Missing four-year-old girl Cleo Smith has been found “alive and well” in a locked house in Western Australia. Cleo disappeared on October 16 while camping with her family at the Blowholes campsite near Carnarvon.
“Cleo is alive and well,” Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said in a statement. “A police team broke their way into a locked house in Carnarvon about 1am.
“They found little Cleo in one of the rooms.” She has been reunited with her family.
As police broke into the home, one officer picked her up into his arms and asked her: “what’s your name”. “She said - ‘My name is Cleo’,” Blanch said.
“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 Western Australia Police Force.”
A man from Carnarvon is in custody and is currently being questioned.
Cleo’s disappearance
Over the last nineteen days, detectives and volunteers have been searching for Cleo, leaving no stone unturned.
Cleo had woken up around 1.30am on that Saturday morning and asked her mother Ellie for a drink of water
When Ellie woke up later that morning around 6am, the flap to the tent was open and Cleo and her sleeping bag were missing, leading authorities to believe Cleo had been abducted.
Detectives have reviewed CCTV footage from the scene, and had urged a driver seen leaving the site shortly after 3am that morning to come forward.
Police searched Cleo’s family’s home several times, scoured the dark web and sifted through garbage in the search for the four-year-old.
Her parents made a heartbreaking plea for her to be brought home, days after she went missing.
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