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03rd Nov 2021

The moment Cleo Smith was reunited with parents after 19 days missing

Ellen Fitzpatrick

A tearful moment.

After 19 days of trauma and despair, Ellie Smith received a 1am phone call that flipped her world around in the best way.

Receiving the news that her daughter Cleo had finally been found, it was a miracle that police could have only dreamed of happening.

Calling up her mother to give the good news, Ellie was told by police that they’ve “got someone here that wants to speak to you.”

Sitting in the car on the way to hospital with the newly rescued four year old, Homicide squad Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine and a family liaison officer, Detective Sergeant Hutchinson, made the call to Cleo’s parents.

The team of officers had used battering rams and a crowbar to storm into a locked house in Carnarvon, Western Australia which was only seven minutes from her family home.

Finding her in a bedroom alone, they were in disbelief that she was even there.

“I wanted to be absolutely sure it was her, so I said ‘what’s your name?’ And she didn’t answer and I said ‘what’s your name?’,” Senior Sergeant Blaine told WA Today.

“She didn’t answer again, so I asked her a third time and she looked at me and said, ‘my name is Cleo’. And that was it.”

Police have since released footage of the moment Cleo was brought out of the house and you can see Sergeant Blaine introducing himself to Cleo as she clung to another officer.

“My name’s Cameron, how are you? We’re going to take you to see your mummy and daddy, OK? Is that good?” he said in the video.

Nodding along to his questions, the officers could barely describe the shock and relief they felt as they discovered the little girl.

“To see her sitting there and in the way that she was, it was just incredible,” he said. “We’d always hoped for that outcome but still we just were not prepared for it, so it was absolutely fantastic.”

Telling the family to make their way to the hospital and they would meet there, Blaine said there was no better feeling than giving them that news, and it was an “honour” to witness the reunion.

As she was reunited with her parents, Cleo shouted “mummy” as Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon showered her in hugs and kisses.

A 36 year old man from the area has been taken into custody. Police plan to ask Cleo some questions but are being mindful of her mental health and welfare.