Cops’ challenge: getting Cleo Smith to tell all

Police say Cleo Smith’s wellbeing will be there top priority as experts interview the rescued girl

Cleo Smith with her mother Ellie Smith in Carnarvon on Thursday. Picture: Colin Murty

Investigators have begun the delicate process of trying to coax ­details from rescued four-year-old Cleo Smith, as police try to determine why she was abducted and what happened to her in the 18 days she was missing.

After spending her first night back with her mother Ellie Smith, her stepfather Jake Gliddon and younger sister Isla, and following a meeting on Thursday morning with WA Premier Mark Mc­Gowan, Cleo was taken by her ­parents to a Department of Communities building in central Carnarvon. The department is ­responsible for child protection in WA. She left the building after just over an hour.

The man who led the investigation into her disappearance, ­Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde, said specialists had arrived in Carnarvon from Perth to talk to Cleo about her ordeal. Her wellbeing would be the top priority during the interviews.

“We’re very careful, very mindful around her welfare when we undertake these interviews,” he said. “It takes as long as it takes, sometimes it takes a couple of days. We have experienced people that will undertake that.”

Mr McGowan and officers who visited the home where Cleo and her family are staying on Thursday said she appeared in good ­spirits and had been playing in the backyard.

One of the four officers ­involved in the rescue of Cleo, homicide squad detective Cam­eron Blaine, said he had been to visit her. He said that while he was sure the ordeal would have had an impact on Cleo, he was struck by how energetic and bubbly she ­appeared.

“I can only see her on the outside. But from that point of view, I’m amazed that she seems to be so well-adjusted and happy,” he said.

“It was really heartwarming to see her interacting and playing in the backyard, just being herself.”

Since being reunited with her parents in the early hours of Wednesday, Cleo has never been far from her mother’s arms.

Mr McGowan described Cleo as a “delightful little girl” who was “very well-adjusted” given what she had been through. “She’s done a bit of sleeping, a lot of eating,” he said. “They’ve done a lot of lying around together and cuddling and connecting as parents do with their little ­daughters.”

Ms Smith has made her Facebook and Instagram accounts private again following Cleo’s rescue, after previously making a series of heartfelt appeals calling for her ­return. “They’re obviously just ­incredibly grateful to have their daughter back and they’re just ­enjoying the time with her at the ­moment,” Mr Blaine said.

Despite having been missing for 18 days, Cleo appeared well and physically unharmed when police burst through the door of the rundown Tonkin Crescent house where she was being kept.

Police confirmed Cleo was awake in a bedroom with lights on and was playing with toys when they found her just after 1am.

Following the relief of Cleo’s rescue, police are now working to establish just what happened to her in the days she was missing and why she was taken in the first place.

Mr Blaine said that while the ongoing police investigation would be incredibly hard for Cleo’s parents, they were continuing to co-operate. A family liaison officer is working with the family.

“They understand where we are, where we’re going with the ­investigation and what the work remains to be done,” he said.

Police have broadened their public appeal for CCTV footage in the wake of Cleo’s rescue, issuing a call for any security video filmed in Carnarvon between the day before her disappearance on October 16 and her rescue on Wednesday.