Cleo Smith search: Police confirm Carnarvon four-year-old ‘likely’ kidnapped

WA Police have confirmed the high probability that four-year-old Cleo Smith was kidnapped, saying they have “not yet located her body”.

Acting Police Commissioner Col Blanch said her disappearance “strikes at the heart of Western Australians” and that “someone in our community knows what happened to Cleo”.

“Cleo Smith disappeared from her family’s tent early on Saturday morning, despite an extensive land, sea and air search we have not yet located her body,” Acting Commissioner Blanch said this afternoon.

“Her disappearance strikes at the heart of West Australians and I am here to provide assurance to the community that everything that can be done is being done,” he said.

The news comes as Mark McGowan announced a $1 million reward for information which leads to the return of missing four-year-old Cleo Smith, or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her suspicious disappearance.

The little girl vanished from her family’s tent at the Blowholes campsite in McLeod north of Carnarvon in the early hours of Saturday morning, sparking a large-scale search.

Acting Commissioner Blanch said the investigation into Cleo’s disappearance had now evolved.

“The search operation to find someone who had wandered off is transitioning into a taskforce operation where the likelihood of being taken and removed from the area is higher,” he said.

“That confined search…is probably going to conclude in the next 24 hours or less.”

Mr Blanch said every single person at the campsite on the night Cleo went missing was being tracked down and spoken to.

“The second part of this investigation was about responding to people who are known in the area that are potentially persons of interest, that includes everyone at the campsite, everyone,” he said.

“Our job is to eliminate everyone that has a trace at that campsite during that time (that Cleo went missing).”

Acting Commissioner Blanch said the search for Cleo had gone nationwide.

Hundreds of thousands of clues and hundreds of calls to Crime Stoppers, primarily about suspicious people in the area, were being worked through methodically.

• Mark McGowan announces $1 million reward for information leading to Carnarvon girl’s return
• Cleo’s mum Ellie posts heartbreaking message pleading for daughter to ‘come home’
• Body language expert says mother Ellie and stepfather Jake ‘distraught’ in TV interview

“The reward is for locating Cleo or bringing those persons or person to account who are involved in her disappearance,” Acting Commissioner Blanch said.

“The cooperation of the community is what we are urgently seeking.

“Someone in our community knows what happened to Cleo. Someone has the knowledge that can help and now there is a million reasons why that you need to come forward.”

Superintendent Ron Wilde, who is leading Operation Rodia set up to find Cleo, said while they were hopeful of finding Cleo alive “we hold grave fears for her safety”.

“Given the information that we have gleaned from the scene, the fact that the search has gone on for this period of time and we haven’t been able to locate her… that leads us to believe that she was taken from the tent.

“We’ve been in touch with all (police) jurisdictions around Australia. We want to get this information out there and if anyone Australia wide has information that could be relevant to the investigation we ask that they call Crime Stoppers.”

Supt. Wilde said child kidnappings were a rare event and there were no parallels to other cases.

More than 100 police officers have been allocated to the taskforce, all dedicated to finding Cleo.

Supt. Wilde urged anyone who was in the vicinity of the Blowholes at the weekend to contact police, if they haven’t already.

“We’ve been in touch with jurisdictions all around Australia. We want to get this information out there.”

“We’re keeping a very open mind on the investigation.”