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The tragic death of toddler Aisling Symes triggered a huge community response, from the search efforts of west Auckland locals to the hundreds attending her funeral.
So, why did this little girl's story touch the hearts of so many who never knew her?
Waitakere City locals were a part of the ordeal, right from the night Aisling went missing, to the day she was laid to rest.
"I've been a pastor 16 years ... I've seen lots of difficult situations, lots of bereavements," says the Symes family's pastor, Russell Watts.
"I've never seen a whole city and even a nation looking at a situation with such compassion and such a willingness to help."
Social psychologist Niki Harre says there are plenty of reasons why the hunt for Aisling touched so many, so deeply.
"One of them, of course, is she's a young child and what could be more innocent, and call to our heart strings more than a young child?
"The other thing is it's a mystery, there's something to be solved, something to be worked out here: 'What happened to her?'" she says.
West Aucklanders spent days searching for the missing toddler.
When Aisling's body was found, one harrowing week later, hands-on help gave way to a public outpouring of grief.
Ivoni Fuimaono knows what it is like to share a personal tragedy with the public.
When son Halatau Naitoko was innocently caught up and fatally shot in a police stand-off in January, the community rallied around her.
"You live next door to somebody and you don't talk for so many years, and all of a sudden you know something happens to you and they turn up on your doorstep," she says.
More than 1,000 people attended Halatau's funeral .
"It kind of eases the pain in that time, knowing that there are a lot of people out there, they care, and they also grieve with you," Fuimaono says.
Hundreds grieved with the Symes family at Aisling's funeral and just as many gathered for a colourful public memorial on Saturday . It has brought people in the community closer together.
"Hopefully, the sort of bonds and the realisation that we're all in this together and the sort of warmth that can come out of it, can help people reconnect," says Harre.
