We’re going to take another look at what we were told of the blood evidence in September and October. This is more of a refresher for those of us who may not remember the specifics and for new readers who haven’t as of yet read “The Case For Ayla”.
On January 3rd of this year, investigators from the Maine State Police met with Trista, Alex (Trista’s boyfriend), and Melissa (Alex’s mother), for the purpose of disclosing a slideshow of select blood evidence collected from the DiPietros’ property in Ayla’s case.
Ayla’s Blood Found (The blood evidence described here was visible to the naked eye and not luminol enhanced).
- Several drops of Ayla’s blood were found on the left shoulder strap of Ayla’s car seat in Justin’s vehicle. Ayla’s dried vomit was found on the backseat.
- Droplets of Ayla’s blood were found on the pompoms of her pink princess slippers.
- A “silver dollar sized stain” of Ayla’s blood was found on the sofa in the DiPietro family’s living room (upstairs).
- Ayla’s blood was found smeared on her baby doll’s face and arms in the bedroom she shared with Elisha DiPietro’s daughter (upstairs). It appeared that Ayla tried to wipe blood from her mouth with her doll.
- Drops of Ayla’s blood were found on a fan cord in Justin’s basement bedroom.
- Ayla’s blood splatter was found on a plastic blue tote in the basement and a sheet that was found inside had Ayla’s blood stains on it. MSP said that it had been used to cleanup Ayla’s blood.
- Several drops of Ayla’s blood were found on the tongue and inside Justin’s sneakers in the basement beside his bed.
- A “fist size stain” of Ayla’s blood was found on Justin’s mattress and sheets. This sample contained saliva, possibly vomit, and “a toy hair like” pink fiber which, at the time, MSP had not identified.
- Several splatters of Ayla’s blood were found on sections of the cement floor and wall beside Justin’s bed. These blood splatters were consistent with Ayla’s standing height, and were up to a dime in size. MSP’s blood analysts determined that the blood splatters were created by intense projectile vomiting and/or blunt force trauma.
- Several splatters of Ayla’s blood were found on a wood pallet leaning against a wall in the basement.
Justin DiPietro: “It’s No Big Deal”
Three Maine State Police Detectives and a grief counselor from the Attorney General’s office oversaw this slideshow. They provided comparison photos (normal and enlarged sizes of Ayla’s blood) displayed from a laptop to an external display screen.
After the photos of blood visible to the naked eye were displayed, MSP began to show the luminol-enhanced photos, depicting additional blood of Ayla’s upstairs and downstairs in the DiPietro’s house. Trista was unable to view any more of the horrific display after only two luminol-enhanced photos, and the slideshow was stopped.
Trista, Alex, and Melissa’s collective impression from the photos shown of Ayla’s blood, in and around Justin’s basement bedroom, was that his bedroom looked like a “murder scene”.
The MSP determined that the samples of Ayla’s blood exhibiting a spray pattern could not have been the result of any cut.
Some samples of Ayla’s blood contained saliva, indicating to MSP that Ayla had been coughing up blood from internal injuries.
MSP concluded that Ayla’s injuries were both “internal and external”.
When asked, Trista and Alex could not confirm if this was all of the physical evidence that MSP had found in and around the Dipietros’ residence.
MSP told Trista that they reviewed this evidence with the DiPietro family in November 2012. MSP stated that “Justin had no reaction.” In a subsequent conversation between Justin and Trista, Justin said about this evidence: “It’s no big deal”.
Also for those who may have missed it, Jeff later
explained in more detail the luminol enhanced photos and Emerald created an unofficial diagram to help us better understand the locations that Ayla’s blood was found in “On the other side of the crime scene tape”.
According to Jeff Hanson;
“In addition to the visible blood described in The Case for Ayla, there were two luminol photos:
The living room diagram shows both the visible silver-dollar-sized stain and blood evidence detected with luminol. The luminol evidence consisted of blood spatter surrounding the visible stain. This shows that Ayla lost significant blood while on or adjacent to the DiPietro’s living room couch.
The second luminol photo Trista saw was of Justin’s bedroom in the basement. This photo was a room overview photo with luminol highlighting additional blood in the general areas visible blood was found in the room. The photo was so upsetting to Trista that she is unable to recall it with any greater specificity and the slideshow was stopped.
As indicated in the crime scene diagram, the unfinished basement was littered with beer bottles; one of the detectives commented (during the slideshow) that the house was dirty and was “one step away from being a hoarder’s house”.”
Noted by Emerald: THE SLIPPERS—the picture shown to Trista was a close up, and the location where the slippers were found is still unknown…
I placed them in her bedroom as they needed to go somewhere, and we did not know where to put them, and did not want to put them out of the house, like the driveway, so I chose a location that was possible…please keep this in mind when looking at or considering the diagram…..none of the locations or sizes or amounts of clothes are exact, but are an approximation constructed to give a visual aid to where evid was found, and to look for patterns that may exist… the locations of the stains on the couch, palette, bed, etc…are also not known as of yet, so this will all be corrected as it is verified…this is why it is labeled “UNOFFICIAL” and “NOT TO SCALE”…
It is up to each individual to decide whether or not they believe that Trista’s, Alex’s and Melissa’s recollection of the blood evidence is correct. I spoke to Jeff several times while we were working on The Case for Ayla and I’m certain that Jeff checked, double checked and triple checked every description for accuracy with all three who viewed the slideshow. McCausland and MSP have remained firm in their refusal to confirm or deny the evidence description.
Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, confirmed Monday that the meeting between Reynolds and detectives took place but would not comment on what Reynolds was shown nor the version of evidence she released Monday.
“We have no reaction to her releasing this,” said McCausland, who added that investigators have seen the document generated by Reynolds and her family. “We’re not going to confirm or refute anything that has been published on a website.”
McCausland said it’s not unusual for investigators to show family members evidence and that DiPietro has seen the same information as Reynolds.
“We do our best to keep family members in the loop as an investigation unfolds, and that’s normal,” said McCausland.
“There was blood found inside the home. 
We’ve also disclosed it was Ayla’s. We have not been more specific than that,” said McCausland.
Reynolds told Ward that in January police showed her a slideshow of the blood evidence.
“Just seeing that made me…just…I lost it and we started with seeing all the blood,” said Reynolds. “It started with me seeing it on a baby doll, on her princess slippers, on her car seat, on the shoulder strap. It didn’t stop once we got started. It didn’t stop.”
Reynolds’ family produced a diagram based on where they were told the blood was found: on the first floor in Ayla’s room, on her bed, blood on her baby doll, her pillow and her blanket. In the living room the forensic chemical Luminol located a silver-dollar-size blood stain on the couch. In the basement, where DiPietro’s bed was located, there was a blood stain on his mattress and sheets along with possible vomit.
“Mainly where all of Ayla’s blood was found was down in the basement where Justin slept,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds said DiPietro told her: “don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal.”
“We know Trista has disclosed a number of things recently. We have no criticism of what she said. We are not going to confirm or deny specifics,” said McCausland.
1 What do you think?
2 Do you believe the blood evidence release is true?
3 Why or why not?
4 Do you think Ayla could have survived if this blood evidence truly exists?
Maine State Police Tip Line – 207-624-7076
Friends For Ayla 