The discovery of the blood, which McCausland termed “troubling,’’ was made early in the investigation after Justin DiPietro, Ayla’s father, called police at 8:51 a.m. Dec. 17 to report his daughter missing.
McCausland would not discuss how much blood was discovered or its exact location. He also said he did not know whether police had obtained a sample of DiPietro’s blood.
Wearing green pajamas that bore the words “Daddy’s Princess,’’ Ayla had been alone in a room on the night she disappeared. DiPietro had been sleeping in the basement with his girlfriend and her young son, according to a timetable posted online by a friend of DiPietro’s and reported by the Morning Sentinel newspaper.
As the massive search for Ayla drags on, McCausland said, “we are growing more concerned.’’
Bob Vear, who helped organize yesterday’s vigil and is a friend of DiPietro’s brother, downplayed the discovery of the blood, which he said the family had brought to his attention three weeks ago.
“It is possibly nothing more than somebody cut themselves shaving in the house,’’ Vear said.
Last week, before yesterday’s disclosure that blood had been found, many area residents were clinging to a belief that Ayla was alive and that someone who knew her - possibly to give the child a fresh start - might be involved in her disappearance from a house that held her father, two other adults, and two more children that night.
Pati Redeagle, who can see Ayla’s bedroom window from her next-door home, said last week she thinks this was no random crime. “Whatever happened, happened on a personal level,’’ Redeagle said.
The public details of the case are as familiar here as the century-old footbridge that spans the nearby Kennebec River: Ayla had been staying with her 24-year-old father at his mother’s house. The child’s mother, 23-year-old Trista Reynolds of Portland, had asked DiPietro to care for Ayla while Reynolds entered a rehabilitation program for her addiction.
