Aisling Symes

[Brianemone]

So the poor little kid was found in a drain, pretty crumby way to die. I hope that if someone had something to do with her ending up down there that they find out and put them in jail for a long long time.

I feel very sorry for the parents.

[FaceAche]

Oh totally - really sad story this eh?

The weather last Monday was totally awful, so it's quite conveivable that she was washed down there. Although i see good old Bob Harvey was banging on about the only way she could have got down there was through an open manhole, and there are no open manholes in the area, so between last Monday when she disappeared and today, someone must have closed whatever open manhole it was.

I'd says there's a lot more to come in this story.

[Gazza420]

So sad man I'm a parent myself and I can't even imagine the amount of hurt her mum & dad are going through right now.
My heart goes out to them.
RIP Aisling.

[captain x]

Yep, very sad, but at least there is some closure for the parents now.

[sock merchant]

Yeah this stuff is pretty rough. I really feel for those parents. Now that i have my own kid, this stuff certainly has way more impact

[ahmad]

Ok I'm not saying they did it, and I guess this is how RUMOURS start, so use a high level of discretion when you read the following comment.

It seems more and more likely that some foul play was involved here, as the manhole covers were essentially closed (or only open a little). So either it was actually open at the time, and someone happened to walk past and saw an open manhole cover so replaced it, or the poor girl was put down it.

Please don't click if you may over-react to what I have to say. You have been warned:

Spoiler: Click to Spoil What about the parents? While I think it seems unlikely they had anything to do with it, they can't be completely ruled out can they????

[Sparky]

This story has really hit home, pretty cut up over for some reason, I assume because it's a lot more relative to us now.

Ahmad I'll have to disagree with your theory. IMO I don't think it's possible in this case.

[ahmad]

I don't actually believe that is what happened, but I don't think the possibility can be completely excluded (sadly).

[Happy Ronin NZ]

A homeowner says she complained to the council two weeks ago about the lid coming off the manhole above the drain where Aisling Symes was found.

I don't think there is any need to go down a conspiracy theory path. A very sad outcome. I gave my kids an extra big hug this morning.

[ahmad]

While not having ever experienced it myself, I'm pretty sure that dying is NEVER a nice experience.

But dying in this (alleged) fashion is just f***king horrible. Can't even begin to imagine how lonely and sad this little girl was, at an age where she would be old enough to start having more feelings/comprehension about the dire situation she must have been in.

[TimProvise]

Yeah being a parent I really felt more sympothy then I would of before I became a dad, overall closure is really the only positive to come of the incident for the parents

[Vivasanti]

RIP, hits home for me having a wee girl like most of you fellas, extra hugs for my one when V got home from work

[NOL LUV DI]

It's simply sad and reminded us of how quickly kids can move.

We found our middle boy at a similar age face down in the neighbours swimming pool - he'd scaled a corrugated iron fence and opened the child proof pool gate. Fortunately we notived him missing and found him quickly - pool was first place we looked so in the end no harm done.

Our daughter at 18 months was found on top of the other neighbours shed having the time of her life - shimmied and pulled her way up and our son above sleepwalked onto the middle of the road - unlocked the door and everything - and almost got hit by a car that slammed on it's breaks.

Some twit left a secured door open at a cricket pavilion and above daughter climbed over side and was falling down three falls of stairs onto concrete - somehow above son at aged 7 grabbed her arm and she was falling and managed to hang on til we got there to haul her back up over the side.

There's heaps of other incidents that could potentially have been fatal. Who knows why they weren't - luck, kids are just resilient, who knows. Certainly makes parenting an interesting time.

Reins were our favourite friend in town that stopped kids running onto road many times. Might be a little old fashioned even in our time but made life a hell of a lot easier with three kids under 5.

Wasn't above staking the kids to the lawn either so they could eat the grass or play in a circle - shade provided.

I would have hated to lose any of our kids and for parents who care it must be heartbreaking.

[FaceAche]

Originally Posted by NOL LUV DI

I would have hated to lose any of our kids and for parents who care it must be heartbreaking.

One of the main reasons we've decided to not have any - we just couldn't live with ourselves if anything happened to them.

As an aside, this really got my blood boiling this morning - if you saw the news coverage over the last day or so, you'd have seen that Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey has asked "why the hell" none of the residents alerted the council to the drain/manhole issue during the week since Aislings disappearance.

He clearly doesn't know that the Police said last Tuesday that they'd checked the drains, and found nothing, so it was turning into an abduction case.

Essentially, the Waitakere City Council's inaction in fixing the drain issue has led to this little girls death. It's high time Bob Harvey shut the fuck up.

I fucking HATE local councils, and someone needs to account for this. I'm sure that there's some middle-manager in the WCC who's seen the complaints about the manhole come through and said "Yeah well, if they hadn't nixed the rate increase we proposed last year, we'd have been able to afford to fix that", and who is now hopefully shitting in his/her pants.

[Brianemone]

NOL, sounds like you and your kids were really lucky. I won't be owning a pool any time soon. Thankfully non of the neighbours have one either.