“My name is Cleo”: Australian police find 4-year-olds
17 days after her mysterious disappearance, little Cleo was freed from the house of a 36-year-old in Australia. Everything you need to know about the case.
West Australian Prime Minister Mark McGowan is pleased to announce the success of the Cleo case. (November 3, 2021)
Video: Tamedia
The nightmare has come to an end: around two and a half weeks after the mysterious disappearance of little Cleo from a campsite in the west of the country, the police found the four-year-old safe and sound. The police freed her from a house 75 kilometers from the campsite.
What happened?
The four-year-old has been missing since October 16. With her mother, her partner and her little sister, she was at a campsite on the coast near Macleod, around 900 kilometers north of the regional capital Perth. According to the mother’s statement, the family noticed around 6 a.m. that the blonde girl and her sleeping bag had disappeared from one of the two rooms of the family tent. Her daughter slept there next to her little sister.
The tent zipper was opened to a height that the four-year-old could not have reached herself. Since then, there has been no trace of the child. The Blowholes – sea caves from which the surf splashes – are a popular destination on the Indian Ocean.
How did the investigators track down the kidnapper?
The police were initially confronted with a mystery. A 100-person special commission is set up. The only trace is the testimony of witnesses who saw a car drive away from the campsite the night Cleo went missing. But neither the make of the car nor the license plate are known.
The government of Western Australia eventually offered a million Australian dollar reward for clues leading to the girl’s location – but all alleged sightings came to nothing.
“This was persistent, methodical policing,” said Police Commissioner Chris Dawson. Investigators have collected thousands upon thousands of forensic exhibits, data, and information from the community and carefully examined each clue.
Around 100 officers were involved in the search for Cleo.
Foto: Western Australian Police Force via AFP
The child was freed by the police from a locked house in Carnarvon, 75 kilometers from the campsite, as Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said early Wednesday morning (local time). The family also comes from the village.
The police broke into the house early Wednesday morning shortly before 1 a.m. (local time). “When she said,” My name is Cleo, “there was no dry eye in the house,” Blanch told the local radio station 6PR. Experienced investigators burst into tears with relief.
A video shows the moment of rescue as Cleo is carried out of the house by an officer and hugs him tightly. The officers then called the parents and only said: “There is someone here who would like to speak to you …”.
This video shows the moment when 4-year-old Cleo is carried out of the house by police officers. (November 3, 2021)
Video: Tamedia
Who kidnapped Cleo?
The person arrested is a local man. As it was said, the 36-year-old cooperates with the investigators. The police assume an unplanned and spontaneous kidnapping of the girl. The man is therefore not listed as a sex offender and only became a “person of interest” to the investigators the day before.
“It is a remarkably bold and shocking thing to go to a campsite, put up a tent and take a little girl with you,” Western Australia Prime Minister Mark McGowan said on Wednesday. “It is unbelievable that someone would do something like that.”
What role did the parents play in the case?
The parents had repeatedly addressed the public with dramatic appeals – in the hope of convincing the perpetrator or perpetrators to release the girl. Neither the mother, significant other, nor the birth father of the girl, who lives near Perth, were considered suspects. According to the evidence, there was only one plausible explanation: Little Cleo was kidnapped.
The mother’s desperate pleading for help sparked a wave of sympathy. A hundred police officers searched for the little girl from the air, on the water and on the ground, and countless volunteers combed the nearby bushland for possible clues.
–Ellie S. and her partner Jake G. had repeatedly addressed the public with dramatic appeals. (October 19, 2021)
Foto: James Carmody (Keystone)
After the girl was rescued, the mother, Ellie S., wrote on Instagram: “Our family is complete again.”
How is Cleo?
Cleo be safe and sound. According to the authorities, she was first taken to a hospital, where she was looked after and examined.
On the way to the hospital, Cleo was reunited with her parents. “She just called,” Mummy! “And then there were tons of tears and hugs,” recalled Sergeant Cameron Blaine.
The Western Australia police posted a picture on Twitter showing Cleo waving cheerfully in the hospital bed, wrapped in a white blanket. “The miracle that we had all hoped for,” it said.
–Police released this photo of Cleo in the hospital bed. (November 3, 2021)
Foto: Western Australia Police Force via AFP
The girl has now been released from the hospital and taken home by her parents.
“Miracles Happen!”
The sympathy was huge after the girl’s disappearance – not only in Australia. On breakfast television, the presenters spoke in a broken voice as they reported the good news. “Miracles have happened!” Cheered a spokesman on the “9News” station, probably expressing the sentiments of the whole nation.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanked the police via Twitter. “What wonderful, relieving news. Cleo Smith has been found home safe and sound, ”he wrote. Parliamentarian Tanya Plibersek said on Twitter: “What this family has been through is the worst nightmare of all parents.”
There was a festive mood in Carnarvon on Wednesday. The otherwise less busy streets of the town with its 4500 inhabitants were adorned with pink balloons and signs with the words “Welcome back”. “Everyone will celebrate extensively today,” said resident Julee Nelson of the AFP news agency.
Memories of Maddie McCann
Cleo’s disappearance had awakened dark memories of the case of the then three-year-old British woman Maddie McCann, who disappeared from an apartment complex in Portugal on May 3, 2007 without a trace. The girl’s unexplained fate continues to make headlines today. When investigators surprisingly announced last year that a German was suspected of murder, at least hope for late certainty germinated. So far, however, there has been no breakthrough in the investigation.
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