Nearly three weeks after vanishing from a campsite in Carnarvon WA, 4-year old Cleo Smith has been found alive and well.
Officers broke into a house in Carnarvon (70kms from the family’s campsite) late last night, with police locating the little girl and asking her name. “My name is Cleo”, she replied to the huge relief of searchers.
A man has been taken into custody with more details to come.
Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith reacted on Instagram an hour after Western Australia Police confirmed Cleo was discovered, sharing a news alert and an image of her smiling daughter with the comment, “Our family is whole again,” accompanied by a love heart emoji.
WA premier Mark McGowan said he is relieved the toddler has been found and that “The nightmare is now finally over for Cleo and her family.”
“I’d like to thank the Western Australian community for all their assistance over the past few weeks, and acknowledge the WA police who did incredible police work to bring Cleo home to her parents.”
Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch gave a short statement to media this morning about the rescue effort:
“It’s my privilege to announce that in the early hours of this morning, police rescued Cleo Smith. Cleo is alive and well.”
“A police team broke their way into a locked house in Carnarvon at 1 o’clock this morning, they found little Cleo in one of the rooms. One of the officers picked her up and into his arms and asked, “What is your name?”, she said “My name is Cleo”.
“Cleo was reunited with her parents a short time later. This is the outcome we all hoped and prayed for. It’s the outcome we’ve achieved because of some incredible police work. I want to thank Cleo’s parents, the Western Australian community and the many volunteers, and of course I want to thank my colleagues in the West Australia police force.”
“I can confirm we have a man from Carnarvon in custody who is currently being questioned by detectives. I’ll have more to say on the rescue of Cleo as the day unfolds. But for now, ‘welcome home, Cleo’.
Speaking to 6PR, he said:
“Certainly everyone involved at Blowholes [campground] had to go through a process of elimination. That causes internet detectives to jump to conclusions but our detectives, the real detectives, can’t afford to do that. We have to go through this investigation with professionalism and look at each and every piece of data on its merit, and we’ve done that. We’ve found the needle in the haystack.”
Cleo Smith is safely back in the arms of her parents. Wonderful news.
What this family has been through is every parents’ worst nightmare. To the WA Police, and the community who joined the search, thanks.
Welcome home Cleo.— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) November 2, 2021
“I think it sends a strong message to people, don’t jump to conclusions on these jobs. Let us do our work, let us do it professionally, but help where you can. Send the information in to us – don’t jump to your own conclusions on the internet. That does not help and it certainly wouldn’t have helped Ellie and Jake during this really tragic and difficult time.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Shadow Minister for Education and for Women, Tanya Plibersek and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese have all posted on Twitter expressing their relief since Cleo’s discovery.