Cleo Smith: What next for four-year-old that went missing for 18 days
The sound of a school bell signalled it was time for police to have a chat to Cleo Smith about the 18 days leading up to her rescue.
National
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As Cleo Smith snuggled into her mum Ellie, back safe in her arms after 18 traumatic days, her ears suddenly pricked up and she beamed.
“That’s my school bell,” she said excitedly before snuggling back in again.
For WA Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine who was standing nearby, a smile creased his face and he looked at Ellie and her partner Jake Gliddon.
If there was a moment they were looking for assurances into her mental state it was right then, a moment of recognition, of normalcy and routine that had been ripped away from her on the morning she was snatched from a tent during a family camping trip.
She had been chatting, snoozing, playing, eating, on that first full day on Thursday after her rescue by police, but the school bell was a signal it might be time to have a chat and late that afternoon she began to recount what happened.
Specialist child interviewers spent one hour speaking with Cleo with mum present in a softly-softly approach to unravel events since October 16 when she vanished from her tent at the Quobba Blow Holes campsite, 75km north of Carnarvon on the rugged Western Australian coastline.
She was due to speak with the police-sponsored clinical experts again on Friday.
While Cleo appeared to be adjusting quickly to life back with her family she will forever be known as “that little girl” who was found 18 days after she was abducted.
The miracle rescue of Cleo Smith that touched the nation will also go down in Australian history as one of the most successful police operations ever run.
But whatever has happened to her during those missing days and what happens next, will stay with four-year-old Cleo as she grows up into an adult and will impact the rest of her life.
Child psychologist Clare Rowe has warned that whatever is written about her and her experiences now, will have an effect on her in the future.
“She will always be that little girl,” Ms Rowe said.
Being snatched away from one’s family can also have long term effects that may not come out immediately and experts say it is important not to re-traumatise a child.
Professorial Fellow in Psychiatry at The University of Melbourne Louise Newman said parents need support too.
“All parents may feel increased anxiety in the face of this event … Fear is contagious when such a traumatic event impacts a community,” Professor Newman said.
She said the trauma for everyone doesn’t always show itself straight away. For children it may be disguised and emerge later as a fear of an unrelated event like storms or dogs.
Cleo had spent her first night back with her parents and little sister Isla, all sleeping in the same room. But she had asked her mum to watch over her while she fell asleep.
When she woke she spent the morning running around the backyard of her step-grandparents’ home, eating another icy pole and playing with a police teddy bear WA Premier Mark McGowan had brought as a gift.
She was wearing Barbie Doll shoes, but after a mishap when Mr McGowan trod on them and broke them, she is waiting for a new pair that he promised her.
The little girl who loves ice-creams, avocado on toast, and the beach, also loves dolls, unicorns and princesses, particularly the characters from Disney’s Frozen.
The 36-year-old man charged with her alleged abduction unfortunately liked many of the same things.
Terence Darrell Kelly reportedly bought Disney princess toys from the local Toyworld Carnarvon ostensibly for members of his extended family even though he had no children of his own, lived alone and was considered by his neighbours as a loner, with few visiting his council-owned duplex home on Tonkin Crescent on the outskirts of Carnarvon that some locals have nicknamed the Bronx.
Those who know him described him as reclusive who came from an extended family in the district, most of whom had little to do with him, and was raised by his grandmother who died a few years ago.
His behaviour in recent days had been described as unusual ranging from him being overly friendly to buying toddler nappies at the local Woolworths which locals thought was unusual given he was not a family man.
One woman who did a construction course with him described him as quiet and a bit of an oddball.
The heavy-set man was charged late Thursday with numerous offences related to what is commonly referred to as child stealing.
He is due back in court, via video link, on December 6.
While he remains behind bars, the town of Carnarvon is feeling the ripple effects flowing out from the abduction which has affected so many of its residents.
Extra police have been sent to the town after concerns about anger and unrest among residents and questions are being asked if the tight-knit community can ever go back to normal.
Cleo’s stepdad Jake Gliddon has a job at Rio Tinto in Western Australia’s northwest and Ellie Smith has a job at the Driftwood Beauty Lounge in the centre of town.
Her profile remains on the salon site inviting clients “to get to know me” with Ellie revealing 10 fun facts about herself.
1. I am 24 with two girls 4yrs & 5 months
2. I have 5 certificates other than beauty
3. I was born in Carnarvon!
4. I’m one of SEVEN
5. Love binge watching TV shows and binge reading books
6. I have 6 tattoos
7. I make soaps and candles as a small business/hobby
8. I have a crazy brown husky who is scared of all sorts of water
9. I am allergic to pineapple!
10. I love making cocktails/mocktails.
Her colleagues at the salon are tight-lipped about when and if Ellie will return to work and how they will support her, but there is no doubt they and her clients are looking forward to her return.
Townsfolk are also positive that they can recover from the shock and trauma of what has happened by supporting each other.
Kane Simpson, a tourist operator and former shire councillor said the community lives through cyclones, floods and fires, and backs each other no matter what.
“We all look after each other that’s just the way it works and in this sort of thing you never give up, you stick together otherwise you can’t survive here,” Mr Simpson said.
“These sorts of things happen but not here, it’s super scary for all our communities but we stick together.”
Local Leticia Andreoli whose son Jonah is in Cleo’s class at St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School said it has pulled the community closer.
“Carnarvon people are great and how amazing this community is, strong and resilient and how supportive they’ve been of each other and of course Ellie, Jake and Cleo,” Ms Andreoli said.
“Great place and great people and so good that a good story can come out of this in the end, it was looking dismal for Carnarvon there for a bit like we were going to get wiped off the map.”
Shire president Eddie Smith wanted to thank the community for getting behind Cleo’s family.
“We are a stoic lot,” Mr Smith said.
Others in the community while knowing it was likely to be a local who was involved in Cleo’s disappearance said many realised he was not part of the community
“He wasn’t even really part of his own community, a loner … but I think everyone will just be a lot more protective of their children now but it won’t stop us doing things,” they said.
Professor Newman said it is possible for communities to make a positive recovery from a trauma of this magnitude by pulling together and getting help for those who need it.
“It can be a long, slow process,” she said.
“And in some ways they will always be changed by it.”
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