Mother pleads for Aisling's return

Angela Symes, the mother of missing West Auckland toddler Aisling, says her daughter vanished in the time it took to turn off a tap.

There has been no sign of the two-year-old since she went missing from Longburn Rd, Henderson about 5.30pm on Monday.

Police say it is more likely she has been abducted than drowned in one of the local waterways, and have more than 60 officers working to get her home.

Alan and Angela Symes faced media yesterday to talk about heir ordeal, but Mrs Symes was too overwrought to speak.

Today she clasped a Winnie the Pooh toy on her knee, which she bought for Aisling on Monday morning, just hours before she disappeared.

"I can't seem to put him (the bear) down," she told Campbell Live with her husband at her side.

She said before Aisling vanished on Monday afternoon she had been inspecting a washing machine at the Longburn Road property with Aisling and her elder daughter Caitlin, five, in tow.

"I turned off the hot tap, looked behind me she was there watching what Caty and I were up to. I turned off the cold tap looked behind me and she was gone - that fast."

She leapt out the door screaming out Aisling's name, but there was no trace of her.

"I just can't believe that she moved so quickly. In the time it took just to turn off a tap, she was gone."

She was always watching Aisling, who turned two in June, because she was so fast and fit, Mrs Symes said.

Aisling was a stubborn and bold girl who was not easily diverted from her purpose, she said.

Mrs Symes had a message for her daughter's abductor.

"She's not a doll. 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 and no matter what reason you took her, whatever you're going through, look what you're putting her through, look what you're putting us through.

"Please just bring her home, that's where she belongs. Just bring her home. We need her."

Caitlin was finding her sister's disappearance harder and harder, Mrs Symes said.

"She'll be playing, then all of a sudden she'll just 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?"'

Alan Symes said they missed their daughter every second of every day.

"I love her to bits. The house is very empty without her."

Police were urging anyone holding Aisling to drop her off at safe place such as a hospital so she could be returned to her parents, investigation head Inspector Gary Davey said.

"Our primary aim is to have Aisling returned to the safety of her family as soon as possible."

He was still hopeful police could find Aisling alive.

"As every hour passes, her family, friends, police and members of her community become increasingly distressed.

"If she was returned safely to a safe place the chances of her survival are greatly improved.

"In short, if anyone knows where she is or who she is with, they need to return her to where she belongs or they need to contact us."

Police still want to hear from an Asian woman in her 30s seen with Aisling on Longburn Rd shortly before she disappeared.

The woman was about 165cm tall with a medium build and long straight black hair, wore a black crew neck top, with three-quarter length sleeves, three-quarter length blue jeans, black leather sandals and black socks, and had a black and grey medium sized dog on a lead.

Aisling was wearing a green parka jacket or ski jacket, blue jeans embroidered with flowers, and white tennis shoes when she disappeared.