PORTLAND — A little more than two dozen people — mostly friends and family — gathered at the Riverton Community Center with Trista Reynolds on Saturday night to mark the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of her daughter, Ayla, in Waterville.

The nonprofit organization LostNMissing Inc. organized the event, which included a silent auction and gift drive to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The event closed with the release of several paper lanterns into the night sky. As Reynolds let the first one go, she murmured a prayer for her missing daughter.

Monday, Dec. 17, marks the one-year anniversary of when the 20-month-old girl went missing from her father’s home on Violette Avenue in Waterville.

Investigators have conducted numerous interviews with those closest to the child and searched the home, neighborhood, woods and waterways in the ensuing months, all to no avail.

One year later, Ayla Reynolds case remains mystery

While there are no new developments in the case, police say that they’re resolved to keep investigating.