Why now?

When I first heard that Trista Reynolds had filed the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of her missing daughter Ayla Bell Reynolds, and that Justin DiPietro was nowhere to be found to be served I thought…

well, of course, he’s hiding!

 

Are you guys watching Catch 22 on Hulu? Great show!

I was never keen on the idea of a wrongful death suit, especially since there’s been no criminal trial. We don’t know all the evidence Maine State Police do have, but obviously, it’s not enough to bring an indictment, let alone a conviction.

Trista had enough evidence to have Ayla declared dead. And although a preponderance of the evidence is a much lighter standard for civil trials, a simple win is not what Trista says she wants. She wants more information, specifically what happened to Ayla.

It made sense to me that Justin would refuse to participate. It’s his legal right. The worst that could happen is the court would grant a summary judgment to the plaintiff (Trista), assess damages, and possibly hit Justin with a contempt citation for not appearing. Sure, the damages could be in the millions. Somehow, I don’t see Justin as an ambitious or motivated guy, so I doubt he will ever have much to collect from.

But dodging collectors sure sounds a lot better than languishing in prison.

Which could certainly happen if new or conflicting information gets revealed during this lawsuit!

It was surprising to me that new information came out during the probate case. I was told it wasn’t used in the hearing because it “wasn’t needed” and therefore was never entered into the court record.  Attorney Childs was contacted to verify that the new information was relayed to Maine State Police, but there was no response. We don’t know if this is new information to the police.

Now that Justin has jumped into the fray…we could find out a whole lot more about what happened to poor Ayla.