IT is now 50 years since little Sandy Davidson vanished from the face of the earth.
The three-year-old was last seen in his gran’s back garden in St Kilda’s Bank, Bourtreehill on April 23, 1976.
And despite repeated investigations and theories, no trace was ever found of the youngster.
Today, members of his family are set to hold a balloon release in Sandy's memory at 2pm at the Four Seasons in Saltcoats.
Sandy and his little sister Donna had been playing with their dog. They were being looked after by their grandparents, who had gone inside the house at the time.
The gate flew open and their dog ran out. Sandy followed, trying to catch him.
His sister Donna, who now lives in the Three Towns, later revealed all she could remember was Sandy urging her to go too, but she refused - and went into the house to tell their grandparents.
At first, it was thought that Sandy had wandered off or suffered an accident. The nearby Bourtreehill estate was still a building site, with foundations being laid for new homes and a school.
Work on the site was halted and a huge police hunt was carried out but found no trace of Sandy, who had been due to turn four in a few weeks. And as time passed, his family began to fear the very worst.
Those fears were seemingly confirmed by a neighbour who was working in his garden at the time and told police he saw Sandy leaving in a car with a strange man.
The neighbour claimed the child did not seem distressed, so he thought nothing of it.
In the long years since, despite pleas from the police, reconstructions of how Sandy might look today and anguished pleas from his family, no trace of him has been found.
One theory was that when Sandy left the garden, he was taken by a man seen delivering leaflets at the time.
Sandy's mother, Margaret, and father, Phillip, believed he was taken by a lonely man wanting a son.
Another theory is that he ran down to the river five minutes away and followed the dog in, and subsequently drowned.
But the family and police officers have never given up on the case.
It was featured in an episode of the television series Missing Children: Lorraine Kelly Investigates in 2009. Sadly, nobody phoned in with information.
In September 2014, Broomlands Primary School, which was built around the time of Sandy's disappearance, was demolished. The police and council refused to excavate the land to search for Sandy.
Then in 2016, a computer-generated image was created to mark 40 years since the disappearance, showing what police believed the 43-year-old Sandy may look like.
A fresh image has now been released showing what Sandy may look like 50 years later.
In a statement, Donna said: “It is hard after 50 years and distressing that I still don’t know what happened to my brother. To have no answers to what seems like a thousand questions is beyond heartbreaking.
“Sandy is very much in my thoughts and as a family we are urging anyone who can help to get in touch.”
Detective Inspector Louise White said: “Sandy remains a missing person and our thoughts are very much with his family on this momentous anniversary of his disappearance. It is a very hard time for them.
“Someone must have seen Sandy that day and the answers his family need are out there somewhere. Someone must know something and I would urge them to contact us.
“Even the smallest piece of information could help us find out what happened to Sandy so please get in touch if you can assist.
“Anything new will be thoroughly assessed so contact us on 101 if you have anything to tell us no matter how insignificant you might think your information is.”
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