Cleo Smith: this was the rescue of the 4-year-old girl who was missing in Australia for 18 days

A 4-year-old Australian girl who disappeared 18 days ago in a remote part of the state of Western Australia was found safe and sound in a house on Wednesday, police said.

Cleo Smith disappeared from the tent where she was with her family at a campsite near the town of Carnarvon on October 16.

Immediately a broad search operation in which more than 100 agents participated.

Following forensic clues, the police broke into a house in Carnarvon at dawn this Wednesday, where he found the little girl.

a 36-year-old man is in police custody.

“A police team managed to make their way into a locked house … They found little Cleo in one of the rooms,” Western Australia Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said in a statement.

“One of the officers took her in his arms and asked her: ‘What’s your name?’

She said, ‘My name is Cleo,’ ”she added.

The 4-year-old girl is already with her parents.

This is what we know about the case and what led the police to Cleo.

“Needle in a haystack”

Cleo’s family was on the first night of their vacation at the Quobba Blowholes campsite when she disappeared between 01:30 and 06:00.

The remote site at Macleod is about 900 km north of Perth, and is a local attraction on the state’s Coral Coast, known for its windswept ocean landscape, sea caves and lagoons.

Cleo slept on an inflatable mattress next to her little sister’s crib.

When his mother, who was sleeping in the second room of the tent, got up in the morning, Cleo was gone and the door was open.

The police explained that immediately they thought of a kidnapping.

Cleo’s mother insisted that the girl could not have left on her own.

The mysterious disappearance triggered an intense search by land, sea and air, with reconnaissance aircraft used to comb sparsely populated areas and had police reinforcements from the state capital, Perth.

Western Australian Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch described it as looking for “a needle in a haystack.”

The police even searched hundreds of garbage bags on the roads along a 600-kilometer stretch of Western Australia.

The authorities had also offered a reward of A $ 1 million (US $ 750,000) for any information on Cleo’s whereabouts.

During the 18 days that Cleo was missing, the police said that collected thousands of evidence, intelligence, data, and witness statements.

Deputy Commissioner Blanch described it as “hard, hard work.”

“Combined with some initial information, this was a methodical and tenacious police workCommissioner Chris Dawson said, adding that the team had “worked its way through every possible trail.”

Police have not released the exact details of what led them to the house in Carnarvon, where they found Cleo safe and sound.

The last pieces of the puzzle

Commissioner Dawson told reporters that “really important” information about a car helped direct police to the home, but he has not explained what it was.

He and other officers have also emphasized that a series of forensic clues were vital to find the missing four-year-old girl.

Deputy Commissioner Blanch said the Telephone data also played a key role.

“It’s a big puzzle and it all helped,” he said.

“There were many things, that When we put the puzzle together, they all led to one place, and that’s where we find Cleo ”.

“I think the whole of Australia is celebrating,” Dawson said.

“Our family is whole again,” wrote Ellie Smith, Cleo’s mother, on Instagram.

A police video of Cleo’s rescue, which has not been released, shows the girl “smiling” and “all the good that can be expected in these circumstances”said Commissioner Chris Dawson, adding that he is receiving medical attention.

“Finding a little girl – a vulnerable little girl – after 18 days … obviously people expect the worst. But the important thing is that hope was never lost ”, added the commissioner.

The rescue of the minor alive was rated by criminologist Xanthe Mallett as a “miracle” since, as he explained to local television channel 9, “it is highly unusual to find a kidnapped girl alive and well after so long.”

Widespread relief

The news of Cleo’s emergence alive sparked a sense of tremendous relief in the local community.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is in Scotland at the COP26 climate summit, tweeted that it is “wonderful and reassuring news.”

The case also attracted international attention, and it was said that bounty hunters traveled to the region to join the search after the sum of money was offered to whoever contributed some data.

Carnarvon County Township Chairman Eddie Smith told Australia’s 2GB Radio: “For 18 days we have been Anxiety and worry flooded I am somewhat excited at the moment ”.

Ben Fordham, the announcer who was interviewing Smith, couldn’t help but burst into tears when he read the police statement on his show. (I)