(NECN/CNN: Susan Candiotti, Waterville, Maine) - There are new details in the case of a missing toddler in Maine.
It has been three weeks since 21-month-old Ayla Reynolds vanished from her home. Police say they're conducting a criminal investigation. Now, Ayla's paternal grandmother is speaking publicly for the first time.
In her first TV interview, Alya's grandmother, Phoebe DiPietro says she is living a nightmare.
"You're waiting for a phone call, hoping the police have your granddaughter," DiPietro said.
So far, that phone call hasn't come in. Not a single word about what happened to Ayla Reynolds.
The toddler disappeared in the middle of the night, just one week before Christmas.
"She's quiet, very sweet, her eyes, she's got the bluest eyes and the longest eyelashes," DiPietro said.
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DiPietro says Ayla's father, Justin, put her to bed around 8 p.m. on Friday, December 17. The next day, before 9 a.m., he called police to report her missing.
Police will not say who was there, or exactly what happened the night Ayla went missing. DiPietro won't share the details, either. She says investigators warned her against jeopardizing the case.
"I can tell you there was not a party here at the house," DiPietro said.
Just steps away from Phoebe Dipietro's living room is Ayla's bedroom. She shared the room with her cousin, who was untouched that night.
Justin told his mother Ayla was missing.
"I...thought that I didn't want my son to go get any of his friends and go kicking in doors looking for her," DiPietro said.
"It is a very creepy feeling to think that somebody had been casing your house that they had been watching the family's activities."
"Some oddities that I had noticed. And we told the law enforcement, you know, what those were."
She would not reveal the oddities to the media.
Without a search warrant, Ayla's grandmother allowed police to turn her house upside down for about two weeks, because, she says, she has nothing to hide.
"I'd give everything I owned if we can have her back," DiPietro cried.
Ayla's parents never married and live apart. The child's mother, who has, according to her family, spent time in rehab, questions whether Justin mistreated Ayla, suspicious about a soft cast she had on her left arm the night she went missing.
Justin's mother says she was home when her son tripped while carrying Ayla into the house.
"Justin is a great dad. He truly, truly is. And I know he loves Ayla," DiPietro said.
"I have to believe she's okay."
