Dive teams search river for missing Maine toddler


January 11, 2012 at 12:03p.m.

Dive teams search river for missing Maine toddler

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) — Dive teams from the Maine Warden Service and the state police have begun searching the Kennebec River in Waterville for a toddler who’s been missing for more than three weeks.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland says the teams this morning began searching a half-mile stretch of the river between the Carter Memorial Bridge and the Hathaway Creative Center for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds. The girl was reported missing from her father’s Waterville home on Dec. 17, and her disappearance has been declared a crime.

A stretch of the nearby Messalonskee Stream was drained nearly dry on Dec. 21 so wardens could get a better look from the ground and an airplane. McCausland says other bodies of water might be searched depending on the results of the Kennebec River dives.