Ellie Smith facing loss of daughter Cleo she fought so hard to keep
Ellie Smith suffered a loss while pregnant with daughter Cleo. Now she is facing the unimaginable agony of losing her “Princess”.
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For Ellie Smith, the young mother of missing four-year-old Cleo, the feared abduction of her “Princess” is not the first heartbreak she has suffered.
The popular beautician and eyelash technician fell pregnant when she was 20 years old and her decision to continue her pregnancy resulted in the devastating loss of her relationship with Cleo’s father.
“ … how magical it is to grow a baby inside of you, for me I lost a love while growing a new one …. So at 20 I grew a baby, I learnt things don’t go to plan and I fought for what I believed in every day. Now I get to paint, explore, and live life with the love of my life,” Ellie posted on one of her social media accounts.
Bravely Ellie pushed on alone with a message for others.
“So if you have ever been put in the situation of me or the baby” I am here to tell you it is hard but possible”.
Now a mother of two, with the addition of Isla, a little sister to Cleo, Ellie is facing an unimaginable agony of losing the daughter she fought so hard to keep.
Ellie’s world was ripped apart eight days ago when she and her partner Jake Gliddon, and the two girls arrived at a remote camping area called the Blowholes, which is a 10-hour non-stop drive north of Perth on the pristine Coral Coast.
The family of four arrived about 6.30pm on Friday, October 15, and set up camp, erecting a large family tent and a gazebo. Cleo had dinner went to bed about 8pm.
Ellie has told police she last saw Cleo at 1.30am on the Saturday when the little girl woke and asked for a glass of water before going back to sleep.
When she got up at 6am to feed Isla, Ellie noticed Cleo and her sleeping bag were missing and one of the entry points to the tent was zipped open to a height Cleo could not possibly have reached.
Alerting Jake they immediately searched the area enlisting the help of fellow campers. Within three hours the police were called.
Expert trackers joined the search, alongside State Emergency Service personnel, rangers, an AMSA jet and Australian Defence Force drones and helicopters from local tourism authorities. Mounted police were also called in while police poured over CCTV footage, dashcams, and photos from cameras set up on cattle grids in surrounding areas to foil cattle stealing.
In those frantic first hours of the search, fellow campers have described Jake as distraught while hunting for his missing stepdaughter.
It was just over a month ago when Ellie was detailing the joy of her relationship with Jake, an enthusiastic fisherman who works for Rio Tinto, on her social media.
In a Father’s Day post last month, Ellie made a touching tribute to Jake as the “most caring loving man I know” thanking him “for all you do for our family”.
Now, Cleo’s tiny face which had been such a constant presence in her mother’s social media photos, is now plastered across shop windows, petrol stations, and on the bumper bars of cars and caravans, as the whole nation has been asked to help find her.
A seven-day land, sea, and air search has not found any trace of Cleo, leading police to concede they believe she has been abducted.
The case which has been likened to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from her family hotel room in Portugal in 2007, differs in that WA police almost immediately contacted the nearly 20 registered sex offenders living the local area.
Cleo’s biological father, Daniel Staines was interviewed by police at Mandurah more than 1000km away from where Cleo went missing. Police said he is not a suspect, and there is no suggestion he had anything to do with his daughter’s disappearance. Police said he is helping them build a victimology profile of Cleo.
Ellie and Jake made an impassioned public plea during the week saying someone must know something about Cleo’s whereabouts and urged anyone who had even the smallest piece of information ‘to report it to the cops”.
“We need our little girl home,” Ellie said through tears.
But with no leads, and no suspects, the WA Government on Thursday offered a $1 million reward for information that results in Cleo being found, or leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is involved in her suspicious disappearance.
The WA Police have also asked for assistance from their law enforcement counterparts in every State and Territory.
Superintendent Rod Wilde, who is leading the investigation taskforce, said they are hopeful of finding Cleo alive but held “grave fears” for her safety.
“Given the information now that we’ve gleaned from the scene, the fact that search has gone on for this period of time, when we haven’t been able to locate her … that leads us to believe that she was taken from the tent,” he said.
The Blowholes where Cleo disappeared, is a popular tourist attraction and travellers will often leave the North West Coastal Highway, the coastal highway which links Perth with Broome, another 15 hours’ drive away, to see the blowholes which send water shooting metres into the air.
It is also popular with residents of Carnarvon a tropical weather town 70km south of the campsite which has a thriving fishing industry, as is also known as the “fruit bowl” of the state supplying most of WA’s bananas and avocados. It is where Cleo and her family lived, and where Ellie and Jake grew up.
There is only one road in and out to the campsite. It is so remote it has no power, no shops and campers have to be fully self-sufficient including bringing their own toilets.
Campers don’t have to book ahead, but they are visited every day by a local ranger who registers them and takes a camping fee.
Described as rugged but beautiful and pristine, the Blowholes coastline is also treacherous and has seen numerous tragedies.
Tourism websites warn visitors about the dangerous swells in the area saying “Lives have been lost by unsuspecting souls” and signs erected in the area warn “King Waves Kill”.
The Blowholes have also been in the news over the future of the shacks that dot the area. Families that have used the shacks for generations are fighting orders for their demolition. Many were empty and police used bolt cutters to get inside them during the hunt for Cleo.
Ellie has again taken to social media pleading for her daughter to come home.
There have been 141,000 shares of one of her posts and her last post on Instagram implored her, “My sweet girl come home to me if anyone sees anything at all please call the police.”
What a difference a few days can make.
In the week leading up to the fateful camping trip, Ellie was happily advertising October eyebrow and lash lift specials at her salon after posts of loving photos of the family of four and quotes such as “Family: Where life begins and love never ends.”
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