Missing girl found after 18-day search in Australia

“My name is Cleo,” a four-year-old Australian girl who went missing from a camping site 18 days ago told elated police officials when she was found “alive and well” in a closed house on Wednesday. 

Last month, Cleo Smith vanished from her family’s tent in Western Australia, sparking a frantic air, sea, and land search involving 100 officials, which many believed would end in tragedy. 

The girl was discovered alone inside a locked property in the seaside town of Carnarvon, Western Australia, just a short drive from where she went missing, according to authorities.

“One of the officers picked her up  and asked her ‘what’s your name?'” Said deputy police commissioner Col Blanch. “She said ‘My name is Cleo’.”

After breaking into the house about 1 am local time, police detained a 36-year-old local man who had no ties to the family.   

Soon after, the young girl was reunited with her family and her mother Ellie expressed her relief on social media. “Our family is whole again,” she captioned a photo of Cleo on Instagram.

Ellie Smith had previously said she was distressed after waking up at 6 am to discover her family’s tent unzipped and her oldest daughter missing. Her public pleas for assistance in reuniting Cleo with her family have sparked an outpouring of support from all over Australia. 

Blanch told local radio that once Cleo was located, he observed “seasoned detectives openly crying with relief,” and described the rescue as just incredible. “It’s very rare. It’s something we all hoped in our hearts, and it’s come true,” he said.

Premier Mark McGowan was overjoyed when he learned of the news the next morning.  “I didn’t answer it, I was asleep,” he said, after receiving a call at 1:38 am.  Nonetheless, he received a “lovely” snapshot of the girl smiling from a hospital bed within a few hours.

“There will be movies made about this,” he said. “You never know what to expect, you hope for the best, but you prepare for the worst.”

“It’s great to provide the country with positive news,” he added.

Scores of volunteers searched the surrounding wilderness for clues while police used human intelligence, surveillance footage, and forensic analysis to find the girl. 

‘Australia is rejoicing.’ 

Even as the hunt dragged on, investigators were adamant that they “were not going to leave any stone unturned,” according to Western Australia police commissioner Chris Dawson.

“We had been following a lot of the forensic leads and it led us to a particular house,” he told ABC radio. “We put everything we had at it.”

“Hope was never lost and the fact she’s been found alive, I think Australia is rejoicing. It is such a wonderful outcome.”

Dawson said Cleo was “as well as we could expect in the circumstances”, while Blanch added that she was being assessed by a medical team.

Cleo was presumed taken from her family’s tent at the remote Blowholes campsite, approximately 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) north of Perth, on October 16. Police offered Aus$1 million (US$750,000) for information leading to her recovery.