New Zealand / Regional

Papers dominated by finding of child's body

06:23 am on 13 October 2009

Tuesday's newspapers are dominated by the overnight result in the search for Aisling Symes.

The New Zealand Herald reports that police found a child's body in a stormwater pipe on Monday night - metres from the Henderson property where two year-old Aisling disappeared last week.

In a separate story, the paper says neighbours were asking afterwards how a child missing for a week and feared taken by kidnappers, could apparently be found only metres from where she disappeared.

The Dominion Post says the drain was 100 metres from the home Aisling wandered from, in an area police had already searched twice.

The Press quotes Inspector Gary Davey as saying police will work through questions surrounding Aisling's disappearance over the next few days.

The paper says Aisling was a child who liked water and who had been chasing ducklings just before she went missing.

The Otago Daily Times quotes Inspector Davey as saying it's too early at this stage to know how the child got in the drain, or, in fact, how long she was there.

Other news

The Dominion Post says a register of more than 1700 contaminated or at-risk sites around Wellington, can finally be revealed. Some are polluted with heavy metals, solvents, chemicals, fertilisers and munitions.

They include: the St James Theatre in Courtenay Place, California Garden Centre in Miramar, the Herd St apartments near Waitangi Park and the Karori wildlife sanctuary.

The ODT says a search for eight people thought to be missing in heavy seas off south Otago on Sunday has been suspended. it says speculation is growing the group may have gone to ground fearing a hefty search bill.