A PILOT who was one of the first people to begin searching for missing Cleo Smith says she probably vanished from the area long before police arrived.
Justin Borg received a desperate call from Cleo’s parents on Saturday morning, after the four-year-old after vanished from her family's remote campsite in Western Australia last Saturday morning.
Mr Borg’s team spent the whole day scouring the landscape, but saw nothing that shed any light on Cleo’s disappearance.
He told the Western Australian: “We were just running out the block of possibilities asking ‘where do we look next? We were pretty sure she wasn’t in the area when we conducted our second search. When we go and search for somebody, if they are in the area you find them really quick. Especially if you are talking abnormal colours.”
Meanwhile, deputy police commissioner Col Blanch yesterday revealed that investigators are searching for the child's remains.
He said: "Cleo disappeared from her family's tent, despite an extensive land, sea and air search, we have not yet located her body."
Read our Cleo Smith live blog below for the latest updates..
- Joseph Gamp
Police cannot give description of spotted car ‘at this stage’
Superintendent Rod Wilde said two people who were travelling together along the North West Coastal Highway in the early hours of Saturday, October 16 saw a car turn right off Blowholes Rd between 3am and 3.30am.
Supt Wilde said he could not provide a detailed description of the car at this stage.
“I don’t want to narrow it down by giving descriptions, I imagine at that time and I obviously it’s very dark out there,” he said.
“The witnesses have told us they saw that vehicle, it turned out of the T-junction there, right into the Northwest coastal highway and headed south towards Carnarvon.”
- Joseph Gamp
Cleo’s mum posts heartbreaking picture
CLEO Smith’s distraught mum has posted a heartbreaking picture of her missing daughter begging her to “please come home.”
The four-year-old disappeared from her family’s remote camp site in Western Australia on Saturday morning.
Police now fear the little girl was snatched from her tent, admitting they are looking for “a body.”
Her mum Ellie posted a picture of the child holding an ice cream along with the caption: “My sweet girl. Come home to me.”
She added: “If anyone sees anything at all please call the police.”
- Joseph Gamp
‘Extensive land, air and sea search’
More than 100 cops, soldiers, volunteers and local Aboriginal bush trackers are currently involved in an “extensive land, sea and air search”.
Members of the homicide squad joined the search for the girl at the weekend.
Police fear that Cleo could have been snatched and driven eight hours before police even reached the camp site on Saturday.
They said the child “could be anywhere.”
- Joseph Gamp
Who is Cleo Smith?
Cleo Smith is a four-year-old Australian girl who went missing while camping with her parents in the outback.
The family were staying at the Blowholes Campsite near Macleod about 50 miles north of Carnarvon, Western Australia.
She was wearing a bright pink pyjama suit with blue and pink flowers and butterflies printed on it when she was last seen.
- Joseph Gamp
‘I was horrified to find my daughter had vanished’
Cleo’s distraught mother has revealed the moment she realised her four-year-old daughter was missing.
Ellie says Cleo woke up at 1.30am asking for a drink of water – and that was the last time she spoke to her daughter.
The parents woke up again at around 6am to find Cleo had gone, reports News.com.au.
Ellie said: “I went into the other room and the zipper was open.
“Cleo was gone and that was about it for Saturday morning until everything started.”
The child along with her pinks pyjamas and red sleeping bag were nowhere to be found.
Ellie says the tent “was about 30 centimetres from open…I turned to Jake and said: ‘Cleo’s gone’.”
Read more here.
- Joseph Gamp
‘Please come home to me’
Mum-of-two Ellie made another heartbreaking statement – seven days after her daughter vanished.
She said: “I miss you. I love you. Please come home to me.”
As the search moves nationwide, the family will stay at the campsite in the faint hope Cleo wanders back.
Inspector Jon Munday said yesterday that a new piece of information suggests the child was kidnapped.
He told reporters that the child was too short to reach the zipper to open the tent on her own.
This rules out the theory that Cleo left the campsite on her own in the early hours of the morning.
- Joseph Gamp
Has Cleo Smith been found?
Cleo Smith has not yet been found.
The search for Cleo resumed on Tuesday, October 18, 2021, after it was temporarily suspended due to bad weather.
The public have been urged to check bins and roadsides for a red sleeping bag that Cleo was sleeping in the night she disappeared.
The police hold grave fears for the girl and say all circumstances surrounding her disappearance are being considered.
- Joseph Gamp
Posters of Cleo plastered across Western Australia
As the search for Cleo Smith continues, missing child posters have been plastered far and wide across Western Australia.
The public have been trying to help law enforcement find answers to her tragic disappearance.
Posters and photos have been plastered all round the city of Port Hedland, 850km north of Cleo’s last known location. They have also been placed around Perth and it’s Central Business District in hopes that people will come forward with clues.
In another town centre, Exmouth, and at local supermarkets, the posters feature QR Codes that when scanned bring people to the Facebook group ‘Bring Cleo Smith Home’ which has more than 55,500 members.
The signs also encourage people to use the hashtag #BringCleoSmithHome on social media.
- Joseph Gamp
'No evidence that Cleo was stalked at all'
Yesterday forensics officers attended the family's home in South Carnarvon.
Police were believed to be investigating the possibility someone had been scoping the house in the days and weeks prior to Cleo's disappearance.
Detective Superintendent Wilde said a search for fingerprints and other evidence on the outside of the home was "part of standard investigations of this nature".
"There's no evidence, there's no information that Cleo was stalked at all," he added.
- Joseph Gamp
Cleo voice heard on CCTV footage from nearby beach shacks
Rod Wilde also revealed Cleo’s voice was heard on the CCTV footage from nearby beach shacks the day before she disappeared.
“It was just after they arrived, it’s motion-sensitive so it was by (their vehicle),” he said.
“It’s very limited … we’ve reviewed that and we believe it’s Cleo’s voice that’s heard on the CCTV.”
- Joseph Gamp
Police cannot give description of spotted car 'at this stage'
Superintendent Rod Wilde said two people who were travelling together along the North West Coastal Highway in the early hours of Saturday, October 16 saw a car turn right off Blowholes Rd between 3am and 3.30am.
Supt Wilde said he could not provide a detailed description of the car at this stage.
“I don’t want to narrow it down by giving descriptions, I imagine at that time and I obviously it’s very dark out there,” he said.
“The witnesses have told us they saw that vehicle, it turned out of the T-junction there, right into the Northwest coastal highway and headed south towards Carnarvon.”
- Joseph Gamp
Carnarvon president promises to support Cleo Smith’s family
Shire president Eddie Smith has promised Carnarvon will support Cleo Smith’s mother Ellie and her partner Jake as the search for the little girl continues.
Speaking of support, Shire president Eddie Smith says Carnarvon: “look after our own.”
“We are a stoic lot,” Mr Smith said of Carnarvon. “We look after our own. Carnarvon is like that.”
Mr Smith continued to say: “The community is doing its very best, in a very sad situation,
“There is a lot of anxiety and wondering what the outcome is going to be. (But) I’d implore the whole community to stay positive.
“You can’t give up on hope. It’s important we stay as positive as we can. Everybody is doing their best.”
- Joseph Gamp
‘Extensive land, air and sea search’
More than 100 cops, soldiers, volunteers and local Aboriginal bush trackers are currently involved in an “extensive land, sea and air search”.
Members of the homicide squad joined the search for the girl at the weekend.
Police fear that Cleo could have been snatched and driven eight hours before police even reached the camp site on Saturday.
They said the child “could be anywhere.”
- Joseph Gamp
Has Cleo Smith been found?
Cleo Smith has not yet been found.
The search for Cleo resumed on Tuesday, October 18, 2021, after it was temporarily suspended due to bad weather.
The public have been urged to check bins and roadsides for a red sleeping bag that Cleo was sleeping in the night she disappeared.
The police hold grave fears for the girl and say all circumstances surrounding her disappearance are being considered.
- Joseph Gamp
‘Please come home to me’
Mum-of-two Ellie made another heartbreaking statement – seven days after her daughter vanished.
She said: “I miss you. I love you. Please come home to me.”
As the search moves nationwide, the family will stay at the campsite in the faint hope Cleo wanders back.
Inspector Jon Munday said yesterday that a new piece of information suggests the child was kidnapped.
He told reporters that the child was too short to reach the zipper to open the tent on her own.
This rules out the theory that Cleo left the campsite on her own in the early hours of the morning.
- Joseph Gamp
Posters of Cleo plastered across Western Australia
As the search for Cleo Smith continues, missing child posters have been plastered far and wide across Western Australia.
The public have been trying to help law enforcement find answers to her tragic disappearance.
Posters and photos have been plastered all round the city of Port Hedland, 850km north of Cleo’s last known location. They have also been placed around Perth and it’s Central Business District in hopes that people will come forward with clues.
In another town centre, Exmouth, and at local supermarkets, the posters feature QR Codes that when scanned bring people to the Facebook group ‘Bring Cleo Smith Home’ which has more than 55,500 members.
The signs also encourage people to use the hashtag #BringCleoSmithHome on social media.
- Joseph Gamp
WA Premier says every resource being used to find Cleo
Mark McGowan, said every resource had been directed to finding Cleo and he urged anyone with information to come forward.
“We all feel for her and her family and we just want to make sure that we find her as soon as we can, and that every effort is made to uncover her location so that the family can find out where she is,” McGowan said on Sunday.
- Joseph Gamp
Police will 'painstakingly go through every vehicle movement'
Commissioner Chris Dawson said police would “painstakingly go through every vehicle movement” and every piece of forensic evidence.
“This is a large scale investigation, but it is in a remote locality,” Dawson said.
“So in one sense, we’ve got an opportunity here to put a very large footprint around whoever was in the area at the time, it’s that sort of level of investigation and effort that we are capturing now.”
- Joseph Gamp
Police want to interview driver of car seen in area at 3am
Police investigating the disappearance of Cleo Smith want to speak to the driver of a car seen turning south off Blowholes Road between 3am and 3.30am on the morning the four-year-old vanished from a campsite north of Carnarvon.
Detectives believe Cleo was taken from her family’s tent in the early hours of last Saturday morning.
Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde said the reported sighting of the car was a “very recent development” in the investigation.
“We want the person or persons who were in that vehicle to come forward and contact police,” Wilde said.
“We want to know who they were and what they were doing.”
- Joseph Gamp
Missing sleeping bag
Not only was there no sign of Cleo when her parents woke, but her red and black sleeping bag was also gone.
Experts question whether she would have taken it with her if she had simply wandered off on her own.
Police released a photo of a similar bag, along with Cleo’s distinctive pink pyjamas.
They urged local residents to check their bins in case evidence had been dumped inside.
- Joseph Gamp
Four key places Cleo Smith could have been taken
THIS chilling map shows four key places “Aussie Maddie” Cleo Smith could have been taken as cops probe 20 sex offenders in the area where she went missing.
Cleo may have been driven eight hours away from the campsite where she was last seen, cops suggested as they piece together the four-year-old’s whereabouts.
The map shows young Cleo could have reached Tom Price – just eight hours north-east of the Blowholes camping ground in Western Australia where she was staying with her family before she vanished in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Another suggestion is that Cleo was taken to the town of Kalbarri – some five hours away – and may have passed through the suburb of Meekatharra, which is 670km south-east.
Cops are scouring through hours of CCTV footage from a roadhouse 165km north of the campsite as it’s the only northbound road and records every vehicle that passes through.
- Joseph Gamp
Carnarvon president promises to support Cleo Smith’s family
Shire president Eddie Smith has promised Carnarvon will support Cleo Smith’s mother Ellie and her partner Jake as the search for the little girl continues.
Speaking of support, Shire president Eddie Smith says Carnarvon: “look after our own.”
“We are a stoic lot,” Mr Smith said of Carnarvon. “We look after our own. Carnarvon is like that.”
Mr Smith continued to say: “The community is doing its very best, in a very sad situation,
“There is a lot of anxiety and wondering what the outcome is going to be. (But) I’d implore the whole community to stay positive.
“You can’t give up on hope. It’s important we stay as positive as we can. Everybody is doing their best.”
- Joseph Gamp
Heartbreaking moment Cleo’s Smith’s best pal pleads for her to come home
THIS is the heartbreaking moment Cleo Smith’s best friend pleaded for the “abducted toddler” to come home because “she needs to stay with her family”.
Lenaya “Naya” Forbes posed beside a drawing she made for her pal who vanished from her family’s remote campsite in Western Australia last Saturday morning.
“I still miss her,” little Naya told 7News. “And I reckon she got taken from the tent.
“I still miss her cause she’s lost and I want her to come back.”
Read the article in full here.
- Joseph Gamp
Four key places Cleo Smith could have been taken
THIS chilling map shows four key places “Aussie Maddie” Cleo Smith could have been taken as cops probe 20 sex offenders in the area where she went missing.
Cleo may have been driven eight hours away from the campsite where she was last seen, cops suggested as they piece together the four-year-old’s whereabouts.
The map shows young Cleo could have reached Tom Price – just eight hours north-east of the Blowholes camping ground in Western Australia where she was staying with her family before she vanished in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Another suggestion is that Cleo was taken to the town of Kalbarri – some five hours away – and may have passed through the suburb of Meekatharra, which is 670km south-east.
Cops are scouring through hours of CCTV footage from a roadhouse 165km north of the campsite as it’s the only northbound road and records every vehicle that passes through.
- Joseph Gamp
‘I was horrified to find my daughter had vanished’
Cleo’s distraught mother has revealed the moment she realised her four-year-old daughter was missing.
Ellie says Cleo woke up at 1.30am asking for a drink of water – and that was the last time she spoke to her daughter.
The parents woke up again at around 6am to find Cleo had gone, reports News.com.au.
Ellie said: “I went into the other room and the zipper was open.
“Cleo was gone and that was about it for Saturday morning until everything started.”
The child along with her pinks pyjamas and red sleeping bag were nowhere to be found.
Ellie says the tent “was about 30 centimetres from open…I turned to Jake and said: ‘Cleo’s gone’.”
Read more here.
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