Missing New Zealand toddler found dead (Roundup)

Oct 13, 2009, 5:32 GMT

   Wellington - A 2-year-old New Zealand girl whose body was found in a storm drain a week after she disappeared drowned and had no evidence of injury, police said Tuesday.

   Results of a post-mortem appeared to confirm that Aisling Symes died accidentally and ruled out foul play, news reports said.

   The body of the girl, who police suspected was kidnapped after she disappeared on October 5, was recovered Monday evening after diggers with concrete-cutting equipment were called in.

   Police said they had inspected the drain - about 20 metres from the place in the Auckland suburb of Henderson where she disappeared - several times earlier, including with a camera, but had not found her.

   The girl had been reportedly chasing ducklings near a stream before she disappeared as her parents worked on a family house.

   Reports said a resident had complained to the local council that heavy rains lifted a 20-kilogram manhole cover over the drain two weeks before the girl disappeared, saying it was potentially dangerous to children.

   Her body was found 36 metres from the manhole, having apparently been swept down the drain by rain.

   Neighbours were asking how a child missing for a week and feared taken by kidnappers could be found only metres from where she disappeared, the New Zealand Herald reported.

   But a statement on behalf of Aisling's parents, Irish immigrant Alan Symes and his wife, Angela, said, 'We cannot thank the police enough for all they have done and continue to do for us.

   'The police have gone to extraordinary lengths to do everything possible to find Aisling and to help and support us.'