The four-year-old was in the same tent as her mother and stepfather, who last saw her at dawn on October 15.
A case that has set off all the alarms of local authorities and residents, little Cleo Smith, was sleeping in a tent to camp in Blowholes, about 875 kilometers north of Perth, with her mother and stepfather when she disappeared without leave not a single clue of his whereabouts.
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The parents told the authorities that they were spending time as a family and that the little girl woke up in the early morning at approximately 1:30 a.m. After asking for a little water, everyone went back to sleep without any strange noise that could arouse suspicion until the morning , of that day October 15, when the parents realized that Cleo had disappeared along with her sleeping bag.
After an intense search by sky, land and sea, the authorities announced a reward of one million Australian dollars to anyone who provides verifiable information on the whereabouts of the minor, who has disappeared since Saturday in the west of the country. The tension has escalated due to similarities to the famous Madeleine McCann case in 2007, which the authorities have so far been unable to resolve.
“I urge anyone who knows the whereabouts of Cleo to give this information to the police,” said the head of government of the state of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, when giving the notice to the population in the city of Perth.
Police and soldiers have joined the intense search for the minor; however, there appears to be no trace of her or the sleeping bag that also disappeared. The authorities chose to interrogate a score of pedophiles who are located in neighboring areas, according to the local channel Nine News.
The detective in the case, Rod Wilde, said that it is a kidnapping case “We hope to find Cleo alive, but we fear very much for her safety.”
In the same way, Inspector Jon Munday told local media that the closure of the tent where the family was sleeping was open, this generated too many alerts because Cleo was too small to open it alone.
Authorities do not believe it is possible that Cleo was lost “I would say it is a remote possibility that she got up, walked away and took the sleeping bag. I think that’s highly unlikely because there would be some kind of alteration. You would see where she dragged the sleeping bag and how far is a four-year-old going to go in the dark? ” argued the British detective Graham Hill, who has traveled to collaborate in the case.
Missing girl Cleo's parents have opened up about the circumstances leading up to her disappearance on Saturday morning. Mum Ellie Smith says Cleo, 4, never would have left them #perthnews pic.twitter.com/7UygU7TvoX
— 10 News First Perth (@10NewsFirstPER) October 19, 2021