ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Twist In Missing Aussie Toddler Case As Vital CCTV Footage Has Mysteriously Vanished

Twist In Missing Aussie Toddler Case As Vital CCTV Footage Has Mysteriously Vanished

There is footage from before and after AJ disappeared, however someone has wiped the section where he went missing.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

A family friend has made some explosive revelations as authorities continue to look for a three-year-old boy who disappeared from his regional New South Wales home four days ago.

Anthony 'AJ' Elfalak was last seen playing in his family's large home in Putty, in the NSW Upper Hunter region.

His older brother needed to go to the bathroom and his mum took him inside; taking her eyes off AJ for only a few minutes.

When she returned, the boy was nowhere to be seen.

Incredibly, Alan Hashem has revealed that CCTV cameras that were set up around the home are missing footage from around the time the three-year-old disappeared.

Alan Hashem.
Channel 7

Alan, who is also AJ's godfather, was at their home at the time and has told Channel 9: "There's one key factor and this probably the first time I actually mentioned this, I installed cameras on that post right there.

"There's footage missing, unexplained. (We have footage from) days before, days after, but not during the time.

"You know what's more alarming? We installed it so high you can't tamper with it and we had two mechanisms of storage, cloud storage and physical storage and there's no data in that time slot.

"We provided the user name and password to the police, we provided them the actual original memory card. There's a lot of explaining to do."

He said he went straight to the CCTV cameras when the fire brigade arrived as he wanted to make sure they couldn't be tampered with.

7News

AJ, who suffers from autism and is non-verbal, was last seen playing on Friday (September 3) at around 11:45am.

Alan and AJ's family strongly believe that the boy was snatched.

Alan recalled the moment when they knew something was up.

"We didn't think much of it but we did in the meantime, we had these ATVs, we had about four of them and we thought if AJ's gone somewhere it's not going to be far," he said to The Today Show.

"He's always quite afraid and attached to his mum, hence why his mum couldn't have him by her side when she's cooking, he is with his brothers. He's never wandered."

Channel 7

He noticed a 'suspicious' car seen at the property and unfortunately the CCTV cameras didn't point in that vital direction.

Alan told Channel 7's Sunrise: "We are absolutely baffled. The only part we couldn't see would be the back garage and the back door.

"Where your camera is at the moment, if you pointed the complete opposite way you will see how high up the house is.

"The only reasonable explanation is because we are at the front of the house, the father was fixing one of the four ATVs, the mother was cooking in the kitchen and she would overlook the front yard, I was on the side closest to the road where the street is.

"Unfortunately, that is the same direction we saw a car travel from and head towards the road. So, there is no other reasonable explanation than an abduction."

There were more than 100 emergency service personnel, volunteers and family who spent the weekend combing the area to help find AJ but have since come up with nothing.

Featured Image Credit: 7News

Topics: Australia