It's not the kind of news the parents of missing Maine toddler Ayla Reynolds, who disappeared almost six months ago, wanted to hear: The girl is unlikely to be found alive, according to police.

Based on everything we know -- the thousands of hours of investigation, the 1,127 leads that have come in, the searches, the dives and the evidence gathered -- we think it's highly unlikely that Ayla Reynolds will be found alive, Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland told CNN. Nothing points us in that direction.

The grim development does not mean that the search for little Ayla Reynolds is over, McCausland noted.

It has been 166 days since she was reported missing from her home in Waterville, and the work and the investigation goes on. There will be more searches, more dives and more interviews. And we are in this for the long haul. This case will never close until Ayla is found, McCausland said, Fox News reported.

Ayla, then 20 months old, was reported missing Dec. 17 by her father, Justin DiPietro. He put his daughter to bed the night before in his home in Waterville, Maine, only to wake up the next day and find she was missing.

Ayla was staying with her father for her first night after her mother, Trista Reynolds, checked herself into a hospital with drug problems.

Police earlier said they believe foul play was involved in Ayla's disappearance.

Her father says he thinks she was abducted, a theory shot down by authorities. Police believe DiPietro and the other adults in the house at the time Ayla went missing -- Ayla's aunt and her father's girlfriend -- are not being telling authorities everything they know, according to WMUR-9 New Hampshire.

Anyone with information about Ayla's disappearance was urged to come forward during a press conference Thursday, the station reported.

A reward for such information stands at $30,000, although John Nale, an attorney who helped raise the funds, warned the reward expires June 30.

Trista Reynolds, Ayla's mother, was thankful to get a call from police alerting her that they were announcing that she is unlikely to be found alive, according to McCausland. Meanwhile, DiPietro had no reaction, the spokesman said, according to CNN.

Two members of the Walterville Police Department are assigned to Ayla's case, which is still considered a missing person's case and not a homicide investigation.

Chief Joe Massey reiterated that the investigation into Ayla's disappearance will continue.

We are committed to this investigation, no matter how long it takes, he said.