4-year-old Cleo Smith has been found alive inside a locked house after she disappeared from a holiday campsite in Western Australia.
The young girl was last seen inside their tent at the remote campsite in Macleod on October 16. Her disappearance prompted a massive search and saw cops interview over 110 people who visited the campsite on the night the family arrived.
Police found Cleo in a locked house in Carnarvon, which was 46 miles away from where the little girl vanished.
Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch confirmed that Cleo was ‘alive and well’ and she had been reunited with her parents.
“One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her ‘what’s your name?’
“She said: ‘My name is Cleo.’”
After the rescue operation, the girl’s mother Ellie Smith took to Instagram and said: “Our family is whole again,” adding a series of love heart emojis.
A 36-year-old man has been arrested at the property, which is only 7 minutes away from the family’s home.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told ABC Radio that the Carnarvon man has no connection to the child or her family.
He said officers put ‘everything we had’ to search for Cleo.
“So obviously, our homicide squad, trained, experienced investigators and detectives, our analysts, our technical people, drone pilots, air-wing, the whole lot,” he said.
“We mounted our general duties police who did a tremendous job within minutes of arriving, the first officers in the scene, within minutes, declared it a forensic scene and sealed it off which was just really, really good policing,” Mr. Dawson told ABC.
“From that moment on, it’s just been a really dedicated team of well over 100 on the scene itself and we were prepared for a long hall but we’re so, so pleased.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also said it was ‘relieving news’ that the girl had been found.
“What wonderful, relieving news. Cleo Smith has been found and is home safe and sound. Our prayers answered,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Thank you to the many police officers involved in finding Cleo and supporting her family.”
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