Mother Sues Father of Missing Toddler Ayla Reynolds
The 20-month-old’s disappearance in 2011 prompted the biggest criminal investigation in Maine history.
The mother of 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds is suing the toddler’s father, Justin DiPietro, for the death of their daughter, according to a civil lawsuit filed Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland, Maine. Trista Reynolds and her attorney, William Childs, filed the wrongful death lawsuit, which alleges that DiPietro caused Ayla’s death. In December 2011, DiPietro claimed that someone had broken into his family’s home and abducted the toddler, but investigators said there was never any evidence to support his claim. They eventually determined the child’s death to be the result of foul play, though no charges were ever filed since Ayla’s body was never recovered. The announcement of the lawsuit comes on the seventh anniversary of the day Ayla was reported missing by her father, whose whereabouts remain unknown. “Justin, I promise you, wherever you are, one day you will have to face me and tell me the truth of what really happened to Ayla,” Reynolds told reporters in Portland, adding she hopes the suit sparks a break in the case. “You can’t hide from this forever.”
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