people have been focused very intently on this home. They`ve brought the police dogs in. They`ve had helicopters overhead. They`re looking in house and in the garage. They seem to think that all of the evidence is right here in this home. And they haven`t put out an Amber Alert, either, because they don`t have a suspect. They are looking just in this house.
[Grace:] Now, I don`t like the sound of that, Alexis Tereszcuk. What did you say about the garage and upstairs? TERESZCUK They are looking in the garage, which is seems a little strange, like, maybe they thought the baby would wander away, but she doesn`t wander away. She`s very little. She can`t just wander away. So they`re looking in the garage really for evidence that maybe somebody had her in there and had taken her out of there. OK, wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Alexis put Tereszcuk up, please. Alexis, just because cops are looking in the garage does not mean they suspect someone in the home of wrongdoing. They may think someone took her out of her crib and went through the garage. Now, more concerning to me, Alexis, is your report that they`re looking up in the attic. Did you say the attic? TERESZCUK I did not say the attic, but you are absolutely right, Nancy. They are looking in the attic. It`s a two-story Because an intruder obviously, Alexis, would not go up to the attic with a baby. TERESZCUK No. So the fact that they`re looking in the attic is very troubling. What were you saying? TERESZCUK I was going to say, there were a lot of people in the home. It wasn`t just the dad. It was his parents. But there were also strangers that weren`t related to the family. So there were a lot of people in this home that they want to question, and that they have been questioning, that they want to talk to. But they won`t release who they are. OK, hold on. Ellie Jostad, chief editorial producer, strangers in the home?
[Ellie Jostad, Nancy Grace Producer:] Well, Nancy, there are non-family members, supposedly, in the home that night. And police say they have tracked down everybody who was in that house on Friday night. They say they have interviewed them. But we still don`t know who those people are, what they were doing there, what was going on, what those people saw that night.
[Grace:] Well, Alexis, why did you say strangers? Strangers means some freak off the street. This sounds like family friends, Alexis. TERESZCUK I did mean that they were not related to the family, so "strangers" may have been the wrong word. But these are not people that were related, so they were not the baby`s relatives. Sorry. But you`re right to bring it out. You`re right to bring it out. So Ellie, Alexis`s report that there were non-family members there you`re telling me they`ve all been questioned? Have they been cleared?
[Jostad:] We don`t know if they`ve been cleared, Nancy. We just know that police have talked to them. We don`t know if they`ve been cooperative. We don`t know what information they`ve been able to provide.
[Grace:] But another thing to Steve Kardian, a former police detective. Steve, how likely is it that somebody`s going to be in the home the evening before, and they`re going to steal the baby that night? That sounds a little outlandish to me.
[Steve Kardian, Former Police Detective:] Yes, it does, Nancy. And when we look at the Newsmark study, we see that less than one half of 1 percent of all childhood abductions are your stereotypical non-custody abductions. So we have to look directly at the family. We have to look directly at whoever was in that house. And law enforcement`s holding it close to the vest, if, in fact, they have anything. And we know that they brought in the FBI, likely the childhood abduction rapid deployment team that has a lot of experience in this area.
[Grace:] I want to go back to the mom. Trista Reynolds is with us. This is baby Ayla`s mom. Everyone, there is time to save baby Ayla. There`s time! That`s not always the case. This baby missing out of her crib in Maine. Trista?
[Reynolds:] Yes?
[Grace:] I`m saying "crib," but at this home, did she have a crib or was she sleeping on a bed?
[Reynolds:] No, when she started staying with Justin, she was actually sleeping in, like, a toddler bed.
[Grace:] So a bed right on the floor that she could easily get out of. Can she walk around? Can she open a door?
[Reynolds:] Ayla knows how to open doors, but I also have taught Ayla that we don`t walk outside without Mommy or an older adult. And Ayla never once had ever tried getting outside, unless I was right there by her.
[Grace:] When we get back, we`ll unleash the lawyers and go to a chief forensic pathologist. Take a look at baby Ayla. She`s only 20 months old. Just hours before she goes missing, Mommy goes to court in secret, trying, fighting for full custody. Now the baby is gone.
[Unidentified Female:] As those search parties continue, state police are still calling this, the family`s home, the focal point of the investigation as K-9 units search inside the home and also inside the garage. Police in Maine are searching frantically for a 20-month-old girl.
[Unidentified Male:] I suspect that probably someone out there may know where the little girl is.
[Unidentified Female:] Searchers have scoured several blocks surrounding Ayla`s home.
[Unidentified Male:] We canvassed the neighborhoods. We`ve talked to the neighbors. Trying to get the neighborhood to help us out.
[Unidentified Female:] Fire department, state police, the FBI, and the wardens service coordinating efforts to find that little girl, but without any luck.
[Unidentified Male:] So far, we have not located the young girl.
[Unidentified Female:] Ayla Reynolds`s dad reported her missing. How do they account for not seeing her for 12 hours? For a 20-month-old to go missing in our area.
[Unidentified Male:] That is our primary focus, folks, is to find a 20- month-year-old
[Grace:] Where is baby Ayla? At the time she goes missing out of her own crib, she`s wearing a sling. Unleash the lawyers. Eleanor Odom, senior attorney with the National DAs Association out of D.C., Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, joining us out of New York, Peter Odom, defense attorney joining us out of Atlanta. OK, Eleanor, weigh in.
[Eleanor Odom, National District Attorneys Association:] Well, Nancy, I`m very concerned because, first of all, if she did just walk out of the house on her own, it`s still negligence against the parent because you should have the door secured so that a child can`t get out. So that`s a problem right on the very top. But if somebody abducted her, you have to look at those people in the house because they`re the last people who were even around that child. This is very concerning, especially with the fact that she has a broken arm. Now, maybe the story will pan out. A doctor can look at that break and say whether it`s intentionally inflicted. But there are a lot of problems with this case, Nancy, and a lot to look at.
[Grace:] Well, another thing, they can determine to Dr. Joye Carter, chief forensic pathologist, author of "I Speak for the Dead" Doctor, isn`t it true you can look X-rays and determine if there have been prior breaks or fractures?
[Dr. Joye M. Carter, Forensic Pathologist:] That is very true. You want to be sure that it`s an accidental injury when the child`s brought into the emergency room. So what that caretaker says and how they react is very important, as well as a full examination of the child with appropriate X-rays.
[Grace:] I`m going to come back to Dr. Carter. But very quickly, Trista Reynolds is with us. This is Ayla`s mom. Trista, you went to court in secret just hours before Ayla goes missing, 20-month-old baby girl with a sling on her arm. Did you prevail? Did the judge suggest to you that you were going to get full custody?
[Reynolds:] I haven`t even gotten that far. All I have done is file the paperwork, and that was it. I haven`t seen a judge. I haven`t talked to a lawyer. I have done nothing but file...
[Grace:] So you went all on your own without even a lawyer to help you, trying to get custody. Why, Trista, were you trying to get full custody?
[Reynolds:] Because her father has never had anything to do with her up until I needed to go and get a little bit of help for myself. And then when I left my daughter with my sister, that`s when he decided, You know what? I`m going to take Ayla. And I want to put it out there that every time my daughter has gone with Justin, she would always come back with bruises on her or she had come back with a pulled muscle. And in the 18 months that I had had my daughter, not once did she ever end up missing, did she ever end up with a broken bone, did she ever miss a doctor`s appointment. And since she`s been with Justin, she has missed four appointments for shots. And this past Friday, she missed her bone specialist appointment.
[Grace:] Everyone, you`re taking a look at 20-month-old baby Ayla. Liz, put that up again, where you can see the sling she`s wearing. As Marc Klaas pointed out, if she`s still wearing this sling, I mean, who could miss this child? Tip line 207-680-4700. Back to the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, Renee Rockwell, Peter Odom. What about it, Renee?
[Renee Rockwell, Defense Attorney:] Well, I`m hearing a child in the background. I tend to believe that the mother still has custody of a 10- month-old. Is that correct? So I`d be interested if DFACS has come in and wanted to know how that 10-month-old child is being cared for. Also interested in when the first call was to the police when the child went missing? Was it at 2:00 AM? Was it at 8:50 AM? It tells me that the parents or the people in the house looking after the child are not on top of their game.
[Grace:] You know, yes you know, Trista, another question. I want to follow-up on what Renee Rockwell just said. Who all was in the home, Trista? And have you talked to the father?
[Reynolds:] No, Justin and I have had no contact.
[Grace:] Well, Trista, can`t you put your hard feelings aside and have a powwow with the daddy? I tell you what. I`d be laying on that front porch, begging for answers! With me is baby Ayla`s mother. Where is this little girl, wearing a sling with a broken arm? Who can miss that?
[Unidentified Male:] From a father who reported his 20-month-year-old
[Unidentified Female:] Search parties still looking for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds.
[Unidentified Male:] Were not successful in finding little Ayla. And that is our primary focus, folks, is to find the 20-month-year-old
[Grace:] We are live and taking your calls. Baby Ayla gone out of her crib there in Maine. And she`s wearing a sling from a prior injury. Straight out to the lines. Pamela in Maine. Hi, Pamela. What`s your question?
[Unidentified Female:] I have a couple of questions.
[Grace:] OK.
[Unidentified Female:] One is, I have been told it`s pretty hard to break a child`s arm because their bones are soft. And exactly what was the excuse on how that happened?
[Grace:] Well, the mom has just told us and I`m going to tell you, Pam, you know, at that young age I`m going to go to Dr. Joye Carter, too children`s bones are very malleable. And it`s I thought it would be more difficult to get a broken bone with a child, but the father said he`s walking up some steps, stumbles, falls on the child and breaks her bone. What about it, Dr. Joye Carter? Is there a difference in children`s bones and adults` bones?
[Carter:] Well, there is a difference. And children`s bones are softer, and this is why you actually chart how a child grows by looking at their bones. But it is important to look back at that emergency record, what the father said, how the child presented. Were the injuries consistent with fall? And why is it just on one arm if you`ve fallen on top of a child?
[Grace:] I`m sorry, I couldn`t hear you there at the end. Repeat.
[Carter:] Why is it injury to one arm if an adult has fallen on top of a small child? Are the injuries...
[Grace:] Yes, I don`t understand that.
[Carter:] ... consistent with a fall.
[Grace:] I don`t understand that. We`re getting to the bottom of it, and taking your calls. What do we know about the injury? Back out to Ken Altshuler, WGAN, "Morning News With Ken and Mike." Ken, what do we know about that broken bone?
[Altshuler:] Well, it`s interesting, Nancy, but police are saying that it`s not suspicious. But then again, according to Trista`s account, the father says he fell on the child. That in itself would be suspicious.
[Grace:] To Ronald Reynolds, also joining us today. This is baby Ayla`s grandfather. Ronald, I don`t understand how the baby got that broken bone with Daddy to start with. Explain to me again, Ronald, how that supposedly went down.
[Ronald Reynolds, Missing Child`s Grandfather:] I said I`m sorry, ma`am. I don`t know. Honestly, I don`t know. All I know is what was told what happened with her arm, and that she went to the doctors, got it checked out, and apparently, it was broken from the fall.
[Grace:] With me, the mom and grandfather speaking out. Where is baby Ayla?
[Unidentified Female:] A 20-month-old girl. 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds. Who was last seen tucked into her bed in pajamas. For a 20-month-old, still missing in our area.
[Unidentified Male:] Described as about 2`9" tall.
[Unidentified Female:] Ayla Reynolds` dad reported her missing.
[Unidentified Male:] He had last seen her the previous evening, approximately 8:00 p.m. when she was put down for bed.
[Unidentified Female:] How do they account for not seeing her for 12 hours and reporting her at 8:00 in the morning?
[Unidentified Male:] She was in her own bedroom and everybody went to bed.
[Unidentified Female:] Searchers have scoured several blocks surrounding Ayla`s home on Violet avenue.
[Unidentified Male:] Today, we`re checking every match.
[Unidentified Female:] So far, we have not located the young girl.
[Grace:] We are taking your calls. We are live, in Maine, in the search for baby Ayla. A 20-month-old baby girl, wearing a sling with a broken arm goes missing out of her own crib. The whole story is fantastical, but those are the facts that we have tonight. Tipline: 207-680-4700. Taking your calls is mommy, Trista Reynolds, and her father, Ronald Reynolds. They were not with the baby at the time she went missing. The baby was with the daddy. We`re taking your calls. Daddy not a suspect, but tonight we want answers in the search for baby Ayla. Straight out to Peter Odom, renowned defense attorney, joining us out of Atlanta. OK, Odom, let`s hear it.
[Peter Odom, Defense Attorney:] Nancy, I`m troubled by the fact that Trista went to a court on Friday and the baby went missing on Saturday. Now, I just don`t believe in coincidences. I`m very skeptical about them. I believe those two events have to be related. I would ask Trista whether there`s any way that the father could have known that she was seeking permanent custody of that child.
[Grace:] OK, Peter, are you trying in your roundabout defense attorney away to say that Trista took the baby? Because she was
[Peter Odom:] No, no, no.
[Grace:] Or are you saying that dad found out and retaliated by hiding the baby?
[Peter Odom:] Yes
[Grace:] I`m not an interpreter! All right?
[Peter Odom:] I don`t believe that it`s a coincidence. They`re related.
[Grace:] I think I understand what you`re saying. With me is the mom and the grandfather. Trista Reynolds, did the dad have any idea that you went to court, on your own, no lawyer, nobody helping you, to seek full custody of the baby?
[Tirsta Reynolds, Ayla Reynolds` Mother:] No. I did not tell Justin that I was going to the court to file. Now, me and him had had the discussion within that week that he told me himself that he was going to file the custody papers against me. So I decided to go and file against him.
[Grace:] All right. So he did not know, then? In your mind, he did not know that you had filed the papers?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] No, I wanted him not to know that I was filing
[Grace:] Why? Why didn`t you want him to know?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Why didn`t I want him to know?
[Grace:] Right.
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Because he`s vindictive. He`s very verbally abusive towards me and anything that I say or do, he refuses to let me see my daughter, he`s refused to let me talk to her. I mean, he has never, like, once since he`s had her, since October 17th, had let me have her for one single day. So, I decided that it was time to do this the legal way and let a judge say who this child should be with. And my daughter does deserve to be with me. I`m the one who`s raised her for 18 months.
[Grace:] And, without this without saying, risk your life to give birth. OK? Let`s just throw that in there with the kitchen sink. OK, Wendy Walsch, psychologist and co-host on "the Doctors," you know, Wendy, I know that a lot of people have marital problems, all right? Over 50 percent of Americans have marital problems, all right? So let`s just take that as a given. But, when you have a baby, when you have a custody argument, and when you have verbal abuse, and I`m not saying that every argument constitutes abuse, all right? I`m concerned about all of these troubles being taken out on the baby.
[Wendy Walsch, M.d., Psychologist, Co-host, The Doctors:] Exactly. I mean, this is a kind of attachment trauma for a child of this age. You know with your own children, Nancy, that it`s very important that they have consistent caregivers in the first few years of life. Because it can lead to major personality problems and anxiety and depression and everything else. So, do this using the baby as the pawn and the back and forth and back and forth is really hurtful to a child. But, you know, I haven`t seen the court documents, but I`d be curious to know why the child was removed from the mother, why the father got full custody when he wasn`t in the picture for 18 months, and I`m not sure that this couple was ever married. So, it`s not about marital problems, it`s really about child care here.
[Grace:] When I say marital problems, I`m referring to any relationship
[Walsch:] Relationship.
[Grace:] that appears to be meretricious resembling marriage, living together, having children together, the whole kit and caboodle. In the legal world, when we say marital problems, we`re referring to marriage- issues relationships or marriage-like relationship. We`re taking your calls, out to Joe in Florida. Yes, and one answer, Wendy, to your question is that mom had put herself in rehab to get over some problems she was having. So that`s why the dad had the baby for a period of time, so mom could go to rehab. OK, Joe, what`s your question, dear?
[Joe, Caller, Florida:] Hi, Nancy. I`m so glad I got through to you.
[Grace:] Likewise!
[Joe:] Thank you. Has the husband ever had any kind of criminal record or other type of record? And has he or will he take a polygraph?
[Grace:] Good question! Ellie, first to you. Any criminal history with daddy?
[Elli Jostad, Producer, Nancy Grace:] No, no criminal history for either parent, as far as we know.
[Grace:] OK. I`m going to go back to mommy. Trista Reynolds is with us, as well as her father, the grandfather, Ronald Reynolds. 20-month-old baby Ayla is missing. And let me tell you, no baby at 20 months that I know has ever slept through the whole night, 12 hours, without wanting a bottle or having a wet diap, right? So, I find that very, very odd. Trista, can you tell me, one of the callers asked why the dad had the baby to start with. I told them, as you heard, that you were briefly in rehab. You put yourself in rehab to get past some problems you had, but the night the baby goes missing, which is what I`m concerned, I don`t care what anybody did before that, where were you the night the baby goes missing, Trista?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] The night that my daughter went missing, I was at the Maine motel in South Portland.
[Grace:] And you have fully cooperated with police, is that true?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Fully cooperated. And Nancy, there`s one thing I want to clear up with you.
[Grace:] OK.
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Someone just said that it was said that Ayla had her own bedroom at her father`s house. She does not have her own bedroom. She sleeps in the same room with her cousin, who is, I think, two months younger than her. So, if so why wasn`t she taken? If my daughter went missing, why didn`t her cousin you know, at least make a noise or scream or be taken as well.
[Grace:] So you`re telling me that, Trista, that there would have been somebody else sleeping in the room with her?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Yes! Like, I`ve been to that house myself, and I have been in the bedroom to where Ayla sleeps, and she sleeps in the same exact room as Justin`s sister`s little girl.
[Grace:] And how old is the little girl?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] I think she`s exactly I think she`s like two months younger than Ayla.
[Grace:] I`m just wondering if both of them would have slept through the night. Because, for instance, to you, Wendy Walsh, last night Lucy was sideways in the bed and John David was upside down. I went and put them both straight, covered them up, changed the lights, opened the door. They both slept through the whole thing. So I don`t know if one would necessarily wake up.
[Walsch:] No, the other child may not have waked-up. I mean, my kids always say, how come you wake up so early, mom. I say, the alarm`s blaring. They never hear it. So definitely that child may not have been disturbed if somebody and took Ayla.
[Grace:] Tonight, where is baby Ayla? A 20-month-old girl wearing a sling over a broken arm goes missing from her own crib.
[Unidentified Female:] Search parties still looking for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds. Who was last seen tucked into her bed in pajamas.
[Unidentified Male:] She was in her own bedroom and everybody went to bed.
[Unidentified Female:] State police are calling this the family`s home, the focal point of the investigation. But they`re also considering the possibility that she was kidnapped.
[Unidentified Male:] They`re checking everything. And the outbuildings. We are not successful in finding little Ayla.
[Unidentified Female:] Police say that she may have wandered out of the house.
[Unidentified Male:] This is a 20-month-old, again, who was nowhere to be found.
[Unidentified Female:] She has a broken arm, from when she fell a few weeks ago. I feel like its part of our duty to go ahead and help any way we can.
[Unidentified Male:] Time is of the essence. We`d like to get her back home.
[Grace:] We are taking your calls. Where is baby Ayla? Out to the lines. Lisa in Iowa. Hi, Lisa, what`s your question?
[Lisa, Caller, Iowa:] Hi, Nancy. It`s great to get through. My heart goes out to the mother. I just was wondering why was the mom and dad separated and was there any, you know, domestic history there?
[Grace:] OK. Trista, when you agreed to come on our show, you knew you were going to be on the hot seat. I want to clear up. You were nowhere near the home the night the baby disappeared. As a matter of fact, just before that, hours before that, you`re in court trying to get full custody of the baby. So, Trista, can you answer that question from Lisa in Iowa?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] OK, well, let me clear one thing up.
[Grace:] OK.
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Justin and I have never been in a serious relationship, ever.
[Grace:] OK. So that means that there was never any domestic abuse, because you never lived together?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] No. We`ve never lived together, we`ve never been together. We were just two mutual friends.
[Grace:] I want to go right now OK, hold on, I`m getting another question OK, another caller has another question, Trista, about a bone specialist. Did the baby see a bone specialist when she broke her arm?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] Yes, we took her to Maine orthopedics, right in Portland.
[Grace:] And what did they say?
[Tirsta Reynolds:] They said that at first it seemed to be suspicious, and then they said the way that her arm was broken, it may not have been suspicious and it could have been accidental.
[Grace:] OK. Good to know. To the lines, Susan in Maine. Hi, Susan. What`s your question?
[Susan, Caller, Maine:] It`s the doctors are supposed to report to the department of human services anything suspicious, and was this reported? And was the family checked out for a history of drug abuse?
[Grace:] Good question. What do we know, out to Alexis Tereszcuk.
[Alexis Tereszcuk, Senior Reporter, Radaronline.com:] We know that the department of children and family services was involved, because they`ve given the dad custody of the little girl, but there have been no claims whatsoever at all of any drug abuse.
[Grace:] Unleash the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, Renee Rockwell, Peter Odom. OK, Renee Rockwell, daddy is not a suspect. But, I mean, common sense makes you look at whoever is inside that home.
[Renee Rockwell, Defense Attorney:] I can tell you something, Nancy, daddy is a suspect, so is everybody else in that house. Everybody`s a suspect. Nobody`s a suspect. I promise you one thing, no one has been cleared yet. Everybody`s going to get separated and their stories will be compared.
[Grace:] Eleanor?
[Eleanor Odom, Senior Attorney, National District Attorneys Association, Death Penalty Qualified:] I totally agree. Everybody is a suspect, because we don`t know what`s happened now. I think you`re naturally going to focus more on the father, who didn`t have the child living with him until just a couple months, a few months before the child went missing. So you are going to look at him probably a little more closely than you would anyone else.
[Grace:] And another thing, based on what she`s saying, Peter Odom, you know, you`ve raised two children, and if you`re not used to raising a child, then suddenly you have a child that is waking you up all night long
[Peter Odom:] It`s difficult, even when you`re used to it.
[Grace:] It is! It`s very hard. I mean, but especially when you get the child and you`re not used to the routine, and then suddenly, you find out you`re up two or three or more times a night, that there`s problems, that you can`t reason with a child. It`s hard for a beginner to handle it.
[Peter Odom:] One thing that is clear to me, from everything the police are gathering, is that this is very unlikely to have been a stranger abduction, because no stranger is going to walk into a house, it seems as if this house was wall to wall with other people that were staying there and there was another child in the room. Just this is not a stranger abduction. There`s a lot more here than meets the high. To Ken Altshuler with WGAN "Morning News with Ken and Mike," thanks for being with us, Ken. I`m trying to understand, has daddy taken a lie detector? Do we know about that? And who else was in the home Ken?
[Ken Altshuler, Radio Host, Wgan Morning News With Ken And Mike:] We know that Justin was in the home. Family members and some non-family members. The police have not identified anyone and there`s been no report that they`ve asked them to do a lie detector test or they`ve taken one.
[Grace:] OK. I didn`t understand what you said. Daddy is or is not going to take a lie detector?
[Altshuler:] The police have not reported whether they`ve asked him to. He`s certainly there`s been no report that he`s taken one. My assumption is they have not gone to that extent yet and that they`re treating this as more of an abduction from a stranger than something that Justin is doing.
[Grace:] Ken, do we know if there was any forced entry? Were any of the doors or windows unlocked at all?
[Altshuler:] They inquired of Justin whether or not doors were unlocked. They have not revealed his answer on that. The assumption is that it was not, but even so, Nancy, as you know, with this cast on Ayla`s hand, she would not have been able to open a door, even if it was unlocked.
[Grace:] You know what, Ken, that`s a good point. Was it her right arm? Was she right-handed, Ken? Do you know? No, it was her left arm, and they have not stated whether she`s right- handed or left-handed, but the police are saying that it would have been very difficult to open this door with any hand, let alone not using two hand. And Ayla could only use one hand. I`m hearing in my ear right now from our control room that a stream is being searched. A stream is being searched right now. To Ellie Jostad, Ellie, what do we know about a stream being searched?
[Jostad:] That`s right, Nancy. This is the Messalonskee stream. It`s just about a few blocks from the father`s home. The warden service has flown over on a plane. They are out to searching the banks which are wooded. One of the dive instructors, David Vidalia that we use on the show often, he is familiar with this and he says it`s fairly shallow. Right now they`re just searching the banks. Don`t know if they plan to put divers in that water yet.
[Grace:] OK Ellie, do we have any idea what`s led them to this stream, the Messalonskee stream?
[Jostad:] We don`t know yet, Nancy, why they are searching whether it`s the proximity to the father`s home or if it`s something specific that led them there.
[Grace:] OK Ken, how cold is it in Maine right now?
[Altshuler:] It was six degrees on Saturday night, Nancy. It was above nine degrees last night. There`s no way a child`s going to survive outside in that temperature in a Maine winter night.
[Grace:] And Ken, how far is this Messalonskee stream from daddy`s house?
[Altshuler:] It`s about I would say about 50 yards behind the father`s house, Nancy.
[Grace:] You know, to Trista. Trista, I just don`t see a baby wearing a sling, a 20-month-old walking that far, Trista Reynolds.
[Tirsta Reynolds:] My daughter I don`t see Ayla doing it either. And Ayla would never wander off unless there was someone with her.
[Unidentified Female:] Police say Ayla`s father, Justin Depetro was home and he wasn`t and wasn`t alone. For a 20 month old to go missing in our area.
[Unidentified Male:] Canvassed the neighborhood, talked to the neighbors. There`s not much wooded area there. This is a 20-month-old again who was nowhere to be found, very cold yesterday.
[Unidentified Female:] They aren`t saying who else was in the house. Haven`t ruled out abduction. As I said, she was only in a pair of pajamas, it was imperative to bring the resources.
[Grace:] We are hearing in this hour a stream is being searched, Messalonskee stream about 50 yards from daddy`s home. Ken Altshuler, is that correct? Did you say 50 yards?
[Altshuler:] That`s correct. It`s behind the father`s house down the road a little bit, but a stream, but it`s got water with it and it`s fairly fast moving.
[Grace:] OK. Ellie Jostad, we don`t know why the cops are there, or why they brought in divers?
[Jostad:] Well, we don`t know they brought in divers yet. It may be in the future. But, we do know that they are searching the banks and they are flying overhead.
[Grace:] OK. Eleanor Odom, Renee Rockwell, Peter Odom. Eleanor, when you have got helicopters are overhead, that`s not a good sign.
[Eleanor Odom:] No, it`s not a good sign, Nancy. Sounds like they`re looking for a body. The other concern is the next thing are the cadaver dogs. So, it is all very scary and all very sad.
[Grace:] Renee?
[Rockwell:] The thought I am going to leave with is the fact she said the father was very vindictive. That concerns me.
[Grace:] Peter?
[Peter Odom:] The fact this is a Maine winter, I used to live up there, Nancy. This is freezing cold. If the kid is not in the house, if that kid is exposed to the elements, it can`t have a good ending.
[Grace:] And to you Mark Klaas, final thought?
[Marc Klaas, Founder Klaas Kids Foundation:] This is absolutely nauseating. The fact there`s another child in the bedroom totally changes the complexion of this story. A houseful of people, nobody goes in to check on either of the children for 13 hours, makes no sense to me at all.
[Grace:] Tip line. 207-680-4700. Help us in this search for baby Ayla. Let`s stop and remember army corporal Christopher Sitton, 21, Montrose Colorado, killed in Afghanistan. Awarded bronze star, purple heart, National defense service medal, army service ribbon, an eagle scout. High school track star. Loved outdoors and music, had an infectious laugh. Loved helping others. Leaves behind parents Steve and Judy, a grandfather, a sister Laura. Christopher Sitton, American hero. Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. Everyone, see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern, for we in our own way will be seeking justice. Until then, good night, friend. END