Moment all it took for Aisling to vanish

Relevant offers

Crime

Suppression lapses for kidnap accused New Zealand's 'biggest' P-lab busted Farm worker burst cow's eyeball with bar Gisborne stab victim named Illness delays Urewera trial Police bust nets 'substantial' cash, meth Urewera four trial: 'Gunfire' from camp Woman charged over Gisborne death Earthquake stress blamed for murder Criticism over Auckland motorway shooting

Angela Symes turned her back for the slightest of moments – and her beloved little daughter was gone.

All she was doing was fiddling with a tap when two-year-old Aisling vanished.

"She was there, I turned it off, looked behind me again, and she was gone. It was that fast. I just can't believe it, but it was that fast," she told television's Close Up last night.

Mrs Symes and her husband Alan appeared on both television networks to make an impassioned plea for the return of their daughter, who went missing in the West Auckland suburb of Henderson on Monday night.

"Aisling is a little human being, she needs to be with her family," Mr Symes told Campbell Live.

"She's not a doll," her mother said. "She's somebody who loves her parents, her family, her sister, her pets. She belongs with us, she needs to be back with us. We miss her terribly."

The pair said they kept asking themselves if they could have acted any differently on the night Aisling went missing.

Their other daughter, Caitlin, had been strong, but was getting more and more upset, asking: "Are we ever going to get Aisling back?"

"She'll be playing, then all of a sudden she'll go quiet and burst into tears. She's asking us questions like, `If she doesn't eat, she's going to die, isn't she?"' Mrs Symes said.

Mr Symes, a native of Munster in Ireland, has lived in New Zealand for 20 years. Family have described the part-time security guard as a strong, stoic man who does not wear his emotions on his sleeve.

Mrs Symes, a fulltime mum who has spent her life in West Auckland, said Aisling had a stubborn streak and was "not easily diverted".

Mrs Symes grew up in the Longburn Rd home which belonged to her late parents. The family was cleaning the property when Aisling disappeared on Monday.

Four days after she went missing, emotions were still running high on the quiet working-class street yesterday.

Leanne Zhou was walking with her own two-year-old daughter when she stopped outside the house.

"I wonder where she has gone", she said. "It just doesn't make sense. Children don't just disappear". Across the road, a young woman said she was deeply frightened by the "kidnapping".

"I am a mother and now I am so worried for my kids. This is a quiet street. I would never have expected anything like this to happen here."

Down the street, a middle-aged woman with young children and a border collie wiped away tears.

"It just makes me so upset. I've been dreaming about it, about her. I can see her walking down the street and I pick her up and keep her safe."

- © Fairfax NZ News