April Jones had a "happy face" when she got into a vehicle shortly before her disappearance, a friend of the five-year-old has said.
April's seven-year-old friend, who gave recorded video evidence at the trial of Mark Bridger, said April appeared to go willingly and did not cry.
Mr Bridger, 47, of Ceinws, denies abducting and murdering April, who went missing near her home in Machynlleth, Powys, on October 1 last year. He also denies intending to pervert the course of justice.
Today the jury at Mold Crown Court was played a police interview with April's friend who was playing with the five-year-old before she went missing.
The seven-year-old girl said a man got out of a Land Rover then April got in.
In the interview with a police officer, made the day after April went missing, the girl said: "Me and her [April] were playing."
She said there was a "man by his van" and she described how she saw April "by the Land Rover van".
The girl went on to say: "The man didn't take her in the van. She got in the van having a happy face."
She said April's brother arrived a few minutes later and said it was time for her to go home. The alarm was then raised.
April's mother Coral Jones immediately called police before she and her husband Paul searched the Bryn-Y-Gog estate, where they live.
Last week the court was told blood found at Mr Bridger's home matched that of April. It was a one-in-a-billion chance the blood was not April's, the jury heard.
The jury also heard child pornography was found on Mr Bridger's computer, and bone fragments were found at his home.
Prosecutors have told the court the defendant killed April in a sexually motivated attack and traces of her blood were found at his cottage.
The trial continues.
