The mother of missing Aisling Symes today described how she turned her back for a few seconds and the toddler was gone.Angela Symes, married to Waterford man Alan, pleaded with the kidnapper to hand Aisling (2) back.
"I was just fiddling with the taps and looked behind me and she was there, watching what Caity and I were up to," Angela said.
"Then I turned off the cold tap, looked behind me and she was gone."
Police renewed their appeal for an Asian woman seen with a child like Aisling to come forward.
In an emotional interview on New Zealand TV, Angela -- clutching a Winnie the Pooh bear she had bought for Aisling -- described working at her parents' home at the time of the disappearance.
The two-year-old was standing behind her mum and her sister Caitlin (5) when she vanished.
Angela was working at her parents’ home at the time Aisling vanished. The two-year-old was standing behind her mum and her sister Caitlin (5) when she disappeared.
“I just erupted from the door, screaming out her name and that was just that, she was gone. I just can't believe that she moved so quickly, in the time it took just to turn off a tap, she was gone.”
A distraught Angela, clutching the teddy she bought hours before Aisling went missing, said that she always keeps her children within her sights.
“I was always watching her,” she added.
Alan Symes, originally from Waterford, then spoke directly to anyone who may have abducted his daughter.
“She belongs with us, she needs to be back with us, we miss her terribly. No matter what reason you took her, look what you are putting her through, look what you are putting us through,” he said.
Alan, his older sister Eithne and mother Olwyn emigrated to New Zealand from Stradbally, Co Laois over 18 years ago.
A neighbour, Cherie Tahitahi, said the creek behind the house was not fenced off.
Mrs Tahitahi raced next door when she heard Angela cry out, “Aisling, Aisling”.
“The mother was panicking, she was really hysterical,” Cherie said.
The parents have made an emotional plea for her abductor to return their daughter safely.
They described Aisling as a “very fast, quite fit young lassy”. New Zealand Police have stepped up precautions to ensure she had not been taken out of the country.
Customs staff have been given photographs of Aisling and are getting briefings at the start of each shift.
Inspector Gary Davey said: “It's now more likely that she has been abducted. We need to keep our minds open.
“We have searched and not found her, which makes it more likely we are looking at someone having picked up Aisling.”
A team of more than 40 officers are working on the criminal investigation, checking “people of concern” in the area and looking at any recent reports of suspicious behaviour.
Mr Davey said two sightings of Aisling around the time she disappeared on Monday, indicated the most likely possibility was an abduction.
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