A jury has heard of the frantic moments when the parents of April Jones learned their five-year-old daughter was missing.
The police statements of Coral and Paul Jones were read to the trial of Mark Bridger at Mold Crown Court, who is accused of abducting and murdering the schoolgirl, by Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting.
After April was collected from school on October 1, she was taken by her mother for a swimming lesson before they returned home for a tea of spaghetti on toast.
After she had watched her favourite Disney film, April asked to go out and play on her bike with a friend, her mother said.
Mrs Jones, 43, said: “Paul and I said no. She wanted to take her bike to her friend’s next door.
“She kept on and on and had a little tantrum and I eventually gave in, so she went next door to play. I told her I didn’t want her out for long. I think it was about 7pm and that was the last time I saw her.”
Twenty minutes later, Mrs Jones sent April’s older brother out to collect his sister as “it was getting dark and a little colder”.
“Within a very short time he came running home and he was in a hysterical state. When I calmed him down he said that April’s friend had seen her getting into a car with a man and that she had gone.”
Mrs Jones’s called the police straight away.
“I was so upset I do not remember much of what was said,” she added.
“I think I spoke to the police for a little while then gave the phone to my friend. I went out and searched around the estate, everywhere I could think of. I even looked in the bins.
“I was frantic trying to find her. The police turned up very quickly and then I was answering questions about her.”
Bridger, of Ceinws, mid-Wales, denies abduction, murder and intending to pervert the course of justice by disposing of, concealing or destroying April’s body.
He says he accidentally killed April when he ran her over and does not remember what he did with her body.
Mrs Jones said Bridger made contact with her elder daughter, then aged around 14, on Facebook about two years ago. In the message he told the girl: “I used to know your mother through playing darts.”
Mrs Jones said: “I told her not to be his Facebook friend. I told her not to accept it.”
Earlier, the jury was shown the last CCTV images of a playful April, captured in a local leisure centre just hours before her disappearance.
Among a series of clips shown to the jury, which tracked the movements of Bridger, were two video images taken from the local leisure centre where April went for a swimming lesson earlier on the day she went missing.
Miss Evans then showed the jury the final CCTV image of Bridger’s Land Rover driving past Tuffins Garage at 7.20pm.
The next day a helicopter looking for the missing girl zoomed in on Bridger, who was seen walking his dog outside his cottage.
The trial was adjourned until 10.30am on Tuesday.