Cleo Smith is missing four-year-old discovered alive in Australia
A girl aged four who was disappeared for 18 days from the remote region in Western Australia has been found alive and well inside the locked home of a police have announced.
Cleo Smith was missing from the tent of her family in a camping area near the city of Carnarvon on the 16th of October which triggered a massive search.
A man who is 36 years old is detained and being questioned by detectives.
Police broke into a residence in Carnarvon early in the morning of Wednesday morning, based on the forensic evidence.
“They found little Cleo in one of the rooms,” the Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch from WA Police stated in an email.
“One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her, ‘What’s your name?’ She said ‘My name is Cleo’.”
The girl was returned to her parents, who had repeatedly pleaded for her return.
“Our family is whole again,” her mother, Ellie Smith, wrote on Instagram.
The footage from Cleo’s rescue captured Cleo “smiling” and “as well as we could expect in the circumstances” according to the Commissioner Chris Dawson, who added she was receiving medical treatment.
The man currently detained has no connection or ties to Smith family members. Smith family. The Smith family has not been charged.
The home where Cleo was found is 6 minutes’ driving away from her family’s home in Carnarvon with around 5,000 people living there.
Police found Cleo Smith, a missing 4-year-old Cleo Smith
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted it was “wonderful, relieving news”. Commissioner Dawson declared: “I think Australia is rejoicing.”
“To find a little girl – a vulnerable little girl – after 18 days. You know, obviously people think the worst, but importantly hope was never lost,” the commissioner said.
What do we know so far?
The family of Cleo was in the middle of their vacation in her family’s home on the Quobba Blowholes camping ground when she was missing between 11:30 and 06:00, on 16 October.
The remote location in Macleod is approximately 800km (560 miles) north of Perth and is a popular tourist destination on this state’s Coral Coast – known for its ocean-front scenery that is swept by wind ocean caves, lagoons and sea caves.
Cleo was asleep on an air mattress beside Cleo’s younger sister’s crib. Her mother, who was sleeping in the second bedroom in the tent woke up early in the early morning, Cleo was gone and the tent’s door was open.
Police reported that this raised the possibility of abduction. Ms. Smith was uncompromising in her assertion that Cleo would not have left the tent alone.
A task force of officers comprising 100 were brought in from the capital of the state, Perth, to join an extensive land, air and sea search. Reconnaissance aircrafts were employed to search areas with few inhabitants.
Authorities offered a one-million dollars ($750,000 or PS540,000) cash reward in exchange for details regarding Cleo’s movements.
The incident attracted the attention of the world as well as reports that bounty hunters had traveled to the area after the cash reward was given.
The Deputy Commissioner Blanch claimed they looked through thousands of bits of information in search of an “needle in a haystack”.
“Late last night they found that needle that led them to that address and rescued Cleo,” the man said to Network Seven.
Police claimed it was a case of information regarding a car however, they did not provide any further details.
ABC News reported a man who lived in the home was recently seen by a neighbor buying nappies.
“We didn’t click who… he was buying them for,” the neighbor was quoted as saying.
News that Cleo was found feelings of immense relief among the local population.
“For 18 days we’ve been filled with anxiety and concern,” Carnarvon Shire president Eddie Smith told Australia’s 2GB radio.
The deputy commissioner Blanch Blanch, Deputy Commissioner, told 6PR Radio that she was “incredible to see seasoned detectives openly crying with relief”.
Police say they did not anticipate that the reward would be taken advantage of.
