From Cleo Smith to Elizabeth Smart: Cases of missing girls found alive
Cleo Smith is now part of a small group of miracle kids who have been found after seemingly vanishing into thin air.
On Wednesday morning, four-year-old Cleo Smith was miraculously found alive 18 days after going missing on a family camping trip in Western Australia.
She was discovered by police in a home 70km from the campsite and has been reunited with her family, including mum Ellie Smith, who wrote “Our family is whole again” on Instagram.
Describing the incredible moment Cleo was found, Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch said: “One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her ‘what’s your name?’ She said – ‘My name is Cleo’.”
A 36-year-old Carnarvon man is now is custody and is being questioned by police.
While too many missing child cases end in unspeakable tragedy, little Cleo is part of a small group who’ve been found after seemingly vanishing into thin air. These are some of the incredible stories of kids who’ve survived against the odds.
Elizabeth Smart
It was June 5, 2002 when Elizabeth Smart, 14, was abducted at knifepoint from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah while her little sister, Mary Katherine, nine, pretended to be asleep.
Mary Katherine remained motionless and later raised the alarm to her parents by going into their room saying: “Elizabeth’s gone.” That’s when her dad ran downstairs and saw a fly screen had been cut open.
A massive search for Elizabeth began with 2000 volunteers, planes and dogs, while police questioned hundreds of suspects.
It was four months after the abduction, in October 2002, that Mary Katherine remembered something about the man that came into their bedroom. She’d heard him before.
“I was just waiting for my dad to come in to tuck me into bed. I was just thinking like maybe who could it possibly be and Emmanuel just popped into my head,” she told NBC in 2013.
The year before, ‘Emmanuel’ or ‘Immanuel’ had raked leaves for the family for a day after Elizabeth’s mum Lois had seen him begging on the streets. Mary Katherine realised the abductor had the same voice as him and a police sketch of ‘Immanuel’ was drawn up and released to the public. It was recognised by family members of street preacher Brian David Mitchell who gave the police photos.
Then, on March 12 2003, two separate couples in Sandy, Utah spotted a woman and girl with a man who looked like Mitchell and reported it to police. They went to the area immediately and nine months after she was abducted, Elizabeth was finally rescued and reunited with her family.
Police discovered that after Elizabeth had been abducted, she’d been taken to an encampment in the woods and chained to a tree by Mitchell and his partner Wanda Barzee. Mitchell raped her repeatedly and regularly threatened to kill her. His abuse was assisted by Barzee who Elizabeth called the “most evil women”.
The three of them regularly moved around Utah and California with Barzee and Mitchell dressing Elizabeth up in disguises and drugging her to keep her compliant.
After he was arrested, there was an ongoing dispute about whether Mitchell was fit to stand trial before finally in 2010 he finally fronted court. Elizabeth bravely gave testimony, detailing the months of horrific abuse she’d endured at the hands of Mitchell and Barzee, saying she’d been “chained like an animal”.
In December 2010, Mitchell was found guilty of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for sexual activity. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
Barzee had previously been sentenced to 15 years for kidnapping and sexual assault.
Today, Elizabeth runs the Elizabeth Smart Foundation and is an advocate for change related to child abduction, recovery programs, and national legislation. She is married with three children.
Jayme Closs
When she was 13 years old, on October 15 2018, Jayme Closs was at home asleep in Barron, Wisconsin when she was woken by the family dog barking. Seeing a man wearing a ski mask pulling up to the house, she woke up her parents James and Denise Closs. James went to the front door where he was fatally shot.
Jayme and her mum hid in the bathtub but the man kicked the door in and tied up Jayme before shooting Denise.
Denise had called the police but by the time they arrived four minutes later it was too late – Jayme had disappeared.
It wasn’t until almost three months later that Jayme was miraculously found wandering a remote area of Wisconsin looking dirty and malnourished.
Police found out Jayme had been abducted by Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, who had stuffed her into the boot of his car after killing her parents.
Jayme had spent 88 days living under his bed or sharing the bed with him in his remote cabin. On January 10, 2019, he said he was leaving for a few hours and barricaded her under the bed as usual, but she managed to escape.
Former US Marine Patterson had no connection to the Closs family and later said the crimes were committed “mostly on impulse”.
In March 2019 he pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional first-degree homicide and one count of kidnapping and was later sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders and 40 years for kidnapping.
Today Jayme Closs lives with her aunt and uncle. Earlier this year her aunt Jennifer Naiberg Smith said the teen was taking life “day by day”.
“Jayme is doing good,” Smith said.
“She is enjoying dance, school activities and many other things as much as is possible in regards to now dealing with the Covid restrictions.
“She is surrounded by lots of loved ones.”
Shannon Matthews
In February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Matthews was reported missing in Dewsbury, England. A huge missing persons search began, with Shannon being compared to three-year-old Madeline McCann who’d gone missing the year before.
Shannon’s mum Karen Matthews fronted the media desperately pleading for daughter’s return.
“Shannon, if you’re out there, please come home, we love you to bits, we miss you so much,” she said.
It was reported that Shannon had last been seen outside a local swimming pool, less than a kilometre from the family home. She’d been reported missing in the coldest night of February so far and fears for the little girl began to grow.
The search for her became the largest in Yorkshire Police’s history since the quest to find the Yorkshire Ripper and The Sun newspaper offered a $67,000 reward for any information that would lead to Shannon being found.
Then, 24 days after she went missing, Shannon was found alive, concealed under the bed of 39-year-old Michael Donovan Donovan.
Donovan was the uncle of Craig Meehan, who was Karen Matthews’ boyfriend. It turned out the kidnap of Shannon had been plotted by Donovan and Matthews who planned to claim reward money offered for her safe return. Inspired to fake the kidnapping by the huge rewards offered when Madeline McCann disappeared, they’d drugged Shannon to keep her subdued.
On December 4, 2008, Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan were found guilty of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. They have both since been released.
Shannon was given a new identity and cared for by family. Her location can never be disclosed.
Explosive scenes inside Aussie campus
A “reprehensible display”, caught on camera, at a University of Sydney student meeting on Wednesday night has been condemned.
‘Selfish’ car park act exposes Aussie lie
While many would like to think they’d do the right thing, this photo reveals otherwise, and it’s angered hundreds of people.
Sick reason son left dad’s corpse in freezer
A US man has been arrested after allegedly leaving his dead dad in a backyard freezer for three years.