A Missing Child, Found

"It certainly looked like Cleo [but] I wanted to be absolutely sure it was her."

"So I asked her a third time and then she looked at me and said, 'My name's Cleo' ... and that was it."

"We turned around and walked her out of that house."

Police Officer, Carnarvon, Western Australia

 

"If you see something, report it. It doesn't matter if it's small or big, or if you're sure or not. We want our little girl home."

"She would never leave that tent alone."

"When the police were asking us to go through everything I remember thinking, 'How did someone come into that tent and take Cleo'?"

"How could someone take a child, and my gut just felt sick."

Mother of 4-year-old abducted child

Police released a photo of Cleo Smith after her rescue   WA Police

 

These were truly desperate straits. A four-year-old child missing, taken overnight from a tent that held her younger sister and her parents, all sound asleep. It was only the following morning when Cleo's mother awoke that she realized her little girl was no longer in the tent with them. Her sleeping bag was gone, her child was missing. The tent had been unzipped and she had no idea what had happened. And nor did the police who responded, at least at first.

 

Other campers tented nearby at the Blowholes campground an hour's drive from Carnarvon, where the family lived, reported hearing a vehicle revving its engine and speeding away at some point during the night. "The chances of finding her alive were so slim", commented Commissioner Mick Fuller of New South Wales Police. What followed was a huge land and sea search on the assumption the child wandered from her family tent and would be found nearby. That was the hope. 

The little girl had awakened at 1:30 a.m., asking her mother for a drink of water. The next morning, she was nowhere in evidence. The potential of foul play was not long in coming. A reward of $1 million in Aussie funds was posted. There were countless volunteers who set out to discover the little girl's whereabouts. Posters were distributed nationwide, billboards placed in shop windows. "Unfortunately, all of those proved unfruitful" remarked Det.Supt.Rob Wilde.

Over two weeks had passed and initial confidence had waned substantially, to the point where official searchers feared they might find the child, but not alive. The conviction she had been abducted had long since set in; evidence in support of that supposition came in the form of a tent zipper out of the child's reach, other campers reporting a vehicle racing away in the night, and the mystery of her missing sleeping bag.

"We had real concerns for her welfare. And as time passed by, they grew worse", explained Det.Supt.Rob Wilde, who grew to believe that the abduction represented "an opportunistic type event". A regiment of the army was drafted to assist, and as the days passed, police issued a nationwide appeal for information. Cleo's family came under suspicion on the part of the sympathetic public. Abuse soon followed.

Police sifted "every inch" of the campsite, including roadside litter along a 600 kilometre coastal stretch, launching drones in a search for anything that might point to disturbed ground. Det.Supt. Wilde led a team of 140 officers who searched the family home, collected CCTV and dashcam footage, fielding over a thousand tips from the public. Then late Tuesday a "needle in the haystack" clue directed police to track Cleo down in a nighttime raid after a tip.

When the targeted home -- located half a street distance from Cleo's home -- was entered there appeared to be no one there. But behind a locked door in a room, sat little Cleo by herself. The place they had entered was actually just minutes away from police headquarters in Carnarvon. The little girl was asked her name, to verify identification. She failed to respond twice. It was on the third attempt that she identified herself.

This is the moment little Cleo was carried out of the home where she was found. (Supplied)

 

And was scooped up into the arms of the officer who asked for her name. The little girl clung to the hood of the officer's coat. All of this was relayed back to the station, and there, officers on tenterhooks and hope, wept watching body camera footage in real time.

A 36-year-old man, an occupant of the suburban house where Cleo had been locked into a room by herself, was arrested to be questioned about the disappearance of the child. He is no longer in prison, having been transferred to hospital with head injuries suffered while in a holding cell. The report was that he had been attacked by other inmates. Predictable in a situation of this kind. It seems police were none too concerned over the possibility ... 

No charges have yet been laid. And no one will be receiving the posted reward. Details, no doubt, will be forthcoming ...

"[In the end], dogged, methodical police work [led to Cleo being found]."

"[The moment Cleo was found was] one of the most remarkable days of policing we'd had in Western Australia."

"I've been in policing for 45 years and I can say this is why police come to work every day."

"Little Cleo is home. She is with her parents."

Chris Dawson, Western Australia police chief