Missing Maine tot's mom: Blood found around home

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The mother of a missing Maine toddler said Monday that her daughter's blood was found in places throughout in the home where the girl was last seen, a detail she announced in a continuing effort to put more pressure on authorities to file charges in the case.

In a statement posted to two websites, Trista Reynolds provided previously unreleased details she said investigators told her about her daughter Ayla's case. Ayla Reynolds was 20 months old when she disappeared from her father's home in Waterville in December 2011, setting off a months-long search that generated national attention but no arrests and no body.

Authorities have previously confirmed that some of Ayla's blood was found in the Waterville home where her father, Justin DiPietro, lived with his own mother. Among other things, the new statement says Ayla's blood was found in various places in several rooms inside the house and on Ayla's car seat in DiPietro's vehicle.

Reynolds said she wants the public to appeal to the attorney general's office to file charges in the case. A Maine woman who has advocated on behalf of Ayla also emailed a petition Monday with 2,857 signatures that were collected electronically to Maine's attorney general asking that charges be filed. Reynolds also plans to make her case at a news conference Wednesday, the same day DiPietro is scheduled to appear in court on unrelated charges.

Police have said they believe Ayla is dead and was a victim of foul play. They maintain that DiPietro and two other adults who were at his house the night before she was reported missing know more than they've told investigators.

But authorities have declined to publicly discuss other evidence.

Maine Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes said his office makes decisions on whether to file charges based on evidence, not public pressure.

DiPietro has said he has no idea what happened to his daughter or who is responsible. A phone number DiPietro has used was unable to accept recorded messages Monday.

Cox Media Group