Girl Cleo Smith’s family thanks rescuers for being ‘whole’ again

The family of Cleo Smith, the four-year-old Australian girl rescued on Wednesday after 18 days of her disappearance, thanked “all those involved” in the rescue of the girl on Friday, who have made it possible for her family to return to ” be complete ”.

In their first public statements since the rescue, the girl’s mother and stepfather, Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon, said they were “humbled” by the love and support received from the local community and across the country.

“We are very grateful that our little girl is back in our arms and our family is whole again,” they said in a statement released to the media by the Western Australian Police in which they also asked “respect for her privacy.”

The little girl disappeared at dawn on October 16 when she was with her mother and stepfather in a tent at the Blowholes campsite, 75 kilometers from where she was rescued.

The girl had woken up at one in the morning on Saturday, October 16 to ask for water, but five hours later, when the mother and her partner got up, they discovered that Cleo and her sleeping bag had disappeared.

A group of officers today took the alleged kidnapper, Terence Darrell Kelly, in handcuffs in a small plane from the town of Carnarvon, in northwestern Australia, to a maximum security prison in the city of Perth.

Kelly, indicted Thursday in Carnarvon court for kidnapping a minor, as well as an unknown number of charges that were undisclosed due to being under a suppression order, will appear from Perth prison via video conference at the next, scheduled hearing. for next December 6.

The suspect, who apparently has a fondness for dolls, was arrested early Wednesday on a street in the town of Carnarvon, three kilometers from Cleo’s family home, shortly after the police rescued the minor from the house. from Kelly where he kept it locked up. (I)